Beware of the Phog

Wow, that was SUPERB!

Thanks for posting it. Brought back a LOT of good memories and pride for me!

Just FYI if you didn’t already know — the banner video MP posted was made by Josh Swade, the guy whose successful quest led to David Booth buying The Rules and donating them to KU.

By the way...

In the "Past, Present and Future" video, the narrator states that Kansas is known as “the birthplace of college basketball.”

We, of course, know that this is not true.

It *is* known as "the cradle of college basketball" because James Naismith, who invented the game for the Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA in 1891, was KU's first coach, and because the game arguably “grew up” in Lawrence thanks to Naismith and Forrest C. (Phog) Allen. Naismith was, of course, the taproot of a coaching tree that started with Phog Allen and John McLendon, Jr (and if it ended there, it would still be one of the best in history) and branches out with Phog coaching Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, Ralph Miller, Dutch Lonborg, Frosty Cox (huh?) and John Bunn (who dat?) (look 'em up), and then more branches with Smith mentoring Larry Brown and Roy Williams (among others), and then Brown mentoring Gregg Popovich and our own Bill Self (and that horrible guy we don't talk about unless we have to) – and many, many more that I'm leaving out. So "cradle" yes, but not the "birthplace" of college hoops.

So where is the birthplace of college basketball?

There are two schools that seem to have legitimate claims to the “birthplace” honor. There are also a third and fourth that have apparently undisputed claim to playing the first intercollegiate basketball game, which would arguably give them right to claim the honor.

Geneva College (Beaver Falls, PA) was noted by Naismith himself as having played basketball intramurally in 1892. The University of Iowa also played basketball that year, but apparently there are no existing records documenting any in-house games there, nor are there any records of inter mural games played by either team in 1892. Because of his personal knowledge, Naismith believed that Geneva College, with its intramural program, had the best claim to being the birthplace of college basketball, and Geneva claims that title to this day.
Geneva.edu - Greg Macafee, March 17, 2018: GENEVA COLLEGE CELEBRATES BEING BIRTHPLACE OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL

But the first record of Geneva College actually playing basketball outside of intramural athletics is on April 8, 1893. Geneva hosted the New Brighton YMCA and won 3-0.

Enter Vanderbilt. Vandy won an inter mural game 9-6 against the host team Nashville YMCA on February 7, 1893, two months before the Geneva win over New Brighton. So today they also claim the title of “birthplace of college basketball”, even though they did not host the first game against an outside opponent.

And note that neither school was a participant in the first intercollegiate basketball game.

That distinction belongs to Hamline University (Minnesota's first university, today Div III and still located in St. Paul) and Minnesota A&M (also in St. Paul, but today part of the University of Minnesota). Their 9 men per team squads played on Feb 9, 1895, with Minnesota A&M winning 9-3 at Hamline. I note that I have yet to come across any Hamline or Minnesota claim to being the birthplace of college basketball. And apparently there no other programs claiming to have played in the first intercollegiate game, so both -- but Hamline especially, as the host -- could arguably claim the honor of birthplace of “intercollegiate” basketball.

Finally, one last tweak – the first intercollegiate game played with the modern 5 man lineup had The University of Chicago Maroons traveling to and defeating The University of Iowa Hawkeyes 15-12 on January 8, 1896.

And so – to steal from Paul Harvey – now you know the rest of the story.

DANIEL WILCO | NCAA.COM | JANUARY 11, 2019: What we know about the first college basketball game ever played