SunstarTV Bureau: With a cute animated doodle, Google honoured Canadian-American physical educator, professor, doctor and coach, Dr James Naismith for inventing the game of basketball today.
The doodle shows an animated Dr Naismith standing with a clipboard inside a gymnasium as two students are playing basketball and it snows outside.
The doodle celebrated Dr Naismith legacy with an animation because today was the day in 1891, he had invented the game of basketball for students cooped up during winter. The following year, he announced the new game and its original rules in the pages of the Triangle, a Springfield College school newspaper.
Notably, Dr James Naismith was born on 6th November 1861, near the town of Almonte in Ontario, Canada. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from McGill University. Later, in 1890, he took a job as an instructor at the YMCA International Training College in Springfield, Massachusetts.
He thought of inventing a game that could occupy students during the unforgiving New England winters. After that the basketball game was born with the help of two peach baskets, a soccer ball and just ten rules.
Initially, the game featured teams of nine players and combined elements of outdoor sports such as American football, soccer and field hockey. Though initially, there was a lot of skepticism regarding the sport, soon, in 1936, basketball made its Olympic debut in Berlin, Germany. And it was the sport’s founder, James Naismith who threw the ball for the tip-off to commence the first game.
Dr James Naismith envisioned the game as a way for students to better themselves physically and mentally. In his lifetime, he worked hard to help basketball reach more young people. In 1959, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was set up in Springfield, Massachusetts.
