Gymnastics and Basketball at the YMCA
A local physical culture exhibition draws an enthusiastic crowd for tumbling, vaulting, and the sport of basketball.
The second weekly athletic and gymnastic entertainment was given last evening at the Y. M. C. A. gymnasium before a large audience, many ladies being present. The efforts of the boys, who all showed up as usual in good form, were greatly appreciated by those present. The programme commenced with a dumb-bell drill by the entire class, parallel bar work, pole vaulting, tumbling and a game of basketball. In the parallel bar work Messrs. Nickerson, Atwood and Borchers carried off the honors of the evening. In the pole vaulting E. N. Atwood cleared the stick at eight feet. This is not his limit, as the smallness of the hall prevented a long enough run. The tumbling was cleverly done, but several of the boys in this class were absent. Messrs. Penkham, Morpby and Alain, however, gave a good sample of the results of their daily training in that line. The evening's entertainment concluded with a hotly contested game of basketball between the two teams captained by Nickerson and Atwood. Nickerson's men beside himself were Silvar, Jones, Leland, Easley and Mead; Atwood's were Borchers, Alain, Watkins, Morphy and Nelson. After two ten-minute halves the score stood: Atwood's team 4, Nickerson's 2.
“This is not his limit, as the smallness of the hall prevented a long enough run.”
Long before basketball became a professional behemoth or a core part of the Seattle sports identity, it served as a primary community engagement tool for the YMCA. The transition from gymnastic exhibitions to competitive team play mirrors the rapid professionalization and institutionalization of fitness in Seattle neighborhoods at the turn of the century.
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