James A. Naismith wrote this letter to George O. Draper, Springfield College’s alumni secretary, in April 1935. He shares his plans to travel from Kansas to Massachusetts in order to attend commencement and notes that he'll have to move slowly to accommodate his first wife, Maude Evelyn (Sherman) Naismith. Since Draper agreed to help Naismith find YMCAs to lecture at along the way, Naismith requests that Draper look in Pittsburg and Lancaster on the way there and Albany or Canada on the way back.
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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.
