James Naismith James Naismith James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, chaplain, sports coach and innovator. He invented the game of basketball at age 30 in 1891. He wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program. Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939). Born in Canada, Naismith studied physical education at McGill University in
Steven Naismith by McCann. Naismith scored Rangers first goal against Hearts in October 2011, and Rangers went on to win the game 2–0. During the 2011–12 season, Naismith began a goalscoring celebration where he crosses his arms in front of his body. This was later revealed by a family friend to mean that he is sending a kiss to his girlfriend when doing so. On 29 October, Naismith injured himself after attempting to tackle Aberdeen's Rob Milsom. A scan later confirmed that he had damaged his cruciate ligament and would be out of action for around nine months, ending his season. In