James Naismith
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"James Naismith" was a Canadian American sports coach and innovator. He invented the sport of basketball in 1891. He wrote the James Naismith's Original Rules of Basketball/original basketball rulebook, founded the Kansas Jayhawks basketball/University of Kansas basketball program, and lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 Summer Olympics/1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of both the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (1939).

Born in Canada, Naismith studied physical education in Montreal before moving to the United States, where he developed basketball in late 1891 while teaching at the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts/Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith also studied medicine in Denver, Colorado/Denver, taking his Doctor of Medicine/MD in 1898 before moving to the University of Kansas. After a decade (1898–1907) serving there as a faculty member and part-time basketball coach during the sport's fledgling years, he became the Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director. He became a U.S. citizen in 1925 in Lawrence, Kansas.

If you enjoy these quotes, be sure to check out other famous inventors! More James Naismith on Wikipedia.

The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play 'Drop the Handkerchief.'

The Composite Guide to Basketball.

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.

In case of dispute, the umpire shall throw it straight into the field.

The greatest team that ever stepped out onto the floor.