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• Double-dribbles were considered “self-passes” and were legal, along with other forms of self-passing that were also legal, such as tipping the ball overhead while running down the court, or rolling the ball along the floor and picking it up again while running!

• Until the mid-1910s, it was illegal for a player to shoot the ball if that player had already dribbled; this meant passing was a critical element of the game and in fact every made field goal would have had an assist, using today’s way of keeping statistics.

• There were as many as twenty-five players on a team at first!

• In the early rules, when the basketball went out of bounds, possession was awarded to the team that got to it first, even if they had to scramble down stairs, jump into the spectator seating area, or climb up into the balcony to get it!

• Many early basketball games were played in a wire mesh cage that surrounded the court in order to avoid the mayhem and spectator injuries caused by players going after loose balls out of bounds!

• Early basketball players were often called “cagers” because of this cage!

• The playing of basketball was once strictly forbidden during Lent, the period known then as the Lenten Season. It was a forbearance that was practiced by the the game’s founding fathers and adopted by Black Fives Era teams into the 1920s.

Please stay tuned to The Black Fives Blog where we’ll post a new article each time we add new trivia to this section of “Did U Know?” 

You may also join the Black Fives email list for updates on any new additions.

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