INTRODUCTION

By DR. FORREST C. “PHOG"” ALLEN

Director of Physical Education and Varsity Basketball Coach
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
and Originator of Goal-Hi

T once heard eight educators, speaking at the National
Convention of the American Association for Physical Educa-
tion, Health and Recreation, say that basketball possessed ‘all
of the qualities necessary for the educable child’. As parents
and as educators. we desire physical fitness, emotional sta-
bility, and mental poise as chief characteristics for our young-
sters. To observe the young basketball player dribbling
and weaving his way through a broken field and then sud-:
denly swerving to the side, jumping high into the air and
gracefully laying a shot into the basket, is to witness poetry
in motion. It is that type of motor flow that the Greeks wrote
about centuries ago.

‘Running, jumping, leaping, vaulting, and climbing are
the fundamental activities of man. The basketball player
shooting the ball into the basket is improving motor skills
and developing co-ordination, rhythm, and confidence. By
shooting at a goal above the head, the player is elevating
his ribs and thorax, and thus developing the entire upper
thoracic area—an extremely important exercise which is much
neglected in our age of sedentary existence. Every basket-
ball coach knows that to play basketball is to exercise the
leg and abdominal muscles and, in fact, every part of the
body.

“Basketball is rated as perhaps the most popular sport
in America today. When our Government reports that more
than 80 million people of all ages are annually paying ad-
missions to see the game of basketball, there can be no ques-
tion of its popularity. Unfortunately, that group of 80 million
people consists of spectators who are content to sit on the
sidelines and watch two teams of only five players each play
the game.

‘Realizing the fact that basketball as we now play it is
limited to the short winter season, and desiring to see these
80 million spectators step across the sidelines and become