Apr 03, 2015........back

I understand that the sport of basketball was invented in 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts to pass the winter with an interesting indoor game. James Naismith, a graduate student and on the faculty, was tasked with trying to find something that would be satisfying. Interesting that James' undergraduate degree was in theology considering the parallels between sports that meet in stadiums and involve moving a ball to a goal while opposing forces interfere. If I understand the reference, losing teams are in some way "taken to church".

My art history professor enjoyed describing games like basketball and football as descendants of ritual combat to ensure the coming of Spring, not forgetting the myth of Persephone and her annual release from the underworld. Somehow also connecting that lecture to the Roman Vestal Virgins as a parallel to cheerleaders. Vestals were believed to have magic powers that could stop runaway slaves on the spot by uttering a certain prayer. (Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 5 p. 280. 1855) I'm not sure that Naismith was thinking of all that, though, when he came up with the game.