Newspaper article published by the Springfield Union and titled "First hand information: Captain of World's First Basketball Team Returns to Springfield College" published sometime in 1942. The article interviews the captain of the first basketball team, Thomas Duncan Patton (Class of 1892), on his expected attendance at the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the first basketball game. There is a photo that shows Patton alongside Springfield College Coach and Faculty member, Edward J. Hickox.
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James A. Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939), known as "The Father of Basketball" was born in Almonte, Ontario. When he was nine, both of his parents died of typhoid fever and he was raised by his uncle, who later financed Naismith's way through college. He earned his theological degree from McGill University and graduated from Springfield College, then the YMCA Training School, in 1891. After graduation, he was hired as a faculty member, where he taught for five years. It is in his first year as a faculty member at Springfield College that he created the game of Basketball as an activity for an unruly class. In 1895, Naismith enrolled at the Gross Medical School in Denver and received his M.D. in 1898. In that same year, Naismith took the position of department head of physical education at the University of Kansas, where he remained until his death.
