Before LeBron James, before Kobe Bryant and before Michael Jordan, there was James Naismith.
No, Naismith isn't a high-flying NBA star. He invented the game itself way back in 1891. And now he's back to tell the tale.
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A recently unearthed audio recording from a 1939 radio program features Naismith describing the first basketball game ever played. He set up two peach baskets as hoops in a YMCA gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts -- but quickly learned he'd need to make some tweaks for the good of the sport.
Here's the entire clip, which runs less than three minutes and is the only known recording of Naismith speaking.
This is SO AMAZING. Basketball inventor James Naismith describing the first game ever. Only known recording of him: https://t.co/7EaBlEqygC— Sam Laird (@samcmlaird) December 15, 2015
Chief among Naismith's adjustments, as you'll hear: Making the sport less rough after the first game devolved into a free-for-all that left several players injured. Indeed, the first basketball game ever played sounds like it may have looked quite a bit like rugby .
The rare recording was found by University of Kansas associate professor Michael J. Zogry, according to the school, in a trove of archives originally from the radio station WOR-AM. It's from a show called "We The People" that aired on January 31, 1939 -- just 10 months before Naismith died in November of that same year.
After inventing basketball, Naismith went on to coach at Kansas. He's now the namesake for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.