Welcome to the first blog entry for Basketball History 101. I am your author and host, Rick Loayza. This is the blog and podcast where we bring to life some of the forgotten stories from basketball history.

I love basketball. I love watching it. I love reading about it. I love learning about its history. I am, for all intents and purposes, a basketball junkie. I’ve coached all three of my kids in youth basketball. In fact, I still coach my youngest each winter. Something just happened to me when I was 11 where I was bitten by the basketball bug. And starting then, I just couldn’t get enough of this amazing game.

And the purpose of this podcast and blog is to bring back some of the old stories from basketball’s history. I want to bring you a new story each week from the older days of basketball before there were 22 cameras and instant highlights on your device. Of course, any story from anywhere in basketball history is up for grabs. But I want the focus to be on those stories that are interesting and impactful but long forgotten.

I’ll be covering stories going all the way back to the invention of the game in the 1890s, to the barnstorming days of basketball in the 1920s and 30s, to the creation of the current NBA in the 1940s and beyond.

So, if you love basketball as much as I do, or you just want to hear a few stories from basketball’s past, then go ahead and subscribe to the podcast and come back to this blog to hear or read a new story each week.

For me, this is a labor of love as I get to work with my older son, Jacob Loayza, who serves as my editor and producer. Until next time…

This is Basketball History 101. Join us for Episode 1 where we talk about the very first basketball game ever played.