Scottish roots of basketball explored in joint study by University of Stirling and Kansas University

Joint research by the University of Stirling and students from Kansas University in the United States has traced the origins of basketball back to Scotland.

The study revealed that Dr James Naismith, who invented the game in 1891, was born to Scottish parents in Ontario, Canada, on November 6, 1861.

His parents, John Naismith and Margaret Young, came from Glasgow. John was born in Tradeston, near the Gorbals and Margaret’s family was also from the city. 

Dr Naismith studied and taught physical education at McGill University in Montreal until 1890, before relocating to Springfield, Massachusetts later that year. It was there, in 1891, that he designed basketball and established the game’s very first rules.

As part of a cultural exchange programme on sports management with the University of Stirling, the American students conducted research and debates on which country should take pride in the invention of the sport.

“Basketball has strong Scottish roots and was largely influenced by Scotland,” said Dr Ross Fraser Walker, Sport Management lecturer at Stirling University.

“I’ve found that the game is largely distinctly based one person’s religious ideology, his background, up bringing, personal and family values. It’s the Scottish work ethic and I think without it, basketball wouldn’t exist – and for that reason Scotland deserves recognition.”

As part of the cultural experience, the American students were taken on a tour of Caledonian Gladiators’ sports arena in Glasgow, Scotland’s only professional basketball team.

The students were shown how the team embraces its Scottish heritage and how the culture is embedded in the club’s identity.

Tony McDaid, CEO of Caledonian Gladiators, wants Scotland to become a basketball nation where families are encouraged to get into the sport.

“We just need to get people in and see the arena and see the players play. I think the notion of Scotland being the home of basketball and indeed the inventor of basketball coming from the west coast of Scotland in Glasgow, that can only add a dimension for us.”

“A lot of Scottish values are in play in the sport today,” said Pristine Armstrong from Washington State.

“I grew up playing basketball for 18 years and a lot of the values that we have learnt a lot of the values that originally founded basketball are still in play today,” he added.

Hanna Meeks is from the University of Kansas, an institution renowned for its basketball programme and often credited with the sport’s origins.

She said “Dr James Naismith was a Scottish man, grew up in a Scottish family and town, but that is not widely known.

“If you look it up on the internet there is nothing to say about that. When I get back that is something I will help spread, especially at the university.”