The Sport of Basketball, and How it Came About

As basketball season in winding down, with the state basketball tournaments being held in March, it is fun to explore the history of the sport, and the history of basketball in the area high schools.

One of the first references to basketball in Wyoming is this article in the Laramie’s Semi-Weekly Boomerang on February 10,1902. Points On Basketball. Brief notes on the History of the Game — Synopsis of the Rules. The Game Is Ten Years Old. Was Devised to Avoid Roughness of Football and Yet Furnish An All Around Athletic Exercise — Drs. Nalsmith and Gulick, the Inventors —Now the Great Winter Game. Walter Camp, the athletic dean of Yale university, contributes to the last number of Collier’s Weekly, under the head of ‘Sports for the Amateur’ a short piece on the historyand rules of basketball. Mr. Camp reviews the history of the game, briefly stating that it originated ten years ago at the Y. M. C. A. training school in Springfield, Mass.

Dr. James Nalsmlth, now physical director at the University of Kansas, was studying it here at that time, and It was due to his efforts, together with those at Dr. Luther Gulick, at that time an instructor there, and who is now chairman of the Basketball committee of the A.A.U. that devised the game. They wished to avoid the roughness of football and yet secure an all-around athletic exercise.

Another important feature was the basketball could be playing indoors during the winter months, when snow and ice and cold often prevented many outdoor sports.

The article continues: They wished to secure a game in which science and skill should abound and yet prove an attractive contest. Under these conditions basketball was started. Mr. Camp, in brief gives the following as the rules: The game is simple and takes no long study to learn the rules, nor is it necessary for a spectator to spend any great time in acquiring sufficient knowledge of the play to understand its principles.

It was be played upon my level surface—turf, sand or floor, ”or the best accommodation of the players the space should be fifty by seventy-five feet. A goal is placed at each end, and these goals are what give the name to the. sport, for they are baskets deep enough to catch the ball and eighteen inches in diameter. Each basket Is placed at a height of ten feet from the surface. The ball is thirty-one inches in circumference and weighs from eighteen to twenty ounces. The object of the game is to put the ‘ball as often as possible into the basket of the enemies’ goal, at the same time preventing them from accomplishing their end of depositing the ball In the opposite basket. The game is commenced by the official tossing the ball into play in the middle of the playing surface. Whenever the ball goes out of bounds it Is also tossed In, but never by the player who first secures it, or rather, touches it. Players are not allowed to carry, kick or hold the ball, or tackle, hold or push an opponent. Nor Is It permissible to Strike, kick, shoulder or trip an opponent. When a foul has been made the play Is at once stopped and the offended side has a free throw at the basket of the opponents from a distance of fifteen feet. This is the only penalty for the first class of fouls, but for the second division as Indicated above, or for unnecessary roughness, upon the second offense, the player is excluded from the game The play usually last two twenty minute halves, with a ten-minute intermission.

The game is usually played with five men on a side. A goal secured in the regular course of play “scores two points, while a goal scored from a foul scores but one. In case of a tie at the end of the second twenty minutes play continues until one side secures two points. The officials, are a referee, two umpires, a scorer and a timekeeper. The referee is judge of the that is he determines when It is In play and to whom it belongs. He also tosses the ball when it is put in play. The umpires call the fouls.

One early reference to basketball in Sheridan was in The Sheridan Post on Feburary 27, 1906, A Little Hard Luck – Boys’ Basket Ball Team Meets Unexpected Defeat at Billings – The High School boys’ basketball team accompanied by faithful rooters, numbering in ail about twenty-five, went to Billings last Thursday evening reasonably confident of victory. When they returned they didn’t have much to say, except that they were treated nicely by the Billings young people. It developed that the score stood 24 to 9 in favor of Billings.

In a partial explanation of this astonishing condition our boys say that the room in which the game was played was smaller and not so well lighted as the room to which they were accustomed and that the goals were arranged in a slightly different way but enough to puzzle them. They admit, however, that their opponents put up a good game and say they do not wish deprive them of the credit of their victory.

In the first half the score stood 9-3 and in the second 15-6 in favor of Billings. The Sheridan boys who played in the game were Cotton, Spear, Gettys, Worthington. Hamliton, Church, Hillman and Woods. This makes a game apiece for Sheridan and Billings and it will be necessary for the boys to wait till next year to determine which high school has the stronger team.

At one time there were no gym facilities as there are today, and games were played where ever they could find a space. This from The Sheridan Enterprise, September 23, 1905: The Kirby has been secured for basketball practice, as the old court room was found to be too small. ball and other new material have been ordered and in few days practice will be commenced in earnest.

And this ad in The Semi-Weekly Laramie Boomerang, March 10, 1902, proves that merchants were quick to cash in on the new sport.

Sheridan Daily Enterprise, Friday Morning, November 12, 1909 – Basketball Teams Are Formed Here. Male and Female Students of Business College Organize and Issue Challenges. A double basketball match is one of the athletic events promised Sheridan in the near future. Two teams are being organized by the students at the Spencer Business college. One team will be composed of girls and one of boys, and similar teams from other cities are to be challenged Negotiations have already been opened with the Buffalo High School teams, and an early game seems probable. The city hall has been secured for practice. The baskets were put in place yesterday and practice is to begin at one. It matched games are arranged they will probably be held at the Kirby opera house.

It wasn’t long before basketball caught on a college and high school sport. Although it is still called ‘basketball’, in 1893, the peach basket was replaced iron hoops and a hammock-style basket, similar to what we still use today.

By the 1930s, nearly every high school and college in Wyoming as well as throughout the nation, had a basketball team. In a 1936 Clearmont year book said “the 1935-36 basketball season was quite successful, although several of the games were not played because of cold weather and sickness. On January 13 the Clearmont Clowns journeyed to Midwest to play the Oilers.” The Clowns fought hard, the end score was Midwest 18, Clearmont 23. January 24, they ‘motored’ to Big Horn. Throughout the year, they played Ranchester, Big Horn, the Sheridan Broncs, Kaycee and Rozet. They ended the season with a 6-4 record. The name, the Clearmont Clowns was later changed to the Clearmont Panthers. Arvada had a basketball team as well, the Arvada Pirates. As in many schools, there was intense rivalry between the two teams.

The NBA was founded as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1946 and took its current name in 1949.

High school basketball has changed throughout the years. Uniforms have changed, and in 1951, the two halves were split into four eight-minute quarters, still much of it is very similar to what it was over 100 years ago, when it was played with a peach basket for a goal.