[theboys]

A series of entertaining books exist named "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader". Umpteen volumes exist by now -its a pretty popular series. Several years ago, I bought one that included a three-page history of basketball (volume 12). Very interesting.

According to "Uncle John", Naismith invented basketball more out of desperation than anything. The group of kids that were the first players were nicknamed the "incorrigibles" because of their, well, behavior.

Among the more interesting facts:

1. Why is the goal 10'? Because, that was the height of the balcony in the original gym.

2. Why backboards? It prevented spectators in the balcony immediately behind the goals from interfering with shots.

3. The original game had only 13 rules.

4. Number of players - BITS is right, the original game had nine players on a side. But, Naismith didn't have a rule on number of players. He thought team size should vary with court size and number of people who wanted to play. Cornell staged a game with 50 players on a side! In 1896, the first official five-player game was played between U of Chicago and U of Iowa.

5. Dribbling - the original game didn't allow dribbling.

I summarized the Uncle John's version and distributed it to my players a couple of years ago. If you want a copy, just e-mail me.