Scottish Canadians Can Jump !

by Sasha Uzunov

The father of Basketball, Dr James Naismith, a Canadian of Scottish parentage and a British Subject, only became a citizen of the United States of America very late in life and well over 30 years after he invented the game for which he is famous.

Unearthed US government documents reveal that Dr Naismith was legally British (including Canadian and Scottish) when he invented the game of Basketball in 1891 in the United States, after moving from Canada, then a British Dominion (self-governing colony), a year before to the US to take up a teaching position. 

He was born in 1861 in Almonte, Ontario Province in then British Canada (now Canada) and died in the US in 1939.

Dr Naismith became a US Citizen in 1925 after living in the US for 35 years. A highly intelligent man, knowledgeable on many subjects, Dr Naismith is said to have mastered the Greek language.

He attributed his Scottish upbringing and Scottish sports culture as motivation for inventing the game of Basketball, now a massive world sport and huge ‘sports industry’ in the US.

“All the stubbornness of my Scottish ancestry was aroused, all my pride of achievement urged me on,” Dr Naismith wrote.

In a 1919 US immigration document, a ship’s manifest Dr Naismith registered as being of Canadian nationality but English in terms of race/people.

It is claimed that Dr Naismith taught himself to speak the Greek language.