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Thursday, February 16, 2012 By Sarah Storms
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When most people think
of Indiana, a few things come to mind. Maybe it’s racing, Peyton
Manning, or possibly corn fields; but what will always come to mind
first? Basketball.
Many residents of Montgomery County
have come to know basketball as the main event on Friday and Saturday
nights, whether it be watching high school hoops or staying home to
watch Purdue or IU play. But what many don’t know is the origins of the
game and Crawfordsville’s main link to basketball history.
James Naismith created the game in 1891 while he was a teacher at an
all boys school in Massachusetts as a way to not only keep football
players in shape during the off season, but to provide entertainment for
his students in the winter months, when going outdoors was not an
option. After getting it’s start in Massachusetts, basketball was mainly
played on the east coast and then gradually made its way out to the
Midwest. Teams were very rare to find in Indiana, so many of the schools
that did have enough players had to travel far to find opponents.
Crawfordsville was one of the first cities in Indiana to have a team.
This team was created through the YMCA, not the high school. Most of the
other teams in the state at that time were also YMCA. teams. The first
official game was played on March 16, 1894, with the Crawfordsville YMCA
beating the Lafayette YMCA 45-21. The building where this game took
place was at the YMCA Armory in Crawfordsville. In addition to the first
official game played between two towns, Crawfordsville also hosted the
first collegiate basketball game on February 19, 1897, when Wabash
College played Purdue University.
After the
first official games were played in Crawfordsville, basketball teams
were being created at most of the high schools. Many of the players for
Crawfordsville had started out on the Crawfordsville YMCA team that
played in the first official game, so they had plenty of experience.
This led to Crawfordsville becoming a basketball powerhouse in the early
1900’s, and claiming many Indiana Championships. This was before there
was an official post-season tournament, so champions were usually
decided on the best win-loss records.
Many
people ask why Indiana is known for basketball when it wasn’t even
created here. When the game was first introduced on the east coast, it
didn’t garner that much popularity. As it gradually made its way to the
Midwest, it proved to be one of Indiana’s favorite games. Players here
were competitive and anxious to master the new found game. In 1925,
after James Naismith visited the Indiana High School basketball state
finals and experienced a gym full of more than 15,000 people, he wrote
that "basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the
center of the sport."
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