Physical education director who in December 1891 at the International Young Men´s Christian Association Training School afterward Springfield (Mass.) College invented the game of basketball.
As a young man Naismith (who had no middle name but adopted the initial A) studied theology and excelled in various sports.
In the autum of 1891 he was appointed an instructor by Luther Halsey Gulick, Jr., head of the Physical Education Department at Springfield. Gulick asked A. Naismith and other instructors to devise indoor games that could replace the boring or dangerous exercises used at the school during the winter.
For his new game Naismith selected features of soccer, U.S. football, field hockey and other outdoor sports but (in theory) eliminated body contact between players. Because his physical education class at that time was composed of 18 men basketball originally was played by 9 on each side (eventually reduced to 5).
In 1898 Naismith received the M.D. degree from Gross Medical College Denver Colorado, afterward the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
From that year until 1937 he was chairman of the Physical Education Department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.
In addition to basketball he is credited with inventing the protective helmet for football players.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Mass., was incorporated in 1959.
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