THE RULES
COMMITTEE
KNOWS ITS
BUSINESS

ERHAPS a more fitting caption for this article

would be: “Does the Rules Committee Know
Its Business?” Surely the latter smacks less of self-
satisfaction, and no member of the Committee
would make the flat assertion that this group knows
everything about basketball or that it is infallible
when it makes changes in the rules that govern
the game.

My connection with the basketball rules com-
mittee goes back just thirty years when I was ap-
pointed to membership on the Collegiate Basket-
ball Rules Committee. The other members at the
time were Dr. James Naismith, Dr. Joseph E. Ray-
croft, Chairman; Ralph Morgan, Secretary-Treas-
urer; Harry A. Fisher, Editor; Dr. A. H. Sharpe,
Lieut. (now General) P. D. Glassford. During
many years of association with Dr. Naismith I was
always impressed with his extreme modesty. He
never took the attitude “basketball is my game—
I know what is best for it”; quite the contrary,
he did not try to impose his own ideas but was
always open-minded and ready to support changes
which others thought were desirable. I suspect that
he found quiet satisfaction from time to time in
seeing us return to some of his fundamentals after
experimenting with new ideas.

Thirty years ago there were three published
codes of basketball rules: the Collegiate, the A.
A. U. and the Professional, to say nothing of the
numerous unprinted codes. This caused a chaotic
condition, with many teams not knowing just what
code they were following and others using a home
brew which would be a hodge-podge of various
sets. It was not uncommon for teams to play “first
half my rules, second half yours” with no one,
not even the official, knowing exactly what rules
they were trying to use.

This was the background when the Joint Basket-
ball Committee was organized in 1915. The follow-
ing paragraph is taken from Chairman Joseph E.

 

13

OSWALD TOWER has been a member
of the Basketball Rules Committee
for thirty years, and editor of the
Basketball Guide for twenty-seven
years. He is a teacher at Phillips
Andover Academy. He has had a
major part in directing the develop-
ment of basketball.

Raycroft’s article in the first Guide issued by the
Joint Committee: “The movement which has re-
sulted in the formal co-operation of the rules com-
mittees representing the Young Men’s Christian As-
sociation, the Amateur Athletic Union, and the
National Collegiate Athletic Association, promises
to be-a most valuable influence in promoting the
game of basketball along the right lines and should
mark the beginning of a new epoch in the history
of the game as a most desirable and useful indoor
sport.” My own editorial in the same issue contains
the following sentence: “The joint committee of
representatives from all three bodies has labored
long and earnestly in efforts to get all that is good
from both the A. A. U. and Collegiate rules into
the new uniform rules that have their first publi-
cation herewith.”

It may be of interest to mention the changes in
rules which have had the greatest effect upon the
game during the past thirty years. In 1911 the
double dribble was made illegal and the four-per-
sonal-fouls rule was adopted. In 1912 the two-
hand dribble was abolished. In 1917 the playing
court was extended by arcs of circles reaching two
feet behind the backboards. In 1918 this zone was
made rectangular by moving the end lines two feet
from the backboards, and just twenty years later
this zone was made four feet deep. In 1922, run-
ning with the ball, illegal dribble, kicking the ball,
carrying the ball out of bounds, and other in-
fractions which previously had been technical fouls,
became violations. In 1923 it was first decreed that
free throws for personal fouls should be tried by
the player fouled; thus the “free throw specialist”
went into the discard. In 1927 time out began to
be taken on all fouls. In 1932 the ten-seconds and
three-seconds rules were introduced. In 1935 the

center jump after successful free throws from per-

sonal fouls was abolished and the following year
this was extended to cover goals from the field.