The game of basketball might be called boxball today if its inventor’s intentions had been realized. Canadian James Naismith (1861-1939) invented the game while working as a physical education instructor at the International YMCA Training School (later Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, in late 1891. Though Naismith gave the game no name, simply referring to it as “the game,” his plan called for hanging an overhead wooden box at each end of the school’s gym. Since the school’s supply room had no boxes, Naismith agreed to use two half-bushel peach baskets instead. This suggested the name basket ball to Naismith and he used it a month later, in January 1892, in an article for the school magazine describing the game. Soon basket ball was contracted to basketball (even though the game was first played with a soccer ball). Incidentally, Naismith’s peach baskets were not cut open at the end and his players had to climb up on a ladder to retrieve each ball sunk in the basket.