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Dr. James Naismith

(Spoken at his funeral at the First Presbyterian Church, Lawrence, Kansas,
December 1, 1939, by Theodore H. Aszman, minister)

The term "One of God's noblemen" is sometimes lightly used and inappropriately
applied, But in the case of James Naismith it can be said in all sincerity and genuiness,
"he was one of God's noblemen,"

The word of Scripture which ran through my mind, and would not leave, as I thought
of Dr, Naismith was the familiar sentence from the fifty-first Psalm, "Create in me a
clean heart, O Gods and renew a right spirit within me." These words epitomize his
life purpose.

To maxe and keep people clean, in the highest sense of the word, was the purpose
of his living. His cleanliness was not of the negative variety but was positive, aggres-
sive. He did not wait until he himself had given part of his life to unclean living.
In no sense was he the reformed unclean liver preaching to-others, Clean living seemed ©
to have been the passion of his life from youth up.

The story of the incident that made him decide to go into physical education, be—
cause of the opportunity that profession offered for influence in right living, instead
of the ministry, for which he was preparing, is most revealing and descriptive of his
life motivation, While at McGill University on the football field one day something went
wrong in practice, The guard next to him began to swear loudly. Suddenly he stopped |
and turned to Naismith and said, "I beg pardon, Jim, I didn't notice you were there,"

"I hadn't paid particular attention," Dr, Naismith related, "for I had heard more
fluent swearing than that in the lumber camps of Canada, It set me to thinking about
the matter’ of personal influence, and I talked about it with the Y.M.C.A, secretary."
The result of that incident was the choice of his future career,

Educated for the ministry, and later honored with a Doctor of Divinity degree, he
however never held a pastorate. An able speaker, he was much in demands but in his

services in this direction he drew no denominational lines. He seemed to prefer

however to do his preaching in active living. His ministry was that of Christian living

and of teaching. He had the fundamental instincts and a fine aptitude for teaching,

James Naismith also earned a degree in medicine; yet he never practiced medicine,
He used his knowledge in this field in his chosen vocation of physical education, a
vocation which he honored and on which he reflected great credit. In recognition of
his outstanding work in his field, in 1931 he was given the Honor Award by the American
Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Alonzo A. Stagg and R. Tait
McKinzie, two other distinguished men in this field, received this award at the same time.

His life work, he conceived of, not as curing but preventing ills. He acted on
the motto, "A sound mind in a sound body." He did not wait until a wreck of body
occured and then try to patch it up. His business was the preventing of human wreckage.
He did not conceive of his work as that of the ambulance driver picking up wrecks at
bottom of the cliff, but to build the fence at the top of the cliff to keep human lives
from being wrecked. .

It was a matter of eternal justice that a man of such ideals and life purpose should
have been privileged to create something, almost a discovery, of such far extended value
and usefulness in his chosen field, as the inventing of basketball. This creation

Symbolized his own creative living. Though it put his name on the lips of millions
_ &round the world, yet to him it was only an incident in his career, To him it was no
reason for inordinate pride. His gratification in the succes’ of this invention was