Basketball This game of dribbling, passing and shooting a big orange ball through a basket is the only major sport that is 100 percent American in origin. Basketball was invented in 1891 by a gym teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts. The first official game was actually played with a soccer ball; the ball used today came a little later. The basics of the contemporary game took time to evolve as well. For example, before the metal hoop was invented in 1906, balls were shot into peach baskets and fetched with the use of a ladder. And backboards were introduced as a way to stop spectators from interfering with shots. Basketball became an Olympic sport in 1936, and in 1949 the National Basketball Association was formed. The game is more popular today than it has ever been. It is regularly rated as the favorite sport of American kids, and it is played everywhere from playgrounds to driveways at the amateur level. At the professional level, players such as Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal have achieved cultlike status, and basketball fever is so hot that some even say the game has replaced baseball as the national pastime.
FOOTBALL Many football historians place the origin of football in rugby, which began entirely by chance in 1823 at the famous Rugby boys' school in England. But at the time American students at Princeton University were already playing a game they called "ballown," in which they used their fists, and later their feet, to advance the ball. The freshman and sophomore classes at Harvard competed in a type of football game on the first Monday of each school year called Bloody Monday because the game was so rough. Organized football began earlier in high schools than in colleges, with games on the Boston Common starting in about 1860. A 17-year-old student organized the Oneida Football Club of Boston, which played between 1862 and 1865. Colleges began to organize football games after the American Civil War ended in 1865. The so-called Princeton rules were established in 1867, with 25 players on each team. The first football was patented that year
SOCCER Mexico & Central America - 600 AD - 1600 AD
The creation of the rubber ball was in Mexico & Central America. These people played games on a recessed court shaped like a capital "I". The court was 40-50 feet long with vertical walls several feet high. In the middle of each wall was a mounted stone or wooden ring and the object was to project the hard rubber ball through the ring. Ancient China - 2500 BC
The earliest mention researchers have found of a soccer like game states that balls made of animal skin were kicked through a gap in a net stretched between poles 30 feet high. Records indicate that tsu chu was played as a part of the emporer's birthday celebration. 
The Chinese also played some form of the game to train soldiers during the Ts'in Dynasty (255 BC - 206 BC). According to records. tsu chu was also played extensively during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). United States - 1600's
The indians played a game called pasuckuakohowog, meaning "they gather to play ball with the foot." Beaches, a half mile wide with goals 1 mile apart, served as playing fields for as many as 1000 people at a time. Games were often rough, resulting in broken bones, but know one could be identified because players disguised themselves with ornaments and warpaint making retaliate close to impossible. It was common for games to be carried over from one day to the next with a feast for all at the conclusion of the match.
BASEBALL It seems that controversy still rages over the origins of baseball. In 1991 the Baseball Hall of Fame was delighted to hear about a baseball notice that is the earliest known printed reference to organized baseball in America. The July 13, 1825 edition of the "Delhi (N.Y.) Gazette" (on microfilm) has a notice listing the names of nine men challenging any group in Delaware County to a game of baseball at the home of Edward B. Chace for $1 per game. (The notice came from Hamden, New jersey.) The Baseball Hall of Fame hopes to send a student to search the microfilm records of the "Delhi Gazette" to see what else might be contained in its pages to shed light on Mr. Chase and his nine ball players. Abner Doubleday was the first to be officially recognized as the creator of baseball. A turn-of-the-century national baseball panel awarded the honor to Doubleday on the strength of a letter from an old schoolmate claiming Abner devised the rules for the game in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. Although his name has stuck with the public, Doubleday was long ago shorn of this honor by historians who examined the evidence. What is still not well understood, however, is the origins of the game before 1845 -- the period referred to by the Hall as early baseball. Historians have found references to early forms of baseball in the New York cities such as Rochester and Geneso in the 1820's. Organized clubs played in Philadelphia and the New York City area in the 1830's.
This web page is dedicated to the origins of 4 of the most popular sports. The sports include Basketball, Football, Soccer and Baseball. If you have any comments my Email address is at the bottom of the page. You could find some cool links at the bottom also. So keep playing or watching your favorite sport.
