Springfield College (Massachusetts) head of the Physical Education department Luther Gulick Jr. in 1891. Gulick is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, which is named for Naismith. Alumnus William G. Morgan invented the game of volleyball. On January 14, 2017, the Springfield Wrestling team achieved their 1,000th victory. Springfield College joined Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and Oregon State as the only schools to have achieved this milestone. Stagg Field serves as the College's main athletic field; it was named after former coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg who briefly coached Springfield and went on to play a pivotal role in the development of
James Naismith could help its track athletes to keep in shape and explicitly emphasized to "make it fair for all players and not too rough." In his attempt to think up a new game, Naismith was guided by three main thoughts. Firstly, he analyzed the most popular games of those times (rugby, lacrosse, soccer, football, hockey, and baseball); Naismith noticed the hazards of a ball and concluded that the big soft soccer ball was safest. Secondly, he saw that most physical contact occurred while running with the ball, dribbling or hitting it, so he decided that passing was the only legal option.