Assembly Resolution No. 1052
BY: M. of A. Smullen
RECOGNIZING Herkimer, New York, as the birthplace
of Basketball, Lambert Will as the game's inventor,
and the Mohawk Valley as the game's principal
influence in the game's initial adoption
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to recognize truth
when it arises from the ashes of historic controversy; and
WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its
long-standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to
recognize Herkimer, New York, as the birthplace of the game of
Basketball, Lambert Will as the game's inventor, and the Mohawk Valley
as the game's principal influence in the game's initial adoption; and
WHEREAS, The term birthplace is defined by Oxford dictionary as "the
place where something started or originated"; and
WHEREAS, The recognition that Herkimer, New York, is the birthplace
of Basketball versus it previously being accepted that Springfield,
Massachusetts, referenced as the birthplace being historically
inaccurate following a highly detailed investigation and subsequent
analysis of the available evidence; and
WHEREAS, The recently released book Nais-MYTH: Basketball's StolenLegacy, published by The Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company, Inc. in
March of 2022, is one that resulted from thousands of hours of historic
research, historic records analysis, direct interviews, and laborious
chronological sequencing of events of all principal participants; and
WHEREAS, The book details that Lambert Will originated the concept
of the game of Basketball while sorting cabbage for his mother by
tossing them into two baskets in his mother's cellar based on historic
record directly from Lambert Will and from a documented accounting by
Glen S. Edwards, who attended the first game on February 7, 1891, and
served with Lambert Will in the Spanish American War; and
WHEREAS, The book references detailed accounts from the 1951 Frank
J. Basloe book titled I Grew Up With Basketball of Lambert Will, then
volunteer Director of the YMCA, that he collected the two basketball
teams referred to as the Herkimer Businessmen 9 and the Herkimer YMCA 9
to participate in the development of the initial rules of the game at
the Herkimer YMCA, located on N. Main Street next to the Palmer House
hotel, in the month of January of 1891; and
WHEREAS, The book references details from the Frank J. Basloe book
of the playing of the first official game of Basketball at the Herkimer
YMCA on February 7, 1891, between the Herkimer Businessmen 9 and the
Herkimer YMCA 9; and
WHEREAS, The book references details from the Frank J. Basloe book
whereby William Levee of Little Falls was among those that attended the
first official Basketball game played and took the game concept and
basic rules back to the YMCA in Little Falls where they developed a
Basketball team in February of 1891; and
WHEREAS, The book references details from the Frank J. Basloe book
where it historically references the first inter-municipality game of
Basketball was played between the Herkimer YMCA Basketball team, known
to be the Herkimer 9, and the Little Falls YMCA Basketball team; and
WHEREAS, The book references details from the Frank J. Basloe book
where it historically references the YMCA representatives of Utica,
Amsterdam, Troy, and Albany obtained details of the game of Basketball
from Lambert Will and developed teams in the later part of 1891; and
WHEREAS, The book references details of an Albany newspaper article
that declares the Albany YMCA Basketball team played the Herkimer YMCA
Basketball team declaring it to be the Basketball Championship of New
York on February 21, 1892; and
WHEREAS, The book evaluates and concludes the pictures of the
Herkimer Basketball teams that appear in the book and appear to have
been taken during the 1891-92 and the 1892-93 playing season were
authentic and represent the time period of play and the profile of the
players common to both teams; and
WHEREAS, The book is effective in affirming the summary of all of
the above activities of play within Herkimer, as well as between the
various municipalities throughout the Mohawk Valley in an article that
appeared in The Sunday Herald of Syracuse on February 20, 1898,
declaring the formation of the official team in Herkimer in the fall of
1891, the loss of the championship by Herkimer to Albany in 1892, the
participated play of 35 games throughout the Mohawk Valley and losing
only two; and
WHEREAS, The book serves to dismiss any alternative view of the
origin of Basketball in that its authors and researchers were unable to
find any evidence to the contrary, including interviews with the
Springfield College historian and the Hall of Fame; and
WHEREAS, The book raises concern about the authenticity of the
promoted "original 13 rules of Basket Ball" that appear to have to
scribed in February of 1892, which follows the date in which the rules
were published in The Triangle publication on January 15, 1892, and were
then later revised in the mid-1900s by an unknown person to suggest the
authoring to have occurred in December of 1891, and what appears to be
the fraudulent signature of James Naismith; and
WHEREAS, The Hall of Fame has since declared their lack of
confidence in the authenticity of the original 13 rules of Basket Ball
when quoted in the Washington Post March of 2022, article that covered a
review of the newly published Nais-MYTH: Basketball's Stolen Legacy
book; and
WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body that when it
recognizes the truth when it arises from the ashes of historic
controversy; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
recognize Herkimer, New York, as the birthplace of Basketball, Lambert
Will as the game's inventor, and the Mohawk Valley as the game's
principal influence in the game's initial adoption; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to Herkimer 9, LLC.
