On December 21st, 1891, a physical education teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, looking to keep athletes occupied during the winter, hung some peach baskets on the balcony of the gymnasium.

With these peach baskets in an old soccer ball he created something that revolutionized sports and became one of the most popular games in the world.

Learn more about the history of basketball and how it became a global phenomenon on this episode have some sort of origin that dates back to the 17th or 18th century.

There was some sort of early version of the game that was played informally, which eventually became more formalized with rules, and then there were organized

teams that were formed and the game was eventually turned professional.

Basketball does not have such a story.

It was born at a single point in time, and was the creation of a single individual.

The game certainly evolved over time, but it was not the creation of centuries of people throwing balls through hoops.

Many people think that basketball had its origins in a Mayon game

called Pac-T-Poc. Pac-to-Poc did have a ball and a hoop and the objective was to

get the ball through the hoop. However, any similarities between it and

basketball ended there. The Pac-Poc hoop was vertical, not horizontal, the ball

was much smaller, the cord had slanted walls, and the losing team would often be executed.

While there were some superficial similarities between the two games, there was no direct

link between Pac-to-Poc and basketball.

Basketball was created by James Naysmith.

Naysmith was born in Ontario, Canada and went to school and later taught physical education

at McGill University in Montreal.

In 1890 he left Montreal to study at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts

as a grad student. After a year as a grad student, he was asked to join the faculty in 1891.

The last decade of the 19th century was an important time for college sports in the United States.

Football and baseball were becoming very popular,

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