Basketball is the only major modern sport that was "invented" by an individual. It did not evolve from another sport, such as football and soccer did, but rather was created in almost the identical form that it is played in today by a man named James Naismith (1861-1939).

James Naismith (who had no middle name but later adopted the initial "A") was born on November 6, 1861, in Almonte, Ontario, Canada. His parents, John and Margaret (Young) Naismith, were Scottish immigrants who died in a typhoid epidemic when Naismith was nine years old, leaving him an orphan. He was raised by his strict, religious grandmother and later by a bachelor uncle. Naismith enjoyed hunting, the outdoors, and sports. He dropped out of high school to work as a logger in lumber camp for five years, then returned to finish his secondary education and entered McGill University in Montreal in 1883. He...