This was an enjoyable piece even though I’m no basketball fan,
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Today's selection -- from Wooden: A Coach's Life by Seth Davis. In the late 1800s, many religious scholars viewed athletics as a tool of the devil. But liberal Protestant ministers disagreed -- and launched a new movement called 'muscular Christianity.' In this spirit, it fell to young teacher at the International YMCA Training School named James Naismith to invent a new game called "basket ball," and it was the YMCA that spread this new game throughout the country:
"The organization that invented and proselytized 'basket ball', (as it was long known), the Young Men's Christian Association, or YMCA, advertised its mission as promoting a person's 'mind, body and spirit.' ... [James] Naismith grew up on a farm (in Ontario, Canada) where he learned the value of a hard day's work. He originally intended to become a minister, but upon graduating from the theological college at Montreal's McGill University, Naismith decided he could have just as much impact through athletics as he could through the ministry. In 1890, he began formally studying at the YMCA's training school in Springfield, Massachusetts.
"In those days, many religious scholars viewed athletics as a tool of the devil. A group of liberal Protestant ministers rebutted that way of thinking by launching a movement called 'muscular Christianity.' In the summer of 1891, the head of the Springfield YMCA's training school's physical education department, Dr. Luther Gulick, assigned Naismith the task of creating a new game that students could play indoors during the winter. Naismith used a phys ed class as his laboratory, but his first few attempts proved futile. Gymnastics was too boring, football and rugby were too rough, and there wasn't enough space in the gymnasium to play soccer or lacrosse.
"Sitting in his office, Naismith tinkered with adapting a game he used to play as a boy in Canada called 'Duck on a Rock,' where points were scored by lofting small rocks so they would land on a bigger rock. But he was still concerned things would get too rough. That's when he experienced his eureka moment: there should be a rule against running with the ball! If the players couldn't run, they wouldn't be tackled. And if they weren't tackled, they wouldn't get hurt.
 "Excited by his breakthrough, Naismith sketched out thirteen rules using just 474 words. The rules did not include dribbling, so the players were stationary, and therefore safe. He then asked the building's superintendent to fetch him a pair of eighteen-inch boxes to use as goals. The superintendent didn't have any boxes, but he offered a couple of peach baskets instead. Naismith decided these would have to do. "The class consisted of eighteen students, and the first game featured nine men on each side. It was an instant hit. In the months that followed, Naismith continued to develop and modify his invention in the hope that other YMCAs and athletic clubs would adopt it in coming winters. He had two means of spreading the word. The first was the YMCA's official publication, The Triangle, which was delivered to clubs across the country. The second was the army of clergymen who came to study under Naismith at the training school in Springfield."
Wooden: A Coach's Life
Author: Seth Davis
Publisher: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Date: Copyright 2014 by Seth Davis
Pages: 15-16
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not even watching the Gators’ magic in the NCAA. Sickly, I can only think of CFB, and if they start their 2014 season as they ended 2013 I not unlikely will find a new diversion and obsession, as I sometimes did with them in past losing seasons. At 78 I need to be well past the feeling that if UF football isn’t tops, life is over. I’m not there yet. When they start losing, I turn off the TV because after four years on campus, I cannot stand it when the Gators lose. My favorite trick later in life at several churches where I have been rector or vicar, was on Thanksgiving weekend to post a winning football score on the hymnboard. Give it up, Bubba.
This isn’t morose, just a wandering mind.
What really concerns me in my automobile safety obsession is GM in the headlines. I have “always” known that spending an extra 47 cents or whatever for a better auto component is a struggle for a car manufacturer. If you expect to manufacture a million cars, to spend an extra 47 cents each increases production cost by $470,000, which, unless you increase price to cover it, is reduced profit. GM management are, at least theoretically, answerable to shareholders, who are invested for financial gain. That’s the way the free enterprise system works. So, I “get it.” But for years I have trusted GM to offer me safest cars for those I love. Their skimping on safety is unforgivable and inexcusable and unpardonable. I still think they do a good job for me, and we have two GM cars now and will stick with GM unless I find out that their management are even sleazier than Ford, Chrysler. I’m not much into cars with foreign names, regardless of where they are assembled. We've had Honda and VW cars. Our green VW beetle developed the worst sunroof leak imaginable, cost us over $500 to stop it including fix interior damage, not going there again. One I would have considered, never owned Toyota, but their ongoing safety fight against responsibility for owner deaths, lost them for me. Who else? The MB we had for Tass when she was in college was fine, but I was making car payments on it, and the monthly service costs were often more than the car payment, so maybe but not likely. Volvo has the best, highest longstanding reputation and IIHS and NHTSA ratings for safety. Which models? Sedan, S60. SUV XC60. My son has the S60, which he bought without even consulting me whom he calls “Mr. Safety,” and one daughter has a Volvo XC60.
Which brings to mind a ditty. "My gal's a corker, she’s a New Yorker, I buy her everything to keep her in style. She drives a Buick Six, I ride a mule that kicks, yes, boys, that’s where my money goes.”
Pope Francis abandoned his limousine for a cheap little used car and his bishops and priests are falling in line. Not always so, from the nineteen-fifties, I remember Bishop Toolen, bishop then archbishop of Mobile from 1927 to 1969, arriving for his episcopal visits in a chauffered long, black Cadillac limousine.
Our bishop, Frank Juhan drove a 1950 Buick Super sedan, this model but black:
My current car, a fifteen year old Buick Century sedan,
bought last summer in resignation after trying the "one car" trick for a while, but a veritable creampuff, probably could get me admitted to Roman Catholic priesthood should I decide to -- uniate. That’s u-n-i-a-t-e, there's no "r" sound.
TW
