Dr. James Naismith, a gentle Y.M.C.A. official, designed basketball as a "noncontact" game, and wrote 13 rules to bar roughhousing. Gangs of toughs in the 'gos used to gather outside gyms to beat up the "sissy" basketball players on their way home. Basketball's inventor, only eight years dead, never dreamed of what the Big Nine would do to his game.
In Madison, Wis. last week,, the only teams still undefeated in Big Nine competition went after each other with elbows, knees, hands and feet. Officials called 47 fouls and threw four players out of the...
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