Today, basketball is played by thousands of high
schools and colleges, not to mention amateurs and
professional teams. In more than 1700 colleges it is
a major athletic activity, and the same importance
is given to it in more than 18,000 high schools and
preparatory schools. To countless church teams,
clubs, and social organizations it offers a constant
form of sport and pleasure.

Basketball, perhaps more than any other sport,
appeals to youth of all ages and all classes. Easily
played yet difficult to master it provides contest-
ants with a constant challenge and gives spectators
much amusement. No pastime has spread to all
parts of the world as swiftly as basketball, and to-
day there is scarcely a city or town anywhere that
has not a court and a team. From the United States
to distant China, and from Canada to South Amer-
ica, Dr. Naismith’s game has its multitudes of ad-
herents and followers.

Statements vary as to the attendance at basket-
ball games in a single year, but it is generally
agreed that more than 90,000,000 people watched
the games in the last twelve months. But today
instead of peach baskets, steel rims and glass or
wood backboards are used, and instead of a small
red brick structure, huge palestras and modern
field houses are the setting for the game.

Take basketball out of the sport picture today
and you would have an empty spot that nothing
could fill. It is part and parcel of American life. It
exudes the wholesome, healthy, free and fair com-
petitive spirit which is one of the features of the
American way of life.

Reproduction of original drawing made at first game in Spring-
field, Mass. in 1891 by a Japanese student, G.S. Ishikawa of Tokyo.

THE FIRST CAME