The Golden Jubilee of Basketball

HE season of 1941-42 will mark the fiftieth

anniversary of basketball. In the short period
of half a century, this truly American game has not
only flourished here in its own country, but has
found favor in virtually all the far flung places of
the world. Quietly and steadily it has enlisted a
vast army of millions of players and innumerable
enthusiasts, until today it is the most popular sport
in the entire category of competitive athletics.

Basketball, even in its crude beginnings, was a
friendly game, easy to play, yet difficult to master.
It appealed to large and small, fast and slow, adept
and clumsy, regardless of age or sex. Small wonder
it caught the fancy of youth the world over, and
spread the wholesome doctrine of fair play and
good sportsmanship among its heterogeneous ad-
herents.

Because of the popularity of the game, its far
reaching influence on youth, and its importance
in the American scheme of things, the fiftieth
anniversary of the invention of basketball by
Dr. James A. Naismith at Springfield College in
1891 will be observed in a year of international
celebration beginning in December, 1941.

The focal point of the celebration will be the
city of Springfield, Massachusetts, and it is from
there that the Naismith Memorial Committee has
arranged to direct the activities of the Golden
Jubilee of Basketball on the widest possible scale.
The United States, Canada, Mexico, and South
American countries will take part in the memorial
celebration. It is hoped conditions will make it
possible for many other countries to participate in
the Golden Jubilee of Basketball.

Obviously, it is only fitting to do honor to the
memory of a man who made such a generous con-
tribution to American sports. And it is proper and
just that this monument to Dr. James A. Naismith
rise on the site where his far-reaching work was
begun—in the City of Springfield, Massachusetts,
the Birthplace of Basketball.