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I had asked a group of people “How many of you at one point or another have played basketball, and do you enjoy the game?” There was an immediate positive response from all of them so I followed that question by asking, “Do you know where it came from and who invented it?” Right then each one of them formed a puzzling look on their face and they scratched their brow as if it were a riddle. For me this was troubling significant events and emotions like sinking a buzzer beater, a half court shot, a crowd silencing three, and being able to play the ultimate team sport can all be attributed to one great man, Dr. James Naismith, and his story of creativity and aspirations is relatively lost to our generation. The story of basketball begins in Ramsay Township near Almonte, Ontario when on a cold November 6, 1861, Scottish immigrants John Naismith and Margaret Young gave birth to James and even then they knew he was going to be special. The hardships for James came early in his life when his parents who worked at a sawmill contracted Typhoid Fever and died when he was only ten. The experience was detrimental to James; he being the oldest of three was now forced to care for his brother and sister as his old grandmother only provided a place for them to live. In 1873 his grandmother died and after experiencing three sudden deaths, the distraught James along with sister Annie and brother Robbie moved in with their Uncle Peter Young. Jim could never really concentrate on his academics that were taught to him in a one room school house in the town of Bennie’s Corner but his strong abilities in physical activity prevailed so much that the neighborhood knew him as a bright skillful boy. Even his teacher Thomas B. Caswell could see the first signs of Jim’s athleticism. On the farm where he lived, everyday before and after school James used his hands and physique to chop trees, saw logs and drive horses as his daily chores. His Uncle Peter taught him to rely on himself to get jobs done so that in the end the reward would feel that much sweeter. In amongst all his priorities in schooling and on the farm Jim always found time to play and have fun. Himself and the other children would spend hours near the blacksmith’s workshop playing in the field, such games like tag and hide and go seek, all which encouraged James to use his mind and imagination. But amongst all of these games that he played, his favorite by far was “Duck on a rock” a game in which you would place a stone on top of a boulder and from a few feet away you had to throw one of your own pebbles at it and retrieving your pebble if you missed until the rock had been knocked off.
Approximate Word count = 1803
Approximate Pages = 7.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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