When a gymnasium instructor at the International Y. M. C. A. College, Springfield, Mass., set his class to tossing a soccer ball through two bottomless peach baskets one winter afternoon in 1891, he had no idea he was inventing what was to become the most popular U. S. winter sport, basketball. Instructor James A. Naismith was just trying to keep his restless charges from getting bored. The class took to his pastime with such enthusiasm that the Y. M. C. A. began teaching basketball in other cities. By 1893 the game had been brought...
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