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Sports & Games
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More Brawling Than Balling: The Wild Story of the First Basketball Game's 1-0 Final Score
Forget the NBA's high-flying dunks. The first basketball game, played in 1891, was a chaotic, 9-on-9 affair that ended in a shocking 1-0 victory. The only point came from a 25-foot shot in a game filled with tackling, punching, and peach baskets for hoops. It was pure mayhem.
When you think of a basketball game, you probably imagine fast breaks, three-point barrages, and scores soaring into the triple digits. So, what if I told you the very first game ever played ended with a final score of 1-0? It sounds like a typo, but it’s the bizarre and fascinating truth behind the birth of one of the world's most popular sports.
A Game Born of Necessity
The year was 1891. Dr. James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, was given a challenge: create an indoor game to keep his rowdy class of students occupied during the harsh New England winter. He needed something less rough than football but more engaging than calisthenics. After brainstorming, he wrote down 13 basic rules, grabbed two peach baskets, a soccer ball, and divided his class of 18 men into two teams of nine.
The Rules of Engagement (And Why Scoring Was So Hard)
This wasn't the game we know today. The core concept was there, but the execution was entirely different. Naismith's original rules strictly forbade running with the ball. A player had to throw it from the spot where they caught it. Dribbling didn't exist yet. The goals themselves were literal peach baskets, meaning after every successful shot, someone had to climb a ladder to retrieve the ball. With nine players per side crowding the court and no way to advance the ball besides passing, scoring was a monumental challenge.
The Historic Shot and the 'Free-for-All'
Despite Naismith's intention to create a less violent game, the inaugural match on December 21, 1891, devolved into chaos. The players, accustomed to more aggressive sports, brought that energy to the court. Naismith himself later described the scene:
The boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clinches. They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor.
Amid the mayhem, one player, William R. Chase, etched his name into history. From about 25 feet away, he heaved the soccer ball towards the basket, and it went in. It was the first and only point scored in the entire game. The final whistle blew, cementing the unbelievable 1-0 final score. The game was so physical that several players were injured, and one was even knocked unconscious.
From 1-0 to the Global Stage
That chaotic, low-scoring affair was the humble seed from which modern basketball grew. Over time, the rules evolved. The peach baskets had their bottoms cut out, the dribble was introduced, and the number of players was reduced to the five-on-five format we see today. But it all started in a small Massachusetts gym with a single, history-making shot that proved to be just enough for a win. The next time you watch a team score 130 points, remember the first game, where just one was enough to make history.