---
title: 'College Basketball and Presbyterians'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2018-11-02
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2018-college-basketball-and-presbyterians
---

# College Basketball and Presbyterians

In a week where the World Series has wound down and the college basketball season gears up in America, it is worth recalling that once upon a time there were strong connections between the sport of basketball and Presbyterians.

The [Rev. Dr. James Naismith](/authors/james-naismith) - the man who invented basketball (and who is credited by some with inventing the football helmet) - was a medical doctor, Presbyterian minister, ruling elder and chaplain. It was in 1891, while at serving at Springfield (Mass.) YMCA as a physical education instructor, that he originated the game that has become so popular around the world.

A Canadian-American, he received his degree in theology from Montreal’s Presbyterian College. He would later serve [“as chaplain in the Army National Guard and as a volunteer chaplain in France during World War I.”](https://dod.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/604354/army-chaplain-credited-with-inventing-basketball/) He also served [as a ruling elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Lawrence, Kansas, where he would preach - and he preached at other churches as well.](https://www.history.pcusa.org/about/blog/naismith%E2%80%99s-great-game) Not unlike Eric Liddell, James Naismith was a believer in the concept of [“muscular Christianity”: strong mind, strong body, strong spirit](https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/james-naismith-put-his-faith-into-action-and-created-basketball/). Naismith wrote the original rule book for the game he invented, which you can read at [here](/authors/james-naismith), along with his posthumously-published *Basketball: Its Origin and Development*.

It is in the latter volume that he identifies the place where basketball was first played at the college level: [Geneva College of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA)](https://athletics.geneva.edu/sports/2018/1/24/birthplace-of-college-basketball.aspx).

“Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and the University of Iowa both played basketball in the season of 1892. Which of these two colleges may claim the first game, I do not know. Mr. C.O. Beamis \[sic\], a Springfield boy, had gone to Geneva College as a physical director. Beamis had seen the game played in the Training School gymnasium while he was home on a vacation. He realized that it might solve the need of a winter activity in his school. I told him of the success we had and explained to him the fundamentals of the game. On his return to Beaver Falls he started the game in Geneva College; it is my belief, therefore, that this college was the first to play basketball” ([Naismith, *Basketball: Its Origin and Development*](/authors/james-naismith), p. 118). \[Charles O. Bemies was the first athletic director at Geneva College.\]

David Carson adds with more precision: “The first college basketball game in the United States was played at Geneva on April 8, 1893, when Geneva defeated the New Brighton YMCA” ([Carson, *Pro Christi et Patria: A History of Geneva College*](/tags/secondary-source), p. 33).

Basketball today is quite different from its 19th century beginnings in many ways. But the Presbyterian heritage of this sport is not to be forgotten.