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—By—
C. L. (POSS) PARSONS

Sports Editor
DENVER, COLO.
8-18-39

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New Convex Bankboard

Basketball in 1941 may find the new stream-
lined convex bankboard being adopted by the
rules committee. This new board is being experi-
mented with all over the country at the sugges-
tion of the rules committee and the Basketball
Coaches association.

According to Forrest Cox, basketball coach
at the University of Colorado, the new board has
met with favor at various coaching schools. At
Utah State, where Cox conducted the basketball
instruction, only three mentors out of sixty at-
tending the school didn’t like the new board. In
‘a baskétball class at the C. U. summer school,
seventeen out of eighteen had a preference for
the new board over the flat board now in use
after trying it out for themselves.

Coach Cox will keep one convex bankboard at
C. U. for experimentation purposes of his varsity
players during the coming school year.

How Board Is Made

The convexity of this new board is four inches
and begins at the median plane of the board and
curves outward to the sides of the board, which
is three feet from the median plane. The original
convex bankboard has retained the six-foot width
dimension of playing surface and likewise the
four-foot height dimension. The inventors have
assumed a fourteen-foot radius of eurvature to
be ideal, as the angle of incident and reflection
‘on this are does not vary greatly from the con-
ventional flat plane.

Since the latest change in the rules permits.

the extension of the end zone for an additional
‘two feet, practically all the new schools laying
out basketball courts are taking advantage of

 

this new ruling. This allowable increase in thé
end zone increases the blind spots, or ‘‘coffin eor-
ners,’? which while allowing greater freedom of
movement or play, insofar as the offense is con-
cerned, does markedly change the defense, owing
to the fact that the basket is now plainly set out
so there is no metal hazard from the projecting
straight side of the bankboard.

It is the thought of the inventors that this
board will revolutionize the offensive play in the
end zone. By increasing the scoring zone it must
necessarily follow that the defense must spread,
out. resulting in more open and much faster play
in the end zone.

Points in Favor

Following are some points in favor of the new
convex bankboard:

For a straight shot to the goal the scoring
zone is, figuratively, increased by twenty-seven
square feet.

For a bank shot contacting the bank three
inches from the edge, the scoring zone is increased
720 square feet.

The mental hazard of attempting a shot from
the sideline, directly parallel to the bank, is elim-
inated, owing to the recession of the vertical edge
of the bank, allowing unobstructed visibility of
the goal.

The visibility to spectators is greatly increased
beyond the end zone due to the recession of the
vertical edge, thereby opening up large areas
which heretofore had been obscure.

The convex shape of the bank results in a unit
of much greater strength and rigidity, thereby
causing rebounds to land a greater distance from
the basket and opening up the congested regions
around the basket.

 

* KK *

At Harvard University, a demonstration game was
played before 1500 coaches and players and the regu-
lation backboard was used on one end and on the
other a board of the new proposed size and shape
and with a convex surface. Despite the fact that the
teams had not practiced with the convex surface, the
percentage of successful shots was higher on the
convex board. This is another indication of the great
power of adaptation on the part of players. They
seem to have an instinctive ability to quickly. adjust
themselves to any reasonable reaction of the ball, to

different courts and different type backboards or
baskets.

ILL. HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE
JAN-FEB. 1940