James Naismith, (November 6, 1861 - November 28, 1939) was a Scottish-Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. He was born, raised, and educated in Canada and studied and taught at McGill University in Montreal before moving to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1890. He then became a teacher at the International YMCA Training School. In the winter of 1891, he wanted an indoor sport that could be played between football and baseball seasons, and he came up with an idea using a peach basket and a soccer ball. He wrote the original rules for the game in which became known as basket ball. Yes, using two words. The popularity of basket ball soon spread nation-wide and has evolved over the past 124 plus years.

Seven years after inventing basketball, Naismith received his medical degree in Denver in 1898. That year, he moved to Lawrence, Kansas where he became the University of Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director and coach. A few years later Phog Allen was hired as the Kansas basketball coach and under the teaching of Naismith, Kansas became a powerhouse in the game of basketball. Phog Allen stayed with the Kansas basketball team for almost 40 years and in those years Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith played for Kansas. They went on to become famous coaches.



On March 31, 1906, the NCAA was formed to oversee college sports and student athletes. As fine turning of all college sports continued to evolve the game of basketball out paced most other sports in college as well as high school. 86 years ago, in 1939 the NCAA authorized a national basketball tournament with eight teams being invited. This tournament has since become one of the greatest sporting events in the USA. Oregon won the first tournament. UCLA has won the most championships with eleven and Kentucky is next with eight. At this writing, UCLA is out of this year's tournament with Kentucky still playing.

This eight team tournament field continued until 1950 and then in 1951 a 16 team tournament was born. This continued until 1985 when the tournament expanded to 64 teams. Then in 2011 four more teams were added and now the NCAA Basketball Tournament became a 68 team format. Somewhere along the line, someone used the expression of "March Madness" and it stuck. This popular tournament continuous to be know as "March Madness" or even "The Big Dance". Hope you enjoy this national USA event.


jrd

For the time being, I am showing pictures taken at the 2024 Rockport High School Reunion. Have a few more pictures to show, so check back weekly.