Listen to rare radio recording of James Naismith, discovered by KU professor

A University of Kansas professor in the Indigenous Studies department has discovered a piece of basketball history: A radio recording of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball and the first coach of the sport at KU.

Michael J. Zogry, an associate professor of religious studies, uncovered the recording while researching a book on the role of religion in Naismith’s life.

The radio excerpt comes from a Jan. 31, 1939, broadcast of the radio program “We the People,” hosted in New York by Gabriel Heatter. In a clip that lasts under three minutes, Naismith discusses the first basketball game, which took place at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts in December 1891.

According to KU, Zogry discovered the clip — which is believed to be the only known recording of Naismith — in the audio and manuscript archives of radio station WOR-AM, which were donated to the Library of Congress by RKO General, Inc.

Listen to the clip here: http://exhibits.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/show/naismith150/collections/radio-interview.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Listen to rare radio recording of James Naismith, discovered by KU professor."