FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

OLYMPIC SPORTS OF BASKETBALL, VOLLEYBALL, STARTED AS YMCA GAMES

Hoop contests at Athens are legacy of James Naismith and YMCA peach baskets. Volleyball was a YMCA sport "for sedate businessmen"

CHICAGO, August 14, 2004 - As the world's top athletes gather in Olympic competition at Athens, and world attention focuses on the Summer Games, few contests will create more universal excitement than those on the basketball court. Basketball has riveted Americans and millions upon millions around the globe, while lifting Michael Jordan and countless others to the celebrity stratosphere. And it all began at a YMCA with two peach baskets.

In 1891, at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass., Program Director Luther Gulick asked gym teacher James Naismith to invent an indoor sport to keep Y staff fit during the winter. Naismith hung two peach baskets from an elevated running track, posted 13 simple rules and - basketball was born.

The students loved the game and, over Christmas, took it to their hometowns where it gained quick popularity. The rest is hoop history. Thanks to Naismith, 400 million people around the globe play basketball today. Some 375,000 young Americans participate in YMCA youth leagues, utilizing 10,734 hoops at more than 1,500 Ys nationwide. That's a lot of peaches.

Other milestones in basketball's early history include:

Over time, such sports notables as Amos Alonzo Stagg, Harlem Globetrotter Curly Neal, NBA stars Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and Christian Laettner would claim that a YMCA nurtured their interest in basketball. Dr. Martin Luther King, Olympic track star Jesse Owens, baseball legend Jackie Robinson and former U.N. Ambassador Rev. Andrew Young, all honed athletic skills and built friendships on YMCA basketball courts.

While basketball was creating excitement in Springfield, Mass., another YMCA instructor, William Morgan, thought it "too strenuous for sedate businessmen." He blended elements of basketball, tennis and handball into a new game he called "Mintonette." The first game was played at Morgan's Holyoke, Mass. YMCA in winter 1895, by middle-aged businessmen. Morgan introduced the game using a borrowed tennis net raised to 6 feet, 6 inches - a head taller than the average man. The name "volley ball" was first used in 1896 and the net was raised to increase the game's difficulty. Between 1918 and 1919, more than a million American WWI soldiers participated in YMCA-organized volleyball games. Returning home, they brought the new game with them.

Today, more than 46 million Americans - and hundreds of millions of people internationally - play volleyball. Some 900 American YMCAs offer volleyball for children and adults.

"These are wonderful sports and YMCA legacies," said Ken Gladish, Ph.D., national executive director, YMCA of the USA. "They're fun, they teach values and teamwork, and provide an excellent form of exercise - all part of the YMCAs' goal of building healthy spirit, mind and body."

To learn or play basketball and volleyball, find your local YMCA at www.ymca.net.

Together, 2,575 YMCAs are the USA's largest not-for-profit community service organization. At the heart of community life, YMCAs serve 18.9 million people, including 9.3 million children through a broad range of programs. YMCAs are for people of all faiths, races, ages, incomes and abilities. Financial assistance available.

# # #

For more information or historic sports photos, contact:

Media Relations Manager
YMCA of the USA
312-419-8418