Gone Golf'in or Gone Photograph'in: The Basketball Hall of Fame

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Basketball Hall of Fame

The Basketball Hall of Fame

The Basketball of Fame is located in Springfield, Massachusetts as that was where the game was founded. From Wilkopedia I quote "In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-born physical education professor and instructor at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (YMCA) (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, and balls had to be retrieved manually after each "basket" or point scored; this proved inefficient, however, so the bottom of the basket was removedallowing the balls to be poked out with a long dowel each time. The peach baskets were used until 1906 when they were finally replaced by metal hoops with backboards. A further change was soon made, so the ball merely passed through, paving the way for the game we know today. An association football was used to shoot baskets. Whenever a person got the ball in the basket, his team would gain a point. Whichever team got the most points won the game^.The baskets were originally nailed to the mezzanine balcony of the playing court, but this proved impractical when spectators on the balcony began to interfere with shots. The backboard was introduced to prevent this interference; it had the additional effect of allowing rebound shots."

The Hall opened in 1968. I've been fortuante to visit the Hall once and have also been invited to play golf in the annual Basketball Hall of Fame golf tournament which is held the day before the induction ceremony. A basketball celebrity plays with each group in the tournament. When I played I was paired with George Blaney who at the time was the head coach of Holy Cross University.