Professional basketball may be about glitz, glamour and green today, but few people know the game was started as a way to preach the Gospel to youth.
That's right, basketball was originally conceived by a YMCA physical education instructor who simply wanted to bring young people to Christ.
In 1891 James Naismith needed a way to entertain a group of young men snowed in at the International Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Training School in Massachusetts.
What he came up with, was a game he called "Basket Ball," and while it gave the young men something to do during the cold winter months, Naismith had another intention for the new game, "To win men for the Master through the gym."
Naismith knew that, "he could better exemplify the Christian life through sports than in the pulpit" and worked to "develop the whole person—mind, body and spirit" in the gym.
Naismith came up with the 13 original rules for the game of "Basket Ball" and wrote an article that was sent out to YMCA's across the country. The game was a hit and by 1898 Naismith was hired as the first men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas.
In an interview last year with the NCAA, Michael Zogry, an associate professor in the University of Kansas' Dept. of Religious Studies, explained further Naismith's approach to connecting sports with faith.
"His approach was to put Christianity out there in front of people and try to influence them through positive character development, but he reserved his formal preaching for when he was a guest minister at area churches."
The YMCA began to integrate basketball into their mission trips and recorded that many young people were brought to Christ through the missionaries they played with on the court.
Naismith wrote of seeing his vision for sports and faith fulfilled: "Whenever I witness games in a church league, I feel that my vision, almost half a century ago, of the time when the Christian people would recognize the true value of athletics, has become a reality."
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