The PSAL and Basketball Go Way Back

The Public Schools Athletic League ("PSAL") was formed on December 4, 1903, 116 years ago today. Although the league's first hoop games were played at Madison Square Garden on December 26, 1903, the PSAL's link to basketball can be traced all the way back to the invention of the sport.

In 1891, Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, Dean of the YMCA Physical Education Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, taught a class whose pupils included James Naismith, a former lacrosse and rugby player from McGill University in Canada. Gulick challenged this class to come up with a new indoor activity to keep athletes engaged during the winter months between football and baseball seasons. Although the class did not come up with one, Gulick persisted. Weeks later he asked Naismith to take over a physical education class that was stagnating in the doldrums of indoor gymnastics, encouraging him to use the new teaching assignment to continue the project. 

After Naismith reflected on the principles of existing sports such as football and lacrosse, as well as a game he played as a child called duck on a rock, he had his revelation. When Naismith next entered the gym, he picked up a soccer ball and searched for two boxes. The building superintendant offered two peach baskets instead, and Naismith posted the rules for his next gym class. Basketball was born.

The Springfield YMCA published the initial rules in January 1892 and, before long, "basket ball" hit New York City. In April 1892 George W. Ehler, head of the Central Branch of the Brooklyn YMCA at 502 Fulton Street, wrote to Naismith to report he had introduced the sport and that the players "were more enthusiastic about the game than one could imagine." Ehler's initiation of the sport in Brooklyn was reported by The Daily Standard Union on April 29, 1892:

A week later, The Sun reported on the new sport's arrival in Gotham. This piece, entitled Funny Things In The "Gym", described three new activities recently introduced in local YMCAs, with a sketch illustration of each. In what hindsight would render an epic understatement, The Sun billed basket ball as "perhaps the most exciting of the three."

As popularity of the sport spread, Springfield became flooded with questions about the rules and Gulick suggested they be clarified and expanded. Naismith left Springfield in 1895 to head the YMCA in Denver and Gulick took over editing the rules, enlisting the assistance of a committee. Administration of the rules was eventually delegated to the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), and Gulick became Chairman of the AAU's Basketball Committee.

Basketball aside, Gulick was ahead of his time in the field of exercise science. Having earned his medical degree at NYU before the magic in Springfield, he was a strong proponent of the health benefits of exercise. His energetic work with the YMCA caught the attention of Frederic B. Pratt, who was a member of the YMCA's International Committee. Pratt, the son of petroleum industrialist Charles Pratt, offered Gulick the position of Principal at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, which Gulick accepted, moving to New York in the fall of 1900. Shortly after his appointment, Gulick wrote "[t]he first requirement of the secondary school curriculum is that it shall put the individual into a condition of health and bodily development."

In 1903 Gulick left Pratt Institute to accept appointment as Director of Physical Training for the Public Schools of Greater New York. Upon taking this post, Gulick expressed concern over the lack of physical activity for students, declaring "the deadly school desk is the primary evil to combat."   

Through his service on the International Committee of the YMCA years earlier, Gulick made significant contributions to the creation of an Athletic League for the YMCA. With input from James E. Sullivan, Secretary of the AAU, Gulick pitched the idea of forming a scholastic sports league for New York City's public schools to the Superintendent of Schools, William H. Maxwell. Plans for the new league were reported in The New York Times on November 29, 1903. George W. Wingate, President of the Board of Education, credited Gulick and Maxwell with the league's creation and expounded on the endeavor:

The entire credit of the plan of the athletic league is due to Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, Director of Physical Training of the Public Schools of New York City, and William H. Maxwell, the Superintendent of Schools. . . Our plan is to bring about [a] regular series of athletic contests, in which all of the boys of this great metropolis may enter on equal footing." 

With an estimated participant pool of 100,000 students, the Boston Globe described the imminent creation of the PSAL as "probably the largest organization of athletes in any city of the world."

The Articles of Incorporation for the Public Schools Athletic League were filed on December 4, 1903, and the inaugural events took place at Madison Square Garden on December 26, 1903. Flushing High School won the first PSAL high school basketball championship on that date, edging Boys High 16-13 in the title game. Gulick predicted a bright future for the PSAL at the event. In an interview with The New York Times, he stated:

[T]he games, as successful as they have been, are only the beginning. . . That the league will be a permanency and that its growth will be steady and marked, I do not doubt for a moment.

Growth of the PSAL was largely dependent on adequate funding. Rather than rely on the Board of Education, the PSAL turned to private donors, including Solomon R. Guggenheim, a second generation member of the family that made a fortune in the mining industry. Guggenheim, founder and namesake of the world renowned art museum on the Upper East Side, was the PSAL's first Treasurer.

In the summer of 1904 Gulick facilitated New York City's participation in a national scholastic athletic competition that took place at the Word's Fair in St. Louis during the Summer Olympics. This exposition had a format similar to the PSAL's inaugural event, and Flushing High School once again came out on top on the basketball court, defeating high schools from San Francisco and Chicago.

A girls branch of the PSAL was created in 1905, but without interscholastic competition.

Gulick went on to serve as a member of the US Olympic Games Committee in 1906 and 1908. He also helped create the Playground Association of America in April 1906, being put in charge after a gathering at the White House with President Roosevelt in attendance.

Gulick resigned from the PSAL in 1908. He passed away in 1918 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959.

From Gulick's role as the catalyst for the invention of basketball–to his work as Chairman of the AAU's Basketball Committee during the nascent stages of the sport–to his contributions towards the creation of the PSAL, there is a special link between the origin of basketball and its development into an interscholastic sport for the public schools in New York City.

116 years later, the 2019-20 PSAL basketball season is already underway. Flushing High's boys team is 1-1 in PSAL league play and they will visit August Martin on Friday afternoon. Boys & Girls edged Canarsie 72-71 last night and is 1-0 in PSAL league play. The Kangaroos will visit defending PSAL champs South Shore on Thursday.

Happy 116th birthday to the PSAL. 

 

Bibliography

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Y.M.C.A. Athletes-Two New Games of Ball Introduced, The Daily Standard-Union: Brooklyn, Friday, April 29, 1892, p. 3.

Funny Things In The "Gym"-Lively Exercises That The Y.M.C.A. Have Adopted, The Sun, Sunday, May 8, 1892, p. 4.

Official Basketball Guide, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 28, 1896, p. 5; Detroit Free Press, October 30, 1896, p. 6; The Baltimore Sun, December 1, 1896, p. 6; The New York Times, December 5, 1897, p. 7. 

Affects Basket Ball-Players Must Become Registered Athletes And Games Sanctioned, The Boston Globe, October 16, 1897, p. 4.

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Our Schools and The Teachers-Dr. Luther Gulick, Principal of Pratt High School, Writes of High School Education, The Brooklyn Citizen, April 28, 1901, p. 18.

Basket Ball Popular-Progress of the Game Started Eleven Years Ago-It Was First a Y.M.C.A. Sport, and Is Now Played In All Classes, The New York Times, Tuesday December 23, 1902.

Dr. Gulick Appointed-Made Director of Physical Training For Public Schools, New York Tribune, January 29, 1903, p. 5. 

To Combat the Deadly School Desk-Dr. Gulick Talks of His Plans-To Measure All of City's Scholars, New York Daily Tribune, February 2, 1903, p. 5.

Athletics At  St. Louis Fair, Elmira Daily Gazette, October 1, 1903, p. 3.

100,000 Young Athletes-Project to Band the Boys of Greater New York Schools-Will Be Largest Body of Such in the World, the Boston Globe, November 25, 1903, p. 6.

School Athletics on a Big Scale-Plans Outlines for the Developing of the Boys of this City and the Men Interested In the New Public School Athletic League, The New York Times, November 29, 1903, p. 15.

Public High School Athletic Triumph, The New York Times, December 27, 1903, p. 8.

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Athletic Tests For Boys-Executive Committee Arranges Standards-Support For Public Schools League, The Sun, January 16, 1904, p. 10.

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Official Handbook of the Public Schools Athletic League, edited by Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick and Wm C.J. Kelly, May 1904, American Sports Publishing Co., 15 Warren Street, New York.

President on Playgrounds, The New York Times, April 13, 1906, p. 6.

The President on Play, New York Tribune, April 13, 1906, p. 7.

Public School Games-Increased Interest Subject of Discussion at Annual Meeting, New York Tribune, January 4, 1907, p. 10.

Dr. Luther H. Gulick Out-Quits As Director of Physical Training In Public Schools, The New York Times, September 24, 1908, p. 18.

New P.S.A.L. Secretary-Dr. Crampton, Elected Unanimously In Place of Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, The New York Times, October 20, 1908, p. 7.

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100 Years of Basketball-A long way from Dr. J, Frank Dell'Appa, The Boston Globe, December 13, 1991, p. 100.

hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/luther-gulick, Luther Gulick.

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