Lacrosse is older than printing. Golf was invented before Abraham Lincoln was born, but basketball didn’t exist until decades after his death. The first book on figure skating was published before the declaration of independence.
Sport is as enduring and ever-changing as society itself. From antiquity to the 19th century, here are the fascinating origins of seven of the most popular games.
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1. Basketball
Basketball is the only major American sport with a clearly identifiable inventor. James Naismith wrote the original 13 rules of the sport as part of a class assignment in December 1891 at a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. Born and educated in Canada, Naismith came south to pursue his interests in physical education. Naismith sought to create a game that could be played in gymnasiums during the winter. The very first basketball game took place on December 21, 1891. Read more
Closely related to two ancient English sports – rugby and soccer (or association football) – American football originated in universities across North America, primarily in the United States, in the late 19th century. The man most responsible for the transition from the ancient game of rugby to the sport of football as we know it today was Walter Camp, aka the “Father of American Football”. As an undergraduate and medical student at Yale from 1876 to 1881, Camp played at halfback and served as a head coach, where he pioneered many of the rules and innovations that shaped the modern game. Read more
3. Baseball
References to baseball-like games in the United States date back to the 18th century. Like football, its most direct ancestors seem to be two English games: rounder (a children’s game brought to New England by settlers) and cricket. In September 1845, a group of New York men founded the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club. One of them – volunteer firefighter and bank clerk Alexander Joy Cartwright – would codify a new set of rules that would form the basis of modern baseball, calling for, among other things, a diamond-shaped infield, foul lines and the three strike rule. . Read more
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4. Stock
Lacrosse, the oldest team sport in the United States, dates back to 1100 AD, when it was played by the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois people, in what is now New York and parts of Canada bordering the state. Early versions of lacrosse matches played by Native American nations involved hundreds of men and used wooden sticks, sometimes with baskets or mesh pockets attached, and small balls wrapped in deerskin. Lacrosse continued to evolve in Canada, where it was named the national sport in 1859. In 1867, George Beers, a Montreal dentist, wrote the sport’s first rule book. Read more
5. Figure Skating
The earliest evidence of ice skating dates back to around 3000 BC, when people in Scandinavia and Russia deposited and shaped the shins of large animals such as horses, deer and sheep into skates for winter travel on frozen lakes and waterways. The technical discipline of figure skating developed in 18th century Britain as people saved more time for recreational activities. In 1772, Englishman Robert Jones wrote the first figure skating instruction book, A treatise on skating, which offered instructions on how to create shapes such as circles, winding lines, spirals, and figure eights on ice. Read more
6. Hockey
The origins of ice hockey can be traced back to stick and ball games played in the Middle Ages or even in ancient Greece and Egypt. Versions of the game evolved in 18th century Europe and quickly spread to Canada and the United States. The first organized ice hockey game, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation, was played on March 3, 1875 between two teams of nine men each from the Victoria Skating Club of Montreal. Read more
7.Golf
Versions of golf were known to have been played in Scotland at least as early as the 15th century – one was played on large estates and the other in the streets of villages and towns. In 1744 the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers wrote the first rules of the game, known as the Thirteen Articles, for their tournament at Leith Links in Edinburgh. Over the next 100 years, these 13 rules were adopted by more than 30 clubs, helping to formalize the sport as we know it today. Read more
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