#36: Putting the Basket in Basketball

If you’re a fan of basketball, you’ve probably heard that it was invented in 1891 by a Canadian-American gym teacher in Massachusetts called James Naismith. You’ve probably also heard that the baskets were originally peach baskets. But do you know how those developed into the baskets we know today?

Whilst Naismith soon realized he needed to have a hole in the bottom of the basket so that the ball could be shoved out the top by inserting a long dowel into it, some people took longer to realize this fact. And 15 years after the game was invented, the metal hoops that we know today were first introduced.