It had not been a good winter for James Naismith.
He was the physical education instructor at a small school in Massachusetts in 1891, and it was another bitterly cold New England winter.
The boys were roughhousing in the halls, and Naismith’s boss needed them to burn off some steam. But rugby, football and soccer were not indoor games.
Naismith had tried a modified form of football, but the boys found it boring.
So one day he nailed two wooden peach baskets on supports about 10 feet high, handed the boys a soccer ball and told them to throw it into the other team’s basket.