ABSTRACT
Basketball was invented in 1892 as a winter-time activity at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts (now Springfield College). The game spread quickly through YMCAs and settlement houses in the United States and Canada. Thus the initial popularity of basketball was largely among the working classes, although there were some colleges that adopted the sport in the late 1890s. At about the same time, the first professional basketball league was formed in 1898 in Philadelphia and there were several professional leagues that came and went over the next 35 years. Almost all of the initial players had not been college players and most professional teams evolved from town or local church or business related teams. [1]
