Article

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

Details

Citation

Walker R (2024) Basketball Returns Home: The Diffusion and Translocation of Basketball to Scotland. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 41, pp. 653-673. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2024.2387633

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.

Keywords
Basketball; Culture; Diffusion; History; Scotland

Journal
The International Journal of the History of Sport: Volume 41

StatusPublished
Publication date31/12/2024
Publication date online31/08/2024
Date accepted by journal25/07/2024
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/36275
PublisherInforma UK Limited
ISSN0952-3367
eISSN1743-9035

People (1)

Dr Ross Walker

Dr Ross Walker

Lecturer in Sport Management, Sport