“The Young Ladies’ Basket Ball Club gave its first public exhibition last evening at the Armory before an audience of more than 200 people,” readers of the Kankakee Weekly Gazette learned on March 17, 1898.
“For nearly two hours,” the Gazette’s story continued, “the active young ladies, attired in blue sweaters, short skirts and bloomers, ran, glided, pushed, jumped, slipped, tumbled, rolled, pulled, hauled, and threw in a heroic but good-natured battle between the representatives of the Crimson and Orange to place the inflated leather sphere into their respective goals.”
The game of basketball (originally termed “basket ball”) had been invented only seven years earlier in Springfield, Massachusetts, by James Naismith, a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School (now Springfield College).
The inaugural game was played Dec. 21, 1891, by two nine-man teams, using a soccer ball and goals made from wooden peach baskets. A short history of the game, on the Springfield College website, noted, “… the gym class met and the teams were chosen with three centers, three forwards, and three guards per side. Two of the centers met at mid-court. Naismith tossed [up] the ball, and the game of ‘basket ball’ was born.”
Interest in the new sport grew rapidly, especially among members of Young Men’s Christian Associations (YMCAs) in towns across the country. The first mention of “basket ball” at Kankakee’s YMCA was in the Gazette issue of Feb. 10, 1898.
“Secretary Bailey has been figuring for some time upon the introduction of basket ball among the association sports. … A meeting will be held tomorrow evening…for the organization of several basket ball teams of five members each …. As soon as the game has been sufficiently developed a series of games will be arranged between the various teams.”
The “various teams” of young men were ready for their debut on Feb. 23, when over 200 spectators “witnessed the first exhibition of basket ball” at the National Guard armory on Court Street. “The game was new to most of the spectators, but Secretary Bailey, representing the YMCA … made a brief explanation of the points which prepared the spectators to understand the sport.”
The next newspaper story regarding “basket ball” described interest in the sport by a different group — the community’s young women.
“The basket ball fever is spreading among the young ladies of this city,” noted the Gazette. “The fair damsels who adorn the side lines at every football match and regret that the game is of such a character as to prevent their participating, recognize in basket ball a game that will give them fully as much exercise, train them to be healthy, strong and active and yet eliminating the objectionable features of roughness and liability to injury, though affording fully as much opportunity for graceful falls and subtle control of the body.”
<strong>PREPARING FOR EXHIBITION</strong>
For several weeks prior to their first exhibition game on March 16, “the eighteen athletic young ladies who comprise the basketball club” had been conducting vigorous practice sessions on the third floor of the Granger Building, located downtown in the 100 block of South Schuyler Avenue.
Unfortunately, the strenuous practice sessions caused the plaster ceiling of the room below to crack and fall. The Gazette issue of March 3 described what happened: “The vigor with which they have been pounding the floor has been too much for the stability of the plastering, and it has succumbed to the repeated and robust thumps of so many pairs of feet.”
After reporting that the club had been asked to find other quarters for its practices, the newspaper went on to observe, “The girls are making rapid progress toward proficiency in their game, and will soon give a public exhibition in order to brace up their treasury.”
The story concluded with a fashion note: “Costumes have been selected. They will consist of blue turtleneck sweaters with the new style sailor collar, blue denim skirts abbreviated to clear the floor by twelve inches, and hose which, we have been confidentially informed, represent the opposing colors of the two teams, crimson and orange.”
The club’s desire to “brace up their treasury” by attracting a large number of spectators to its first game was fulfilled: more than 200 people paid 25 cents apiece to enter the Armory. Those attending were rewarded with a close-fought two-hour contest that ended with the Crimson team winning by a score of 4-2.
The first point of the contest was scored for the Crimson on a free throw by Helen Alpiner; a second point was added on a free throw by her teammate Nannette Linden. The score was tied at 2-2 on Orange Captain Byrd LaParle’s field goal.
“Early in the next half,” the Gazette noted, “Miss Nannette Linden added to her record by a pretty basket from the field …. The Crimson [players] walked off the field to receive congratulations from admiring friends for having won the victory by a score of 4 to 2.”
The earliest “basket ball” games played in Kankakee by both boys’ and girls’ teams were held at the National Guard Armory on Court Street, across from the Kankakee County Courthouse. That armory was replaced by a larger and more modern facility in 1923. Where was that new armory?
<strong>Answer:</strong> On the east side of the 100 block of North Indiana Avenue. In 2014, the armory building on Indiana Avenue was purchased by the Kankakee Valley Park District, and repurposed as a community recreation center.