Basketball was invented in the winter of 1891 by James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith created the game as an indoor activity to keep athletes in shape during the winter months, using two peach baskets as goals nailed to the lower balcony rail of the gymnasium at a height of ten feet
. The first game was played on December 21, 1891, in that same gymnasium
