From humble beginnings as early as 1881, spearheaded by the US Lawn Tennis Association’s first National Championship, held in Rhode Island at the time, the US Open Tennis Series, Tournament and Championship sports 124 years of proud history.

It is the one tournament that is the ultimate champion in the survival game that is the grand slam. Unlike the other major grand slam tournaments it has lived, grown and thrived through numerous challenges, name-changes, location, playing surface and rules edits, yet still around and drawing many to courtside (or at least their television sets, computers and/or mobile devices to keep in touch with what is happening in and around the sport and standings! It continues however to also adapt and please crowds, spanning many generations and hopefully many still to come! This year, a court-color change, building and stadium upgrades and more, promises to contribute to yet another spirited and memorable event!

Some have pitted it as the “richest” pot in the world to be playing for, estimated at $14.5 million US dollars. This is now slightly higher with added prize-monies of up to $19.4 million.

There are five major championships that constitute the overall US Open Tennis Tournament. It encompasses the men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. All of these categorized competitions grew from a single men’s tournament, building up into the two-week extravaganza phenomena highlight that it is today!

The USTA National Tennis Center, Flushing, NY, USA is the proud hosting venue and choice location for this treasured event in present-day. The 2005 US Open was held Monday, August 29 through Sunday, September 11, with qualifying rounds 1 week earlier on the field courts at the same stadium, which is within easy reach of public transportation, subway, bus, train or car. Kim Clijsters, was the 2005 US Open women’s champion and winner of the US Open Series and Andy Roddick on the men’s side, with runners up Mary Pierce and Andre Agassi made for some exhilarating moments and match-ups in the finals.

The 2006 US Open Tennis Tournament will be held during the period of August 28 and September 10, 2006 and promises yet again to be the ultimate tennis experience for fans around the globe. This will be the 124th anniversary of the US Open Tennis Tournament with the largest winning pot ever.

The Invention

Naismith and his wife saw an article in a magazine from South America that featured an Aztec ball game called Ollamalitzli, and the Mayan game called Ulama, where the round bouncy ball had to go through a hole. He also read another article by Tom Ellison, a New Zealander, which described an ancient Maori ball game that involved a lot of handball skills, where the ball was passed aerially with speed and agility.

Taking these games into account, he and his wife devised a new ball game, to be played indoors in a gym. He developed 13 rules for his game, and divided his 18 players into two teams of nine players each. Two peach baskets were tied to the lower railing of the gym’s balcony. The idea was to throw the soccer ball into these peach baskets. As the bottoms of the peach baskets were intact, the game had to be stopped every time the ball entered the basket, for the janitor to get a ladder and retrieve the ball!

Of course, those days the games were very low scoring affairs. The very first basketball game ever played had an amazingly low score of 1-0. The first official game, played on January 20, 1892, was played on a court half the size of the modern National Basketball Association (NBA) court, involving the use of a soccer ball and two peach baskets for goal.

YMCA, which initially spread the game, later started to discourage playing it, as it was quite rowdy and rough, and deviated from its basic mission. The game however caught on, and it was picked up enthusiastically by other sports clubs, professional clubs, and colleges.

Basketball, of course, used soccer balls initially, and the first basketballs made for the game were brown in color. In the late 1950s, the orange color basketballs were introduced by Tony Hinkle, to make the balls easily visible to the players and the spectators.

Tickets

From such humble beginnings, basketball has grown into a game that is played by more than 300 million people worldwide. The legends of the game, such as:

Michael Jordan

Larry Bird

“Dr. J” Julius Erving

Magic Johnson

Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Wilt Chamberlain

Bill Russell

Oscar Robertson or Robinson

“Pistol Pete” Maravich

have added richness to the game, over the years.

Basketball tickets, whether for the professional games or the collegiate games, are well sought after. You can arrange your basketball tickets for the games of your choice through legitimate ticket brokers.

Put in your request for the basketball tickets for the games of your choice and they will be delivered to you.

The first recorded instance when a basketball game involved at least one college team was between Geneva College and New Brighton, YMCA, on April 8, 1893, in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, which Geneva College won. Geneva College calls itself ‘The Birthplace of College Basketball.’

It was on February 9, 1895, that two basketball teams from two different colleges – Minnesota State School of Agriculture, and the Porkers of Hamline College – played the first college basketball game. Minnesota won 9-3. Naismith’s original ‘peach basket’ rules were in force, and had nine players to each side.

The Modern College Basketball Games

The very first five to a side college basketball game was between the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa, played in Iowa City, Iowa on January 18, 1896. Chicago won 15-12. The first inter-collegiate basketball game was between Wesleyan University and Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, which Wesleyan won 4-3.

By the 1900s, many colleges all over the United States were fielding basketball teams. By 1906, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formed in Chicago, and the first tournament of the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship was held in 1939 at Evanston, Illinois in front of an audience of 5,500 fans. Oregon took the first National Championship by beating Ohio State – 46 to 33. That was the only time Oregon has ever reached the finals of this tournament.

In 1940, the first televised college basketball games were played at the Madison Square Garden. Since then, there has been no end to the popularity of college basketball.

March Madness

NCAA’s Men’s Division I Basketball Championship is colloquially known as the March Madness, as the tournament is mostly held in March, each year. It is also called so as it ignites such frenzy among the followers of college basketball. This single elimination tournament takes place over a three-week period across the United States, and features 65 college basketball teams.

The term March Madness now refers to both – the men’s and women’s tournament. Traditionally, the semifinals and the finals of the Men’s championship is played on a Saturday and the following Monday, whereas the Women’s championship semifinal is played on a Sunday, followed by Tuesday, for the finals.

Florida won the 2007 NCAA Men’s Division I Championship beating Ohio State 84-75 at Atlanta Georgia, whereas the 2007 NCAA Women’s Division I Championship went to Tennessee, who beat Rutgers, 59-46, in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Tickets

The easiest way to procure your college basketball tickets is through the services of legitimate ticket brokers.

Legitimate ticket brokers have a reputation to maintain and ensure your college basketball tickets for the games of your choice are delivered to your door.

The First NBA Game

The new league’s first game was between the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knickerbockers. The game was played on November 1, 1946 at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and was won 68-66 by the Knickerbockers in front of a crowd of 7,090 spectators. Considering that every young Canadian then played hockey, this was a very good attendance.

The basketball played then was very different from how it is played today. There was hardly any leaping and feats akin to ballet – as is common in the game today! That first game was from a very different era. Double pump and slam dunks were not a routine maneuver. In fact, the players could not, and did not, jump well. The teams had an unlimited time to shoot, as the 24 second clock had not yet been introduced. The belief, then, by many coaches was that when a player left both his feet off the ground for a shot, it spelled trouble, and so jump shots were hardly taken.

The BAA started with 11 teams when it formed in 1946, and today there are 30 teams playing in the NBA – 29 teams from the United States and one from Canada. NBA is currently divided into two conferences – the Western and the Eastern conferences, with each conference having three divisions. Each division has five teams in it. Currently, the Boston Celtics is the most successful team in NBA having won 16 NBA Championships. The Los Angeles Lakers come in second with 14 Championships under their belt.

The Origin Of Basketball

Basketball was invented, in 1891, by Dr. James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. He devised the game when looking for ways to keep his football players in shape during the off season months. By the following year in 1892, he put the rules of the game together, which had 13 rules. The first game of basketball was played in 1893, when he split his team of 18 players into two sides of nine players each.

From such humble beginnings has come the game which is played today by more than 300 million people globally!

The Tickets

NBA tickets are one of the most sought after sports tickets in the United States. Most young Americans, mostly going to school or attending colleges are ardent fans of the game, and look to purchase NBA tickets for the games their favorite teams are involved in.