First Basketball Champions of the World

First Basketball Champions of the World

A hand colored lantern slide of the Secretarial team of the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College, and the school champions in 1892. The team in is often referred to as the "First Basketball Team". The team does contain 9 of the original 18 men who played the first game of "basket ball" in the secretarial class at the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College, in 1891, though it is not known whether they played together in that first game. The picture appears to have been originally published in the May, 1892 issue of the journal created by Dr. Gulick and the Physical Department of the school called Physical Education. In the caption it says that, "This is the first team to play the game, and they hold the championship of the school. They have never lost a game." Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the game of basketball, is in a suit in the middle of the photo. Pictured are: Front Row (L to R): Finlay G. McDonald, William H. Davis, Lyman Archibald; Second Row: John G. Thompson, Frank Mahan (Captain), Dr. James Naismith, T. Duncan Patton; Back Row: Eugene S. Libby, Edwin P. Ruggles, William R. Chase.

1892

LS-01-18