I did not know that yesterday!

A search on the two key words "invented basketball," scored a number of web page results. I browsed around and eventually pieced together the colorful history of the sport.

Basket Ball (the original name of the game) was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a teacher at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. At Hoophall.com, the official site of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, I learned that, "The game of basketball was the result of a challenge from a teacher to his student to pique the interest of an incorrigible class during the usually dull winter months."

Apparently, the class was tired of calisthenics and Naismith's instructor assigned him the duty of inventing a new indoor sport. Taking to the task at hand, Naismith rounded up two peach baskets (the janitor didn't have any boxes handy) and a soccer ball. Next, he developed 13 rules for the new game.

He divided his class of 18 into 2 teams of 9 players each (the team today would be the equivalent of 3 guards, 3 centers, and 3 forwards) and set about to teach them the basics of b-ball.

The object of the game was to throw the soccer ball into the peach baskets nailed to the lower railing of the gym balcony. Every time a point was scored, the game was halted so the janitor could lug out a ladder and retrieve the ball. Of course, that didn't happen too often -- the score of the very first basketball game ever played was an amazingly low 1-0.

A lot has happened since the introduction of the game and basketball has undergone many changes , both in equipment and rules.