James Naismith after Naismith drafted the sport's first official rules. Naismith was not initially hired to coach basketball, but rather as a chapel director and physical education instructor. In those early days, the majority of the basketball games were played against nearby YMCA teams, with YMCAs across the nation having played an integral part in the birth of basketball. Other common opponents were Haskell Indian Nations University and William Jewell College. Under Naismith, the team played only one current Big 12 school: Kansas State (once). Naismith was, ironically, the only coach in the program's history to have a losing record (55–60). However,
James Naismith (chemist) James Naismith (chemist) James Henderson Naismith (born 26 July 1968) is Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Oxford, Director of the Research Complex at Harwell and co-interim academic lead of the Rosalind Franklin Institute. He was formerly Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of St Andrews until May 2017. Naismith was educated at Hamilton Grammar School. He went on to study at the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded a first class Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 1989. He won a Carnegie Scholarship to work under the supervision of Bill Hunter, John