In 1891, while working as a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, James Naismith was asked to look for a way to relieve his students' boredom during indoor winter gym classes. Few would have figured that his solution would become an institution in American sports and a global phenomenon. Offered is a 2.5x4" card (EX-MT) inscribed, "Sincerely Yours-James Naismith-Lawrence, Kansas-1939" (9/10), by the father of modern basketball. Written the year of his death, this piece was usually sent to fans who had requested his autograph. This particular example though, written in black fountain pen, comes directly from the Naismith Family.