Wow Has Basketball Changed!

          The sport of basketball has been a main past time in Huntley as well as many towns across the world. But a lot has changed since its creation in 1891 and since this photo was taken of the 1912/1913 Huntley high school team. In fact, so much has changed that it may surprise you! The origin of basketball goes back to the winter of 1891. A gym teacher by the name of James Naismith at the School of Christian Workers in Springfield, Massachusetts, was told to create a new game for the students. The issue that needed to be resolved dealt with the cold winters, and how the students could not go outside for physical education. Naismith remedied this problem by taking an ordinary soccer ball and asking the janitors to put two boxes up on either side of the gym. There were no boxes on hand, so instead they employed the use of two peach baskets, and the game of basket ball (originally two words) was born.

          Some of the original set ups included baskets that were closed at the bottom. They later changed to a metal ring with a net, but the net was also closed. It wasn't until about 1906 that the net was left open for the ball to fall through. The original rules did not allow the players to dribble, and in fact, the rules did not even let players move with the ball! They had to pass it through the court. That rule changed in 1910, but only to the extent that the player could dribble the ball. If the player did dribble the ball, he was not allowed to shoot it. He had to pass it to someone else to shoot. Players who dribbled were finally allowed to shoot the ball starting in 1916.

          The below photo was back in the time of the no-shooting-after-dribbling policy. In those years, the high school in Huntley did not have a gym. Instead, they played their games in the upstairs of Smith and Weltzien's hall on the square. Around 1916, when Pabst's Hall was constructed, basketball games were moved there. The high school constructed in 1924 was the first school in Huntley to contain a gym, and from then on the games were played at that school and the high schools that followed. It's hard to imagine these boys playing what we now know as basketball, but then again it was a very different game 100 years ago.