The History of Basketball

Statue of Dr. James Naismith with basket 

Basketball has been a part of the American culture for many years now. It first originated by a man named Dr. James Naismith in the early 1890s. Instead of a basketball they used a soccer ball, and a basket. The original basketball game had thirteen rules that was established by Dr. Naismith. The American culture love seeing their favorite basketball teams on TV, or at even basketball games in person. Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the whole world. “The rules were changed a bit since the beginning as early as 1893, and the basket started disappearing.”[1]

Dr. James Naismith

It started to become an all-time sport over the years, and many people enjoyed playing it. The game was first played on December 21, 1891. It’s amazing how it all started from a YMCA in Springfield, MA. The Basketball hall of fame is named after Dr. Naismith. “Dr. Naismith believed that his players should be able to just play and there wasn’t anything to be coached.”[2]  Basketball has been touching the heart of many young men, and women since it first began. The first college basketball game was played on January 18, 1896 between Iowa and Chicago.

First college basketball team

Only nine players were on each team in the first basketball game, and the salary of players were very low compared to today’s top paid athletes who earn millions of dollars. “In 1910 President Theodore Roosevelt urged colleges of America to create a governing body for itself before it was too late, in the summer of 1910 they did and formed the Intercollegiate Athletic Association.”[3] There were small leagues that were established, and there were few Basketball teams that played against each other. During the Great Depression money was falling short so they had to suspend the whole league for a few years. To this day Basketball is still playing a strong role in today’s American Culture, and will continue to be for many years to come. Many continue to watch it and play it as a sport that has a meaning to them.

Summary of Dr. James Naismith's life

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[1] Hiskey, Daven, (2012). The Origin of Basketball.  Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/01/the-origin-of-basketball/

[2] Hiskey, Daven, (2012). The Origin of Basketball.  Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/01/the-origin-of-basketball/

[3]Faurschou, Bran. History of Basketball. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://nbahoopsonline.com/Articles/History1.html

Fresh Off The Boat: Blog

The Fresh Off The Boat book was probably one of my favorite books that we had to read over the semester. I could really picture myself in the book as I was reading it, and I really enjoyed it. The Fresh Off The Boat was based upon the life of a Chinese boy named Eddie Huang who experienced many events throughout the entire book. Eddie hated his parents, because they always told him what was best for him. As he was growing up Eddie felt he didn’t fit in the American lifestyle, and everyone picked on him, because he was different. “Mrs. Huang, your son was out of control today and severely injured another student.”[1]

While growing up Eddie began to get in trouble numerous amounts of times, and which forced him to move around to different schools, because of his behavior. Music was Eddie Huang’s inspiration and he felt that it was his key to escape the outside world. “We listened to hip-hop because there wasn’t anything else that welcomed us in, made us feel at home.”[2] He would beat up anybody that made fun of him, because his father said to stand up for himself and not let anyone run all over him. Eddie hung around the wrong crowd he smoked, drank, and stole from others. “Before we left, we all got high hitting the bong we made out a plastic Mountain Dew bottle.”[3]

He wanted the best out of life like expensive shoes, clothes, and cars. Even though his parents didn’t help him buy the car he wanted his father just bought a car in front of his face. Occasionally Eddie and his friends would get in trouble with the law an there was serious consequences that they had to face. Eddie’s father believed that Eddie would never get into ESPN, because of the way he looked. “You have shaved head, tattoo, crazy sneakers, you think ESPN putting you on TV.”[4] In college he sold drugs, because he believed he was good at and he loved the money.

I believe that Eddie didn’t really know what he wanted to be in life once he grew up. He experienced many things that changed the way he saw things that meant to him. His mother, and father always argued with each other and it got on Eddie’s nerves. He didn’t play around when people owed him money from the drugs he sold to other people. “This fool didn’t have fifty dollars, but he was running around with a gold and silver link Tag Heuer it was worth more than three thousand.”[5] He thought he had it made when he was making money and hanging out with people who stood up for him.

Eddie Huang went to law school, but later realized that what he was doing wasn’t something that he would do forever. He figured he would make a list of the things he would accomplish in life. Eddie did a bit of stand-up comedy, and later figured that it wasn’t the life he wanted to live. He had a friend who sold shoes to other people, and Eddie thought it would be good for business to do the same thing. “Jae taught me his technique but made me agree not to poach his stores.”[6] Eddie later wanted to open up his own restaurant, but his parents disapproved of his decision. They believed that he was going through away his career, and Eddie Huang didn’t listen to his parents. He went with his own heart and he felt that it was the right place to be for him. “I wanted Baohaus to be a place the neighborhood embraced.”[7]

What I got from the book was that Eddie Huang didn’t take anything serious from anybody. He went with his own thoughts, and felt that he could accomplish anything. This book really got me to think clearly of what he was going through. In the end he went with what he loved to do and that was cooking. He met several people of that were really close to him, and some that were not so good. Consequences that cost him to think about what he had done was very wrong.

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[1] Eddie, Huang, Fresh Off The Boat: A Memoir. (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2013), 33.

[2] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 60.

[3] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 103.

[4] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 148.

[5] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 168.

[6] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 217.

[7] Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, 258.

The Harvard Psychedelic Club Blog

In The Harvard Psychedelic Club novel it starts off with a man named Richard Alpert who is an assistant professor in clinical psychology at Harvard University. He must hide his homosexuality from the time he is in college all the way until he gets to Harvard. David McClelland was the person who offered Albert the job at Harvard, and David came across a very brilliant man named Timothy Leary which later on in the story he would meet with Richard Albert. David McClelland was very impressed with Timothy Leary’s work and wanted him to work for Harvard. “McClelland had just read The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality and was very impressed with Leary’s work.”[1] Andy Weil was very interested in finding more about psychedelic drugs, and one of the students pointed out someone who may be able to assist him. “Go check out this psychologist who’s working with David McClelland, his name is Leary, and he’s into some pretty interesting stuff.”[2]

Timothy Leary and his friends ate some psilocybin mushrooms when they were staying in Mexico and they began to see things that amazed them. They drifted onto a world they would have never imagined, and everything seemed so clearer to them. “We took some mushrooms, he explained to his startled guests.”[3] When he later returned to Harvard he came up with the Harvard Psilocybin Project. They used the psilocybin the active ingredient of the magic mushrooms, and the ones who were given these drugs would write out reports of their own experiences. Richard Alpert met Timothy Leary near the airport of Mexico City and little did Leary know was that Albert barely bought the plane. They discussed their future plans with the mushroom research, and how it would help everybody. “Were going to take a whole new approach with this research, Leary told Alpert.”[4]

Richard Alpert and Timothy gave the psychedelic drug to over 200 hundred graduate students and also faculty members from Harvard and MIT. Leary later on in 1961 changed the name of the project to the Harvard Psychedelic Project. “The vast majority of the other subjects reported that the sessions were among the most power, educational, and enlightening experiences of their lives.”[5] Timothy Leary would later conduct the Good Friday Experiment and his theory was that it would give people a religious experience once they take the Psilocybin drug. Twenty students took part in this experiment which some received the Psilocybin, or either Placebo. The people who participated in this experiment completed questionnaires of their own experiences they went through while they took the drugs. Though Kelman believed that Leary and Alpert were abusing their power of going too far with researching the drugs. “You’ve got to do something, Kelman told McClelland, and these drugs are dangerous.”[6]

Alpert and Leary’s days of experimenting with Psychedelic drugs was put to rest when Andrew Weil accused them of giving drugs to undergraduate students and then Harvard fired both men. Even though the men were kicked out of Harvard they vowed to continue their research, and not to put it on hold. LSD replaced the psilocybin that Albert and Leary focused further in their research. Timothy Leary not only were kicked out of Harvard, but also three countries in a short period of time. “It turns out the CIA had tracked them all the way down to Dominica, where the agency reported the professors planned to open, an alleged Happiness Hotel.”[7] Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary refuged in a mansion in New York where they would continue their Psychedelic drug research. William and Tommy helped them get established with trust funds. The drugs made many hallucinate, and some ended up doing crazy things that cost them their lives.

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[1] Don, Lattin. The Harvard Psychedelic Club. How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age of America. (New York: HarperCollins, 2010). 20.

[2] Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, 26.

[3] Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, 41.

[4] Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, 52.

[5] Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, 61.

[6] Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, 88.

[7] Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, 111.

Sin in The Second City Blog parts 2 & 3

The second and the third part of the Sin in The Second City book really got me into the reading and I didn’t want to stop reading. I was surprised by many things that occurred, and the many lives that were affected by the decisions made by the people. Continuing on with the story there was a man by the name of Ernest Bell who was a very religious man, and he believed that god had a sole purpose for him. “If it be thy will to build the University by my ministry, Empower me, if not deliver me, he wrote.” [1] He wanted to make a difference in the world by speaking to others about the word of god. Vic Shaw wanted to frame Minna Everleigh for the murder of Marshall Field Jr. who had been shot to death. The Everleigh sister had her suspicions’ that Vic Shaw was behind this scheme. “Honestly we didn’t do anything, Pony said he would give us $20,000 if we said you did it.”[2]

Ernest Bell Preaching.

Ernest Bell believed that white slavery was just a problem to just deal with in the streets, but that the Everleigh Club that the sisters ran was apart of the problem. The Everleighs disagreed with bell and they believed that there club was free from violence and disease. “There’s enough of them little ones already on the road, one madam protested, without bringing them good girls into this hole.”[3] Bell along with his Midnight Missionaries were in front of the Everleigh Club, and were preaching while they raised their voices. They figured that this would put an end to the Everleigh Club, unfortunately they weren’t successful. “If the Levee thugs didn’t know his name before, they did now, and now his character too was battered and bruised.”[4]

The Everleigh Club.

Many of Chicago’s white slaves were mainly Russian immigrants who were refuges’ who fled away from Russia. Anyone who was caught recruiting for disorderly houses could spend up to a year in jail, and also receive a fine of up to $1,000 dollars. “Illinois became the pioneer state to pass a pandering law, directed at the slave traffic in girls and women.”[5] The federal immigration act of 1907, stated that it was against the law to import women from other countries for the purposes of prostitution. The selling young teenage girls ranged from $15 dollars and up. Most girls who were forced into prostitution were sold between $200 to $1,000 Dollars.

On December, 13 a bomb went off in the coliseum and left many debris of damaged buildings. The Everleigh Sisters paid about $800 dollars in protection payments to avoid being harmed by anybody. “Little was the man sent personally by Ike Bloom to collect protection payments for Bathhouse John and Hinky Dink.”[6] Minna and Ada Everleigh left the Everleigh club for about six months, because there were allegations thrown at them. They believed that during their absence there club would still be in good hands with their girls, and they can be less stressed out. On December 6 congress introduced the bill called the White Slave Traffic Act. “Taft allocated $50,000 for the employment of special inspectors and declared Mann’s bill constitutional.”[7]

The Coliseum that was bombed.

Minna Everleigh wanted a photographer to take pictures of the Everleigh club to make brochures so the club could be well known. After eleven years of having the most famous club the Everleigh Sisters were forced to close down there club by Mayor Harrison. For the remainder years of the sister’s they lived in New York together very peacefully. Until on July 13, 1948 Minna Everleigh passed away at Park West Hospital, and was eighty two years old. Ada Everleigh felt very empty for those last twelve years of her life. Ada Everleigh had an auction and sold her remaining possessions from the Everleigh club. She lived with her nephew in Charlottesville, Virginia for the remaining twelve years that she had left. Ada read a couple of holiday greeting cards from when her sister was still alive. “Best wishes for a Happy New Year, they read.”[8] Ada Everleigh joined alongside of her sister on January 6, 1960. She was a few weeks shy of her 96^th birthday. 

Ada & Minna Everleigh.

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[1] Karen Abott, Sin in The Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007), 85.

[2] Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 96.

[3] Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 117.

[4] Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 135.

[5] Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 152.

[6] Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 179.

[7] Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 207.

[8] Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 297.

Sin in The Second City Blog: The Everleigh Sisters

The Everleigh Sisters grew up with seven siblings, but there mother and sister passed away when the sisters were very young. The sisters underwent several of changes they even lied about their names and hid their true identities. Married to abusive husbands’ who abused both of the Eveleigh Sisters they decided to “run away” from them, and start a new life. The Everleigh Sisters journey began In Omaha, Nebraska and when they were very young they lived rough lives. Several of people told the girls that the prostitution business on the “rise” was in Chicago.

There were several of young girls lured in to do prostitution when they believed they were going to start a new job from an ad in the newspaper, but later to find out were drugged and abducted. Though prostitution was illegal some people used it as there business taking advantage of young teenage girls. Madams took away their clothing and charged a price for a uniform for the brothel. Slavery was a big issue in the early 1900s, and women were being abused by men. “There is a slave trade in this country, and it is not black folks this time, but little white girls thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen years of age.”[1]

The newspaper they used for false ads.

The Everleigh Sisters wanted there club to be the most successful and to live the life of wealth. The sisters wanted the best for their business, and wanted to be known for their high class. They wanted the life of luxury, and by investing money into their club they would receive a profit from everyone who spends at their club. “To keep the piano shining, the mirrored walls intact, the rugs clean, and the perfume jets shooting, the sisters allotted $18,000 per year in renovations.”[2]

One of the rooms of the Everleigh club.

Big Jim is an individual with much power he occasionally visited the Everleigh Sisters club to offer them protection, and other assistance if needed. The stories he told fascinated the sisters and were amazed by everything he went through. “When he had money, and he was sure he would, his fingers would instead be covered in diamonds. Minna could relate.”[3] With all the power he had he needed to defend his reputation at all times. Their relationship with Big Jim grew big and they knew what to discuss during privacy. “Minna and Ada agreed: Some things were better left unconsidered.”[4] There were some who didn’t like the Everleigh Sisters, but they didn’t seem to care as long as they were making money they were happy."The Everleigh’s didn’t need anyone to confirm their vaulted status, but they appreciated the gesture of nonetheless.”[5]

The Everleigh Sisters were very intelligent and very business minded that they did what they wanted to get. Though in the beginning they went through some hard times they seemed to know what they were doing. They did whatever it took to have the most famous club in history, and they did it to be recognized by everyone. They dined with the finest foods and had drinks that were fit for a queen.

The Everleigh Sisters

1. Karen Abbott, Sin in The Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007), 49. 

2. Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 71.

3. Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 56. 

4. Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 57. 

5. Abbott, Sin in The Second City, 60.

      

    

Hello, everyone!! My name is Michael Salazar and this my blog for my American Cultural History 314 course. Usually people like to refer to me as mike, but it doesn’t really matter I go by mike or Michael that is fine by me. I was born and raised in a small town called Nogales, Arizona it’s close to the border of Mexico. I lived half of my life in that town before I moved to Chandler, Arizona. I’m currently majoring in Communication and with a minor in Business. This is my third year here at ASU. I have many goals that I want to accomplish in my life. First I want to gather the remaining credits I need to graduate from the university. Also to finish off strong this semester to reach my goal of at least approaching a 3.5 G.P.A. Last to find a job that fits my career.

The one place I believe everyone should go is Hermosillo, Mexico. I went on vacation with my family for two months there. The beach there is really nice and there is many tourist attractions. They have some amazing food there, and if you love to eat I definitely recommend you to visit there. I really enjoyed all the time I spent there and learned so much from the people I met there. My next voyage to take would be to go to Paris, France, because I’ve always wanted to go there since I was little. I feel that it would be an excellent adventure for me and also to see all the attractions they have to offer would be very exciting. Especially if I went with some very close friends of mine there than it could be an amazing experience.

What I feel is the most defining characteristic of American culture is the creation of the internet. It allows to communicate with our friends, family, and professors from school. Who would’ve of thought that technology has grown so much over the past two decades of the internet’s existence. Were able to talk to several of people who live from far distances from our own computers, and by email. Social Media has played a big part in our lives and we keep up to date of our friend’s updates. Most of our parents didn’t even have the type of technology that we have today that has revolutionized how the world revolves around others.