Speedball (American ball game) Speedball (American ball game) Speedball is a fast paced sport that combines many aspects of other sports. Points are scored by throwing or kicking the ball into the opposing goal. It is played with two teams of five or more, each with one goalie on a basketball court or soccer field. (variant dependent) The game was invented by Elmer D. Mitchell in the early 1920s at the University of Michigan. Elmer was a physical education professor, who sought to develop a game that was not restrictive to the rules of any one sport. He also created the sport to involve
James Naismith His mother, Margaret Young, was born in 1833 and immigrated to Lanark County, Canada in 1852 as the fourth of 11 children. His father, John Naismith, was born in 1833, left Europe when he was 18, and also settled down in Lanark County. On June 20, 1894, Naismith married Maude Evelyn Sherman (1870–1937) in Springfield, MA, USA. The couple had five children: Margaret Mason (Stanley) (1895–1976), Helen Carolyn (Dodd) (1897–1980), John Edwin (1900–1986), Maude Ann (Dawe) (1904–1972) and James Sherman (1913–1980). He was a member of the Pi Gamma Mu and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternities. Naismith was a Presbyterian minister,