Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball.

James Naismith with ball

Long before bright orange basketballs made their way onto NBA courts, the earliest basketball games were played using soccer balls. Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, a physical education teacher at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, who sought to create a new indoor activity that could be played by students during the winter months. Naismith asked the school’s janitor to fetch him two 18-square-inch boxes for “goals,” but the janitor returned with two peach baskets instead. Naismith nailed those baskets to the railing of the gymnasium balcony, which happened to be 10 feet off the ground (this is why official NBA hoops measure 10 feet high today). After Naismith procured a soccer ball, as basketballs of course didn’t exist yet, the new game was ready to be played.

The original version of basketball followed a list of 13 rules regarding fouls and ball movement. Players were required to remain stationary when in possession of the ball, as continuous dribbling wasn’t instituted until 1909. The game featured nine players per side and was divided into 15-minute halves. Naismith also enlisted the help of two men to retrieve the ball from the baskets at each end, as holes weren’t cut into the bottom of the baskets until years later. The game proved extremely popular, and the first official basketball was developed by the sports equipment company Spalding in 1894. The new sport led to the creation of the National Basketball League in 1937 and the Basketball Association of America in 1946, which merged to form the National Basketball Association in 1949.

By the Numbers

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Pedestrianism was a competitive sport in the 19th century.

Pedestrianism — a form of competitive walking — gained widespread popularity throughout the United States in the wake of the Civil War. As more people moved into cities, residents turned to the sport of pedestrianism to fill an activity void. The sport was simple but entertaining: Participants competed in six-day walking competitions in large-scale arenas, hoofing it several hundred miles over the course of the contest. The events often featured intense wagering, live bands, and food vendors. Many professional pedestrians also employed their own unique strides: Edward Payson Weston was renowned for his signature wobble, and Daniel O’Leary pumped his arms furiously while clutching corn cobs in each hand to absorb his sweat. Pedestrianism grew into such a spectacle that on September 21, 1879, 13 professional walkers gathered at the original Madison Square Garden in New York City to compete in front of 10,000 fans. Alas, public interest in pedestrianism began to wane by the 1890s as other organized sports such as baseball and football rose to prominence.