Chapter 9: Sports in the USA

Chapter 9: Sports in the USA

Basketball, baseball and American football are popular sports in the USA.

Basketball

James Naismith, a sports teacher in Massachusetts, invented basketball in 1891. It was immediately popular because students played it inside during the long winter. Players threw a ball into a fruit basket on the wall and scored points. But then, they climbed up a ladder to get the ball! Later, they cut a hole in the bottom of the basket and the ball fell through. Nowadays, we use a ring with a net.

Today, the NBA is one of the top professional basketball leagues. Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson were basketball legends in their day. Today’s stars include Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade.

Baseball

Baseball is often called the national sport of the USA. It is a bat and ball game played by two teams of nine players on an area with four bases. The teams take turns batting. The batting team tries to score ‘runs’ by hitting the ball and then running round all four bases to ‘home’.

American Football

On 6th November, 1869, teams from Rutgers and Princeton Universities met and played a football game together, based on English rugby rules. At first, the game was very violent and some players died because of their injuries. Walter Camp, the father of American football, helped write the rules to develop the game. Today, the rules make the game safer and players wear helmets and other protective equipment.

The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League. It takes place on the first Sunday in February and about 100 million people watch the game on TV every year. It’s the most important sporting event of the year in the USA and companies pay a lot to promote their products during it. Popular singers and musicians also play before the game and during the break.