- Home
- About
- Board of Directors
- Events/News
- Contact
- Grants/Funding Programs
- Donate
Herkimer 9 Foundation
THE STORY OF ‘HERKIMER 9’
How Our Village’s History is Building Our Future
According to the book ‘I Grew Up with Basketball’ written by Frank J. Basloe, ‘The Herkimer 9’ was the name of the first basketball team from the Herkimer YMCA. Lambert Will was the first coach/player and was recognized in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his contribution of early innovations to the game . The first rim and net have also been traced back to Herkimer. Our goal is to revitalize this block back to 1891 and restore the buildings surrounding the historic four corners. The Court House will be converted into a museum to display all the evidence and artifacts regarding the early stages and evolution of basketball. We will also be building a basketball/sports field house to host tournaments and events.
Why ‘Herkimer 9’?
According to the book ‘I Grew Up with Basketball’ written by Frank J. Basloe, ‘The Herkimer 9’ was the name of the first basketball team from the Herkimer YMCA. Lambert Will was the first coach/player and was recognized in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his contribution of early innovations to the game . The first rim and net have also been traced back to Herkimer. Our goal is to revitalize this block back to 1891 and restore the buildings surrounding the historic four corners. The Court House will be converted into a museum to display all the evidence and artifacts regarding the early stages and evolution of basketball. We will also be building a basketball/sports field house to host tournaments and events. ALERT – After 18 months of research and historic evidence gathering by Scott Flansburg (the Human Calculator), George & Darril Fosty, Brion Carroll, Chris Connolly (Director of the Herkimer County Historical Society) and a broad set of other individual contributors, the book that PROVES that Lambert Will invented the game of Basketball and that the Village of Herkimer is its birthplace is NOW AVAILABLE at Amazon.com.
Nais-MYTH: Basketball’s Stolen LegacyIt will ALSO be available on the Herkimer Originals web site – where buying through that site will help benefit the Herkimer 9 Foundation (THANKS).
|
Frank J. Basloe grew up in Herkimer, New York, where YMCA director Lambert Will developed the game of basketball. Basloe’s classic memoir, I Grew Up with Basketball, offers an eyewitness account of the humble roots of the imposing enterprise that is professional basketball today. At age sixteen, Basloe began his career as a promoter and managed several teams that regularly toured New York, New England, and the Midwest, including the Oswego Indians and Basloe’s Globe Trotters. Until the 1920s and the advent of the New York Original Celtics, New York Renaissance, and Harlem Globetrotters, Basloe’s clubs reigned supreme among barnstormers.I Grew Up with Basketball is a fascinating and entertaining memoir of basketball’s infancy and, for some, fuels the debate about the game’s true origins by providing a counternarrative to the sanctioned history offered by the Hall of Fame. Though James Naismith’s original concept is acknowledged, Basloe credits YMCA director Will for altering the game to be more exciting and fun to play as well as establishing early rules of play.
This rare firsthand glimpse of the early days of basketball is complimented by Michael A. Antonucci’s introduction, which tracks the game—from Basloe’s Globe Trotters to LeBron James—and its trappings as a business vehicle.
(*) – As per University of Nebraska Press
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
When Vision Meets Reality
Virtual Walkthrough of the Herkimer 8 Vision