Earliest years of Indiana basketball

<p dir="ltr">As many basketball fans know, the sport was not invented in Indiana. It was created during the winter of 1891-92 by <strong><a href= "https://dunkorthree.com/james-naismith-basketball-history/">Dr. James Naismith</a></strong>, a physician and physical education coordinator at a YMCA in Springfield, Mass.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/images/Chandler-Lighty-2016.png" alt="Chandler Lighty" width="176" height="243" align="right" />But basketball took off like wildfire in the Hoosier state and became a core part of its cultural identity. For many generations of hoops lovers, the first competitive (non-exhibition) game on Indiana soil has been identified as a game played at a YMCA in <strong>Crawfordsville</strong> on March 16, 1894. In that game, the Crawfordsville Y's team defeated a team from the YMCA in <strong>Lafayette</strong> by a score of 45-21.</p> <p dir="ltr">In recent years, though, research by historian <strong>Chandler Lighty</strong> has raised questions about whether the "first" distinction is accurate regarding the Crawfordsville site. Chandler says he has found earlier references to basketball games played in <strong>Evansville</strong>, <strong>Indianapolis</strong> and elsewhere across Indiana in newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. References continue to be discovered as bygone and obscure newspapers are digitized and become easier to search.</p> <p dir="ltr">As Chandler joins Nelson in studio to talk about the earliest years of Indiana basketball, the question of whether the first game was played in Crawfordsville - which often touts itself as "the cradle of Indiana basketball" - is sure to be among the topics.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/images/Matt-Werner-2020.JPG" alt= "Matt Werner." width="222" height="287" align="left" />But the show also will explore such questions as why the sport - often called "basket ball" (two words) in early accounts - became beloved so rapidly in Indiana. Undeniably, its p