BASKETBALL.

Professor Smith and athletes, it is with extreme pleas
sure that.I appear before you this evening to discuss asub-
which I hope you will approve... An incident occurred to me
just a few miles out of town that struck me in an amusing
light,.but later I realized its true significance.. In stop-
ping for slight repairs on my car, I asked the station attend-
ant as to my position from this town.. He looked at me rather
sharply and said that I must certainly be a stranger for every-
one knew where Rosewater was in this district, since they have
one of the best football teams in the state... I could have eas-
ily replied that I knew of their team, but was merely curious
-eoneerning the time that it etek take me to cover the remain-
ing distances.

It has always seemed rather odd to me that when two alumni
of a high school or college get together they always discuss
their alma mater in the realm of its athletic achievements.
For example, when I go back to my home town I gnevitably return
to the Y.MC.A..where bee ceeds congregate and discuss the old
athletic heroes and contests. I am sure that wherever you roam
you will at some time run across an old school chum, then it
is my wager that the two of you will speak of the “grand old
days" and that last minute victory over "Paduch..""

My presence, in reality, is due to happenings that occur-
red some 49 years agoe. A professor at the Y.M.C.A.. college

in Springfield, Mass..set the stage and gave’ birth to a peach-

basket game called basketball. He was given charge of a gym