The first basketball game

On December 29, 1891, James Naismith defined a new game using five base ideas and thirteen rules. That day, he asked his class to play a match in the Armory Street court: 9 versus 9, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. Frank Mahan, one of his students, wasn’t so happy. He just said: "Huh. Another new game". However, Naismith was the inventor of the new game. Someone proposed to call it “Naismith Game”, but he suggested "We have a ball and a basket: why don’t we call it basket ball"? The eighteen players were: John J. Thompson, Eugene S. Libby, Edwin P. Ruggles, William R. Chase, T. Duncan Patton, Frank Mahan, Finlay G. MacDonald, William H. Davis and Lyman Archibald, who defeated George Weller, Wilbert Carey, Ernest Hildner, Raymond Kaighn, Genzabaro Ishikawa, Benjamin S. French, Franklin Barnes, George Day and Henry Gelan 1–0. The goal was scored by Chase. There were other differences between Naismith’s first idea and the game played today. The peach baskets were closed, and balls had to be retrieved manually by cutting a small hole in the bottom of the peach basket and poking the ball out using a stick. Only in 1906 were metal hoops, nets and boards introduced. Moreover, earlier the soccer ball was replaced by a Spalding ball, similar to the one used today.