The wide reach of the YMCA helped transform the simple game into a sport played worldwide. Yet from these humble beginnings many technological improvements and patented inventions have followed to make basketball what it is today. One of the first refinements to the game was to cut the bottom out of the basket so that someone did not have to use a ladder to retrieve the ball from the basket. The goal was to throw a soccer ball into a fruit basket nailed to the lower railing of the gym balcony. The game consisted of peach baskets, a soccer ball and a set of rules.
Looking for a way to exercise students in the winter, James Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891 at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts (now Springfield College).
