In its latest animated doodle, Google has celebrated the legacy of Canadian-American physical education professor, doctor and coach James Naismith. This doodle shows Dr Naismith standing inside a gymnasium with a clipboard in his hand as students play basketball and it is snowing outside.
James Naismith was born on November 6, 1861 near Ontario's Almonte town in Canada. He secured a BA in physical education from McGill University. In 1890, he took a job at the YMCA International Training College in Springfield.
It was here Naismith invented this indoor game, which has now become popular in over 200 countries, for students holed up in their colleges during England winters. Google dedicated this doodle to the basketball inventor on January 15 as Naismith, who invented basketball in 1891, had announced the game and its original rules in a school newspaper of Springfield College, The Triangle on this day. The game of basketball was born with just two peaches, ten rules and a soccer ball.
The initial version of the game comprised teams of nine players and took elements from outdoor games like football, field hockey and soccer. The game made its Olympic debut in the 1936 Berlin Olympics despite doubts regarding the sport. James Naismith threw the ball to commence the first-ever international game of basketball.
Naismith saw basketball as a way for students to keep themselves physically and mentally fit. He took steps to ensure basketball reaches more and more younger people in his lifetime, which has now evolved into a global phenomenon. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was inaugurated in Springfield in 1959 to mark the legacy of the inventor of basketball.