dune 23, 1943.

Mr. Norman Keller,
Wilson & Co.,
Lubbock, Texas,

Dear Mr. Keller:

In answering your commmication of June 16th I will
answer you from personal kmowledge and not by going back through the
basketball records to make it absolutely authentic as to dates.

Yes, there has been a rule that prohibited the dribble
but I do not mow whether you would call it modern or not. ‘This pro-
hibition was up to 1905, the A.A.U. rules prohibiting dribbling, but
the colleges began in 1906 to permit dribbling. We had separate rules
for the colleges end separate rules for the A.A.U. and Y.M.C.A. groups.
The Joint. Deaketball Rules Committee, which now comprises the colleges
end the Y.M.C.A.s is not the same as the present A.A.U. rule. But up .
until a few years ago all rules were the same under the Joint Basket-
ball rules committee.

: _ Along about 1928 Dr. W. “,. Meanwell, from the University
of Wisconsin, proposed and made a motion to the effeot that the dribble
be limited to one bounce. That was in the latter part of March, and I
believe the weeting was held in New York. In the first week in April
Knute Rockne and I spoke before the National Education Association at
Des Moines, Iowa. Knute spoke on “the Pedagogy of Football" and I spoke
on “The Pedagogy of Basketball". These mectings were held in the Drake
Field House in Des Moines, and in our denonstrations a discussion arose
regarding the new rules. I flayed the autocratic and high-handed method
of the National Basketball Rules Committee in putting in a rule about
which they had not queried the coaches. immediately I got a great number
of wires from coaches who agreed with me, and I called a meeting of the ‘
basketball coaches in Des Moines during the time of the Drake Relays.
The meeting was held and they elected me cheirman end requested that the
Rules Committee rescind their action.
A further meeting was called for Chicago in Jume, at the

_ time of the N.C.A.A. track meet, and at this time the basketball coaches
of the country elected me the first president to serve witil the time of
the next basketball coaches meeting in March, 1929. That meeting was held
in Chicago, and I was elected president for the 1929 term. The Rules Body
promptly rescinded the action deleting the dribble, and it has remained a
part of the game ever since. :

the National Basketball Coaches Association as an organization
was formulated in Chicago in March, 1929, and the Coaches Association the
following year re-elected me as president. So the Coaches Association as
a body was formed as a protest against the deletion of the dribble by the
Rules Committee. :