Despite its humble beginnings in a YMCA gymnasium, Basket Ball expands more rapidly than any American sport in history. Popularity grew especially quickly with women and co-ed organizations as basketball became known as a no-contact sport. Over the span of twenty years, peach baskets are swapped with nets and backboards, the art of the dribble is near-perfected, and Dr. James Naismith becomes a household name as basketball ultimately evolves into a men's intercollegiate sport. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.