Basketball

Basketball is one sport - perhaps the only sport - whose exact origin can safely be stated. During the winter of 1891 - 1892, Dr. James Naismith, a college instructor in Springfield, Massachusetts, invented the game of basketball in order to provide exercise for the students between the closing of the football season and the opening of the baseball season. He attached fruit baskets overhead on the walls at opposite ends of the gymnasium, and, using a soccer ball, organized nine-man teams to play his new game in which the purpose was to throw the ball into one basket and try to keep the opposing team from throwing the ball into the other basket.

Although there have since been many changes in the rules(such as cutting down the number of players on a team from nine to five), the game is basically the same today. The United Stated soldiers introduced it to the Philippines in 1900 and to Europe during World War I, and, being adopted by foreign nations, it soon became a world-wide sport. It is interesting that although basketball was created as an indoor game, in countries other than the United States it is now played almost entirely outdoors.