The Ontario telephone operator pauses, unable at first glance to find the listing for the Naismith Foundation in Almonte.
"Let's check under basketball," says this woman from a nation that adores hockey, but one who knows the legacy of Dr. James A. Naismith nonetheless. "It should be listed there."
The anecdote is telling if only because not everyone in the United States knows that the inventor of basketball-a sport that symbolized the future in the latter stages of the 20th century-was born in Canada. Or that his life involved not just basketball but the ministry, medicine, education and much more.
Abner Doubleday, who didn't invent baseball, is probably a more widely recognized name than Naismith, who did invent basketball. And even those who know about him continue to learn more about the man who invented a sport designed for offseason physical exercise, which began with his own 13 basic rules, but which has grown to become a game not for a specific culture or nation or ethnic group, but for an entire planet to share and enjoy.
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