Impression of Basketball
Although the Rev. Ernest G. Hildner would go many years without watching or thinking about the sport's creation that he had been apart of, he did notice its potential initially.
One aspect of the sport Hildner discovered early on was its inclusion to all.
After the first class when "Jimmie (Dr. Naismith) got us together for that first game," Rev. Hildner believed his instructor intended basketball to be used to keep adult men active during their lunch breaks and after work more so than children.
Hildner was also skeptical that it could be played as cleanly as his instructor had intended.
"There were practically no rules at first. You didn't have to bounce the ball or anything like that. Just get in into the basket. That made it a pretty rough sport, of course, but nobody worried about that," he said.
As the game began to grow, Hildner also noticed the vigor with which the female teachers and wives of the students played. These games were often played as physically as the men's contests.
While Hildner knew the sport had to evolve from the roughness that it began with, he noticed in his later years that the other extreme was beginning to occur.
Living across the street from campus with his son, Hildner attended nearly every Illinois College home basketball game. He noticed that over-officiating can as harmful as none at all.
As he described it, "Every time they get something going, somebody toots a whistle because some silly rule has been broken. Why don't they just let them play?"
Indeed, for someone who played the sport when it had only 13 rules, the 66 pages of rules the National Basketball Association uses now may seem a bit overbearing.