March 11, 1892: First Public Basketball Game

[Black Watch]

128 years ago today, the first public basketball game was played between the students and faculty of Springfield (Mass.) College where the sports' inventor, Dr. James Naismith, taught at the time.

In a romp, the students bested the teachers 5-1 in front of a crowd of 200.

Fun fact: The faculty's only basket was scored by Amos Alonzo Stagg, who had been selected to the first College Football All-America Team three years earlier at Yale.

Stagg went on to become a legendary college football coach, winning two national championships at the University of Chicago in 1905 and 1913 and inventing the Statue of Liberty play.

He also helped popularize basketball as a five-player sport, which allowed his 10 (later 11) man football team to play in the winter to stay in shape. For this, Stagg was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural 1959 class.

Check out this newspaper clipping from the following day:

[howlin mad axer]

March 11, 2020: Last Public Basketball Game... on account to Coronavirus and the Revelation

[LoveMyRaps]

McCaw would school these dudes

[howlin mad axer]

Gotta love the moustaches they all are rocking, aside from the Daniel Craig doppelgänger in the top middle part of the photo and that other guy.