Sports in Indiana Sports in Indiana The state of Indiana is home to a number of professional and college sports teams, as well as prominent auto racing. Indiana has a rich basketball heritage that reaches back to the formative years of the sport itself. Although James Naismith developed basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, Indiana is where high school basketball was born. In 1925, Naismith visited an Indiana basketball state finals game along with 15,000 screaming fans and later wrote "Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport." The 1986 film "Hoosiers" is inspired by the story
The Massachusetts Game Fair Grounds, to see the Unions defeat the Winthrops, 100-71. By 1860, 59 New England teams were reportedly playing the Massachusetts Game, while at least 18 had gone over to New York style. Two "longest game" records are held by Massachusetts rules contests. During the American Civil War, soldiers from Massachusetts often played their brand of baseball when competing among themselves, but sometimes switched to New York rules when playing men from that state. Kirsch tells of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment encamped in Falmouth in early 1863 when a “base ball fever broke out.” Later that year the "Clipper" reported