From the Triangle to the Cage: Basketball's Contested Origins, 1891-1910

As the United States increasingly urbanized in the late nineteenth century, white middle-class Americans faced crises of gender, racial, and class status. Fears of young men and women absorbing improper values and behavior from urban life abounded. Countering this dirty and rough landscape, middle-class reformers developed increasingly sophisticated physical education programs that promoted "clean sport" as a way to inoculate themselves from urban ills. Creating the sport of basketball in 1891 was a calculated attempt by these reformers at rescuing society through clean sport. Nonetheless, by 1910, it was apparent that basketball was not the panacea for promoting middle-class conceptions of clean sport and proper living. As basketball spread across the country, rough play, riots, and professionalism undermined the "respectable" intentions middle-class reformers had invested in the game.