James Naismith

James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical instructor, doctor, Christian chaplain, sports mentor, and innovator. He imagined the diversion of basketball at age 30 out of 1891. He composed the original basketball rule book and established the University of Kansas basketball program. Naismith lived to see basketball received as an Olympic showing sport in 1904 and as an official occasion at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, just as the introduction of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament(1939).