Sports

In 1891 Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball as an indoor sport to escape from the winter's cold. "At that time, the YMCA was a base for training physical instructors and general secretaries for the YMCA's within the United States.He devised a set of rules that required nine players on a team and a soccer ball. The number of players on a team was derived to accommodate the 18 students in Naismith's original class.The new game began to spread within the United States and was the winter sport for the YMCAs in the country. Eventually, colleges and athletic clubs acquired the game for their use. Nashville, with its YMCA and athletic clubs, was quick to learn the game. Vanderbilt's interest in the game was evident when the university's newspaper, Hustler, printed the rules in its Dec. 21, 1893 edition". The first game ever played as a team by Vanderbilt was against Nashville, Vanderbilt beat Nashville 9-6, as reviewed by the //Comet//. The names and positions of the Vanderbilt players are also in the Comet //yearbook//.

[|Vanderbilt 1893 basketball team]

Football like basketball was not a very popular sport in this time period. A college team that pops out was the texas longhorns because they were established in 1893. Pro football was established in this time but it was called premeir football and was not nearly as popular as college. Another football team in college in this time period was UNC.
 * || [[image:http://grfx.cstv.com/schools/vand/graphics/auto/1893BasketballAD285405.jpg width="285" height="405" align="right" link="http://vucommodores.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/031208aaa.html"]] ||
 * ||  **1893 ad for a basketball goal** ||

[|www.edb.utexas.edu/resources/longhornlegacy/1893.html] ←link for Texas Longhorn Football



Baseball was the most common out of all of the sports at this time. There were professional teams who are still around unlike football. There are the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philly Phillys, and Cincinnati Reds (formerly as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, same differnce) that were established in that time period who are still around. So that states that pro baseball back in that time was a pretty popular sport. That is why it is called "America's Pastime". College basball was played back then also yet same as today not as popular as pro. Unlike football.

www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1893n.shtml ←link to baseball stats in 1893

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B03E6DF133AE733A25754C2A9679D946597D6CF

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B03E6DF133AE733A25754C2A9679D946597D6CF