i think it goes without saying that if you know me, you will know that I care little to nothing about sports. Do I think sports can be fun? Yes. Do I understand the value they bring to people and communities? Of course. But I don’t really get much joy out of watching games. The closest I’ve ever really enjoyed sports as a spectator has been at a couple hockey and basketball games. I suppose the World Cup football in Brazil was fun, but I think that was more about the atmosphere as opposed to simply watching the sport itself. I also do not have an athletic bone in my body (though, I have a feeling that as a young child, if I had really put my mind to being good at something, whether that something was volleyball or basketball, with some grit and coaching, I probably could have played decently). But I do appreciate learning the history of sports, and they do a pretty good job of detailing this specifically for basketball at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

I didn’t know that basketball was created by a Canadian American physical education teacher who was charged with the task of creating a sport that could be played indoors between (American) football and baseball season. I did not know it was created in 1891 in Springfield. I also had no idea that the first “basket” they used for the hoop was actually that of a peach basket. On the ground floor of the Hall of Fame, they have a big open court where you can freely shoot hoops, so we indulged in this while Pookster napped in her stroller. You had the option of shooting into a regular hoop, as well as two peach baskets. Getting the ball into the peach basket was especially interesting because of how the ball enters the basket and then proceeds to spiral slowly down. That would definitely slow down the high speed of basketball!