A FOSTER

6e O NOT be afraid to serve humanity and
wait for your reward.” So said Dr. James
Naismith when he was informed of the action of
the National Association of Basketball Coaches
back in 1936 when this organization raised funds
to send the kindly inventor of the game of basket-
ball to Berlin. Until this time Dr. Naismith had
never made a penny out of basketball. The happi-
est moment of his life, Dr. Naismith said, came in
1936, when he attended the Olympic Games in Ber-
lin and saw the game of basketball played for the
first time in international Olympic competition. The
teams of all nations filed in behind their respective
flags and Dr. Naismith addressed the players.

The youth of the world lost a great benefactor
in Dr. James Naismith. Eighteen million young
men all over the world are playing his game of
basketball—a game which he originated for eigh-
teen young men in Springfield College. Dr. Nai-
smith is directly responsible for all the large field
houses, the large auditoria and gymnasia where
basketball is played. Before this game was origi-
nated there were few large indoor arenas that were
used for any indoor sports. Thickly dotting the
middle western states are high school gymnasia
that are much larger in size than the entire school
buildings were thirty years ago.

Frederick Froebel, a poor, unhappy German boy,
gave to the world the theory of the kindergarten
—education through play. Dr. Naismith, an or-
phan boy at eight, gave to youth basketball, a game
that takes the youngster from the eighth grade to
maturity. Eight nationally known educators, speak-
ing from the same platform, declared that basket-
ball had all the qualities necessary to teach the

SON
MOTHER COUNTRY

FORREST C. ALLEN, Director of Physi-
cal Education and Recreation, as
well as Varsity Basketball and Base-
ball Coach at the University of
Kansas, was closely associated with
Dr. Naismith from 1903 until the
latter's death in 1939. He played on
the team coached by Dr. Naismith
and knew him perhaps as well as
any man in the athletic world.

HONORED HIS

educable child; poise, rhythm, grace, coordina-
tion, development of skills, and development of
physical vigor. The speakers were not competitive
coaches, nor were they athletes. This game, the only
international game that is the product of one man’s
brain, stamps Dr. Naismith as a great educator,
a kindly humanitarian, and a practical Christian.
He loved youth. He and his classmate, Alonzo
Stagg, both working together, chose the profession
of physical education over the ministry, in which
they were ordained, because they felt they could do
more for youth. The youth of the world will arise
and call Dr. Naismith blessed.

When it is recalled that Dr. Naismith was a
Canadian by birth, and yet became one of the
greatest sports’ benefactors this country ever had,
the homage the world is paying him today, takes

on a larger aspect. He gave to our country, which,

virtually all his life was his country, its most
popular pastime. Surely it is a case of a foster son
having honored his mother country.

And you tonight sitting in comfortable seats in
this building dedicated to a wonderful sport
doubtless can make a small contribution which
will keep alive the memories and traditions of
a young man who struggled and who gave of
himself the finest qualities that he had. He gave
them to youth, and youth can pass along the dur-
able things of life to the next youthful generation.

Please remember that the youth of fifty-two na-
tions of this world are playing basketball. It is
not a national sport—it is an international one.
And the United States is the mother country of
this game, to whom it was given by her foster son,
James Naismith.