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When our youngest son Cory was a child, he loved all sports, but for a while basketball was his favorite. He idolized Michael Jordan and was thrilled when we got a basketball goal at home, spending hours shooting hoops after school until darkness fell.
I remember one evening when I went out to call him inside for dinner he told me, “One day the only thing that will make me stop playing basketball will be when the buzzer sounds at the end of the game.”
In 1891, a 30-year-old Canadian physical education instructor from the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, invented an indoor game to be played between football and baseball seasons. Graduate student, James Naismith, was charged by his supervising professor to develop a game that could be played indoors during the cold winters, that would have fewer injuries than football, and that would keep the players conditioned.
The original game was called basket ball (two words), and had nine players a side since he had 18 students, and involved 13 rules. It was played with peach baskets that Naismith had affixed to the gym’s balcony bannisters. It started as a slow game, because the janitor had to get a ladder to retrieve the soccer-type balls after each basket scored. Soon, they cut the bottom out of the baskets for more efficient removal.
The International YMCA Training School evolved into Springfield College in 1895, and the college retains a close partnership with YMCA today. It also retains a proud connection to the founder of the game of basketball, a game that spread first through the YMCA network across the country and then the globe, counting Naismith as one of their most esteemed alumni.
He developed the game embodying their “Humanics philosophy,” educating students in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service to others. I am reminded of our own basketball great, Leonard Hamilton, concerning whom so many of his players through the years expressed gratitude for what he taught them, not only about the game but about being a good human.
Naismith, who went on to become a physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, founded the basketball program at the University of Kansas in 1898. He lived to see the game he invented become an Olympic sport at the 1936 Games held in Berlin, Germany, and also was able to see the first National Invitational Tournament held in 1938, and the first NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament played in 1939 with eight teams competing.
He died on Nov. 28, 1939, at the age of 78 before basketball reached its global popularity and March Madness reached its fevered pitch.
This month marks the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament, now known as “March Madness,” for both men’s and women’s basketball teams who qualify. The name was borrowed from a high school tournament in Illinois, so dubbed by Henry V. Porter, assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Association.
What had started as a small invitational tournament in 1908 had become a statewide institution with more than 900 teams competing in the 1930s. High school basketball coach, rule-maker, and equipment-innovator Porter was so impressed by the annual event that he wrote a commemorative essay titled, “March Madness.”
In his clever essay, written from the perspective of the rabid basketball fan, “homo of the Hardwood Court,” Porter wisely said, “A little March madness may complement and contribute to sanity and help keep society on an even keel.”
Published in March 1939, it was not long thereafter that the nation was plunged into World War II. In March 1942, Porter published another piece about “March Madness,” this one a poem titled, “Basketball Ides of March” that included the line, “Let their sons tread where hate is dead in a happy Madness of March.” The joy of the Illinois high school tournament captured by both of these literary pieces, proved to be unifying for Illinois in difficult times.
But it was Brent Musburger, a former Chicago sportswriter, who brought the title of “March Madness” to the NCAA Tournament when covering the event for CBS in 1982. It has been used as the title ever since and, beginning in 2022, has been used for the Women’s NCAA Division 1 Tournament as well as the men’s.
This year the tournaments seem especially important to “complementing and contributing to sanity” as Porter described in 1939. While it is no surprise to anyone that our nation and our world are facing problems of enormous magnitude that need serious attention and wise resolution, we long to move forward as a society on an even keel as Porter’s essay described. Perhaps a good dose of basketball might soothe our weary spirits for a much-needed time out.
In February 2023, Dean and Professor David Hollander, of New York University published a book that had been developing within him for years. A lifelong lover of basketball, he distills 13 principles of the game, a tribute to Naismith’s 13 founding rules, that offer guidance for solving global issues.
He teaches a popular course at NYU that was a precursor to the book, “How Basketball Can Save the World,” treating basketball as an academic discipline and philosophy.
According to Hollander in a New York Times article featured in September 2020, “Basketball in its highest form is a balance of self-interest and self-expression in service of the collective.”
May it be so this March Madness as the best of college athletes, men and women, bring a respite from the madness of the world around us.
The Rev. Candace McKibben is an ordained minister and pastor of Tallahassee Fellowship.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Take a timeout for basketball therapy with March Madness
Continue reading...
I remember one evening when I went out to call him inside for dinner he told me, “One day the only thing that will make me stop playing basketball will be when the buzzer sounds at the end of the game.”
In 1891, a 30-year-old Canadian physical education instructor from the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, invented an indoor game to be played between football and baseball seasons. Graduate student, James Naismith, was charged by his supervising professor to develop a game that could be played indoors during the cold winters, that would have fewer injuries than football, and that would keep the players conditioned.
The original game was called basket ball (two words), and had nine players a side since he had 18 students, and involved 13 rules. It was played with peach baskets that Naismith had affixed to the gym’s balcony bannisters. It started as a slow game, because the janitor had to get a ladder to retrieve the soccer-type balls after each basket scored. Soon, they cut the bottom out of the baskets for more efficient removal.
Early days of basketball
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The International YMCA Training School evolved into Springfield College in 1895, and the college retains a close partnership with YMCA today. It also retains a proud connection to the founder of the game of basketball, a game that spread first through the YMCA network across the country and then the globe, counting Naismith as one of their most esteemed alumni.
He developed the game embodying their “Humanics philosophy,” educating students in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service to others. I am reminded of our own basketball great, Leonard Hamilton, concerning whom so many of his players through the years expressed gratitude for what he taught them, not only about the game but about being a good human.
Naismith, who went on to become a physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, founded the basketball program at the University of Kansas in 1898. He lived to see the game he invented become an Olympic sport at the 1936 Games held in Berlin, Germany, and also was able to see the first National Invitational Tournament held in 1938, and the first NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament played in 1939 with eight teams competing.
He died on Nov. 28, 1939, at the age of 78 before basketball reached its global popularity and March Madness reached its fevered pitch.
Origins of March Madness
This month marks the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament, now known as “March Madness,” for both men’s and women’s basketball teams who qualify. The name was borrowed from a high school tournament in Illinois, so dubbed by Henry V. Porter, assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Association.
What had started as a small invitational tournament in 1908 had become a statewide institution with more than 900 teams competing in the 1930s. High school basketball coach, rule-maker, and equipment-innovator Porter was so impressed by the annual event that he wrote a commemorative essay titled, “March Madness.”
In his clever essay, written from the perspective of the rabid basketball fan, “homo of the Hardwood Court,” Porter wisely said, “A little March madness may complement and contribute to sanity and help keep society on an even keel.”
Published in March 1939, it was not long thereafter that the nation was plunged into World War II. In March 1942, Porter published another piece about “March Madness,” this one a poem titled, “Basketball Ides of March” that included the line, “Let their sons tread where hate is dead in a happy Madness of March.” The joy of the Illinois high school tournament captured by both of these literary pieces, proved to be unifying for Illinois in difficult times.
You must be registered for see images
Game as therapeutic time-out
But it was Brent Musburger, a former Chicago sportswriter, who brought the title of “March Madness” to the NCAA Tournament when covering the event for CBS in 1982. It has been used as the title ever since and, beginning in 2022, has been used for the Women’s NCAA Division 1 Tournament as well as the men’s.
This year the tournaments seem especially important to “complementing and contributing to sanity” as Porter described in 1939. While it is no surprise to anyone that our nation and our world are facing problems of enormous magnitude that need serious attention and wise resolution, we long to move forward as a society on an even keel as Porter’s essay described. Perhaps a good dose of basketball might soothe our weary spirits for a much-needed time out.
In February 2023, Dean and Professor David Hollander, of New York University published a book that had been developing within him for years. A lifelong lover of basketball, he distills 13 principles of the game, a tribute to Naismith’s 13 founding rules, that offer guidance for solving global issues.
He teaches a popular course at NYU that was a precursor to the book, “How Basketball Can Save the World,” treating basketball as an academic discipline and philosophy.
According to Hollander in a New York Times article featured in September 2020, “Basketball in its highest form is a balance of self-interest and self-expression in service of the collective.”
May it be so this March Madness as the best of college athletes, men and women, bring a respite from the madness of the world around us.
You must be registered for see images attach
The Rev. Candace McKibben is an ordained minister and pastor of Tallahassee Fellowship.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Take a timeout for basketball therapy with March Madness
Continue reading...
