Where and how was basketball invented?
Naismith wanted an indoor winter sport for students.
In late 1891 James Naismith, an instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts (now Springfield College), was asked by his superior Luther Gulick to devise an indoor game that would keep students active through the New England winter without the injuries of football. Naismith wrote 13 rules, forbade running with the ball, and made passing the core of the game, with a soccer ball as the playing object.
The goals were two peach baskets fixed to the gym balcony railing, about ten feet (3.05 m) above the floor, which is why a regulation rim still sits at that height. Accounts say Naismith asked for two boxes and the building's janitor offered baskets instead. Since the baskets had solid bottoms, someone had to retrieve the ball after each score, and open-bottomed nets did not appear until some years later. The first game was low-scoring, with a single basket reportedly deciding it.
The sport spread quickly through YMCAs and colleges, and women began playing in 1892; Senda Berenson adapted the rules for women at Smith College. Basketball became an Olympic men's event in 1936, with Naismith attending, and a women's event followed in 1976. The details of the very first game vary between sources, but the place, the inventor and the peach baskets are well documented.