I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place—deep in the Wisconsin woods an old barrel hoop nailed to a tree, or a weather-beaten shed on the Mexican border with a rusty iron hoop nailed to one end.

James Naismith, born in Canada this day in 1861, was a physical education director and coach who in 1891 invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, now home of the game’s hall of fame, named in his honor.