Page 39 - Presbyterian Connection, Spring 2024

Connection
REFLECTIONS
Presbyterian Minister Helped Create the Game of Basketball
presbyterian.ca
SPRING 2024
By John Ashton, self-employed historical author living in Bridgeville, Pictou County, N.S.
On Aug. 25, 2023, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution proclaim- ing December 21 as World Bas- ketball Day. Recognizing sport, including sport for persons with disabilities, has an important role to play in the promotion of peace and development, respect for hu- man rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, especially given basketball’s universal popularity.
World basketball history was made 132 years ago, and a Presbyterian minister from Nova Scotia helped play a role, from the opening tip-off to what has become a sport played around the globe.
The first-ever basketball game was played at the International YMCA Training School at Spring-
field, Mass., on Dec. 21, 1891. A Nova Scotia man, Finley Grant McDonald of Sunny Brae, Pictou County, played in the first basket- ball game ever recorded.
James Naismith, a 31-year-old Canadian from Almonte, Ont., is credited with inventing the game of basketball when he became a physical education instructor at the YMCA Training School. The school superintendent challenged him to develop indoor activ- ity sports for the winter months, something “that would be inter- esting, easy to learn, and easy to play inside and by artificial light.” Naismith then came up with the idea of a new sport, based on a children’s game, Duck on the Rock, where two teams would battle each other by throwing a ball into the opposing team’s bas- ket to score points.
Finley G. McDonald signed up for the secretarial course at the school, which encouraged spor t
activity as an academic discipline for all students. During that Fall se- mester, their class formed a foot- ball team and was just finishing up the season when Finley described how the game of basketball evolved: “We were playing football against the other teams from Mas- sachusetts. And we were leaving the field after the last game when coach James Naismith suggested we needed a game to play inside during the winter months. Some of our football players were car- rying the goal posts into the gym to store away and someone said, ‘Bring them over here and I’ll hold them.’ Another suggested that we attached a pail to the pole so as to throw the ball into the container (and) at the other end of the gym we hung a hat.”
Two teams with nine on each side were chosen and they be- gan throwing the ball around. “It was more like a rugby match with tackles all around, kicking, punching in the clinches. They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor. Before I could pull them apart, one boy was knocked out, several of them had black eyes and another had a dislocated shoulder.”
Naismith was then asked what rules were in place for that first game, to which he replied that he: “...didn’t have any, and that’s where I made my big mistake.”
He feared players becoming in- jured, and drew up the 13 original rules, which described, among other facets, the method of mov- ing the ball and what constituted a foul. A referee was appointed. The game would be divided into
two 15-minute halves with a five- minute resting period in between. The rules were tacked on a bul-
letin board and, a short time later, the gym class met and the teams were chosen, with three centres, three forwards, and three guards per side. Two of the centres met at mid-court, Naismith tossed the ball, and the game of basketball was born.
Finley McDonald’s biography at the Springfield College Archives states: “...that he was one of the best players as the game became popular at the school. At the first public game played at the Spring- field Christian workers gymna- sium, between the students and faculty on March 11, 1892, Finley and fellow player Edwin P. Rug- gles were the only two students to score in a 5–1 match. More than 200 spectators watched Ruggles and McDonald lead the students to victory over a faculty team led by James Naismith and Amos Alonzo Stagg (American athlete and college coach in multiple sports), who scored the faculty’s only point.”
After leaving the YMCA Train- ing School, Finley worked at the YMCA in Springhill, N.S., and then moved to the U.S., where he operated a business for several
Finley G. McDonald.
years. He later moved to Riverton, Pictou County, N.S., where he was employed with the Town of Stellarton. Finley was also a Pres- byterian lay minister and in 1931 became a licensed minister and preached in Pictou County until 1948. During this time, he was Moderator of the Presbyterian Synod in the Maritime Provinces. He died in 1951.
It’s interesting to note there were five Canadians who were involved in developing the game of basketball in 1891: Dr. James Naismith from Almonte, Ont.; Finley G. McDonald and John G. Thompson from Pictou County, N.S.; Lyman W. Archibald from Truro, N.S.; and Thomas D. Pat- ton from Danville, Que.
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