Luther H. Gulick

Enshrined 1959
Born: December 4, 1865
Honolulu, HI
Died: August 13, 1918

In the winter of 1891, Luther Gulick, the head of the physical education department at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, persuaded a young instructor named James Naismith to create an indoor game that could be played during the off-season. A major force in the early development of the sport, Gulick oversaw Naismith's creation of the game, led basketball's move to the national and international level, and in 1895 became the chairman of the Basketball Rules Organization. Among his other achievements, Gulick developed the YMCA triangle symbol (signifying the YMCA's physical, emotional, and intellectual pursuits that still remain today), served on the Olympic Committee for the London Games in 1908, and is credited with forming such notable youth organizations as the Public School Athletic Leagues (PSAL) in New York, the Boy Scouts, and the Camp Fire Girls.