{"id":756,"date":"2014-03-27T19:57:43","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T19:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/?p=756"},"modified":"2016-11-07T14:05:10","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T20:05:10","slug":"how-sweet-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/how-sweet-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sweet It Is: Basketball Engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Engineering and basketball go together as we begin the Sweet 16 games in the NCAA tournament, but just how has engineering\u00a0affected the game?<\/p>\n

History<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1891, at Springfield College, Massachusetts, Dr. James Naismith, a thirty-year old physical education instructor, was encouraged to create an indoor, winter “athletic distraction.” Using two vegetable baskets, a soccer ball,\u00a0nine men per team, and a ladder to retrieve the ball from the basket, the game of basketball came into existence. He never entertained the notion of patenting his new game because it was\u00a0for recreational\u00a0fun. “Basketball is just a game to play. It doesn\u2019t need a coach\u2026 you don\u2019t coach basketball, you just play it.” Despite his comment, in 1900 he became the basketball coach for the Jayhawks at the University of Kansas.<\/p>\n

Between 1892 and 1894, formal rules were devised, an inflated leather, albeit occasionally lopsided, ball was invented,\u00a0backboards were designed so fans could not reach over and deflect the shots, and iron hoops and\u00a0hammock-style enclosed\u00a0baskets were introduced to the game. It\u00a0was another decade before open-ended nets were used. On January 18, 1896, the first “experimental” college basketball game was played between the University of Iowa and the\u00a0University of Chicago. The final score: Chicago 15,\u00a0Iowa 12.<\/p>\n

The Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1930s a flurry of patents were filed suggesting that the game was becoming a viably commercial sport. However, the ball is considered\u00a0the most important piece of equipment. The\u00a0original\u00a0basketball was patented in\u00a01929 (see U.S. Patent 1,718,305<\/a>).\u00a0It was made of\u00a0leather on the outside and\u00a0butyl rubber on the inside.\u00a0Zinc and cooper plates imprinted the label onto the ball. Today, the Wilson Sports Good Company is maker of the official NCA basketball, the Solution.\u00a0The company’s\u00a0patented composite-leather technology absorbs moisture and the pebbled-triangle design creates\u00a0for better ball handling\u00a0(see U.S. Patent 4,570,931<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The game of basketball continues to evolve with technology enhancements\u00a0such as breakaway rims, vision replay, and performance shoes. If only Dr. Naismith could have foreseen the future of\u00a0his fun\u00a0“athletic distraction.”<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Physics of Basketball<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(Engineering Library QC26 .F66 2006)<\/p>\n

Two Guys From Barnum, Iowa and How They Helped Save Basketball: A History of U.S. Patent 4,534,556<\/em> by Francis B. Francois\u00a0(2008)<\/p>\n

Basketball STEM Project<\/a><\/p>\n

America’s Story from America’s Library<\/a><\/p>\n

The Coach’s Clipboard<\/a><\/p>\n

Top 5: Early Basketball Patents<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineering and basketball go together as we begin the Sweet 16 games in the NCAA tournament, but just how has engineering\u00a0affected the game? History In 1891, at Springfield College, Massachusetts, Dr. James Naismith, a thirty-year old physical education instructor, was encouraged to create an indoor, winter “athletic distraction.” Using two vegetable baskets, a soccer ball,\u00a0nineContinue reading “How Sweet It Is: Basketball Engineering”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5024,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions\/5024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}