Basketball Returns Home: The Diffusion and Translocation of Basketball to Scotland

Abstract

The early history of basketball and its diffusion to Scotland is yet to be fully acknowledged and recorded. Two themes are addressed in this article: the spread of basketball worldwide and the process of its translocation to a new country; and whether it was voluntarily accepted or culturally imposed or both upon its new host. Some of the preliminary contributions to knowledge about the global diffusion of basketball during its infancy are added to and reimagined, with a specific focus regarding the arrival and infancy of basketball in Scotland. Based on a body of empirical evidence from the British Newspaper Archive alongside the Archive and Special Collection at Springfield College in conjunction with secondary sources which document the inception of basketball in Britain and Scotland, four potential entry points and groups who were responsible for translocating basketball to Scotland are examined. The four: Hampstead College graduates; Scottish-based Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) workers; Scottish sojourners; and Mormon Missionaries. In the process, other possibilities including Springfield graduates and James Naismith are disregarded. To start, the origins of basketball in the United States and its Scottish connections are outlined, before denoting the inception of basketball in the United Kingdom and Scotland.