Welcome to our collection of quotes by James Naismith. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for James Naismith
James Naismith (NAY-smith; November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, sports coach, and inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program. Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939).
Born and raised on a farm near Almonte, Ontario, Naismith studied and taught physical education at McGill University in Montreal until 1890 before moving to Springfield, Massachusetts, United States later that year, where in 1891 he designed the game of basketball while he was teaching at the International YMCA Training School. Seven years after inventing basketball, Naismith received his medical degree in Denver in 1898. He then arrived at the University of Kansas, later becoming the Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director and coach. While a coach at Kansas, Naismith coached Phog Allen, who later became the coach at Kansas for 39 seasons, beginning a lengthy and prestigious coaching tree. Allen then went on to coach legends including Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith, among others, who themselves coached many notable players and future coaches. Despite having coached his final season in 1907, Naismith remains the only coach in Kansas men's basketball history with a losing record.
The invention of basketball was not an accident.It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play œDrop the Handkerchief.
Basketball is a pure invention.
In case of dispute, the umpire shall throw it straight into the field.
The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need.
Games have been called the lab for the development of moral attributes, but they will not, of themselves, accomplish this purpose. They must be properly conducted by competent individuals.
Basketball doesn't build character it reveals it.
Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport.
I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place.
The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play 'Drop the Handkerchief.'
Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.