Basketball has a very long history in England, being introduced there by YMCA almost immediately after it was invented[1] (having been created by the Canadian Dr. James Naismith in 1891 in Massachusetts).
Basketball belongs to the next tier alongside ice hockey and netball; like these sports, it has a significant and dedicated following, a professional league, but attracts little coverage from the major British media outlets and suffers from lack of "crossover" appeal.
[2] While England is the birthplace of the four main sports, and England teams are relatively major powers in each of them, Basketball, like ice hockey, is essentially an "import" from North America, and English and British teams have not generally been successful in them internationally, which also affects their profile.
This introduction of the game led to a growth in participation in the new game of basketball initially as an internal league played at Birkenhead YMCA members (England's first Central Venue League), and later to other YMCA clubs in the Wirral and Merseyside regions.
games were played until in 1914 with the start of World War I a large number of young men left their home towns for France.
Basketball naturally lost a great deal of its initial impetus and although many games were played during the War years the development was limited.
The game was influenced greatly by American forces in Europe during and after World War I and many European Countries as a result began to play Basketball.
Britain continued to be influenced during this period, and YMCA clubs developed the game with added flavour.
Great Britain was successfully represented in this Tournament by a team from the London Central YMCA who won all their games.
The game continued to develop in England and in 1936 a meeting was called at the London Central YMCA to form a Governing Body for the sport.
Greater interest was taken in Basketball because of the incentive of the Championships and many more teams affiliated to ABBA the following year.
The standard of play also improved and on 19 March 1938, Hoylake YMCA (the 1937 winners) were opposed by Latter Day Saints.
On the day following the Championship Finals Catford Saints represented England in the first International match ever held in Britain.
This was the first time a composite International Team had travelled abroad and this in itself showed the development of English Basketball.
Birmingham and London Area supplied the majority of those International players in keeping with the level of the development of Basketball in England.
The War, although stemming the development of the actual number of clubs in Britain, did have a good effect upon the game.