Time Magazine once said Dr. James Naismith was "shrewd enough to invent the game of basketball, but not shrewd enough to exploit it." In other words, Naismith, the game's inventor and former Kansas University coach and instructor who is buried in Lawrence never made a cent on the sport that has made millions of dollars for so many others.
"Exploit the game for what?" Naismith look-alike/sound-alike Robert Cheney barked during his 90-minute "living history" Naismith presentation before 20 onlookers Wednesday night at Watkins Community Museum. "What are you going to buy with that money? Can you buy happiness? Can you buy youth? Can you buy creativity?" The answer? No.
Cheney, a retired history professor from Massachusetts, said the pure heart of the inventor of basketball is one of the reasons he has portrayed Naismith all over the country for the past year. Cheney's theatrical act has been performed at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., and in fact, he's hoping to perform in the Hall auditorium monthly for years to come.
"I want to leave the world a little better than I found it," Cheney said, during his portrayal of Naismith. "That is the motto I had then and it is the motto I have today. That has been a mighty fine thing to me. ... "The most important thing in athletic competition is to lose gracefully, win courteously, accept criticism as well as praise and to appreciate the attitude of the other fellow at all times," Cheney/Naismith added.
Cheney says his goal in his one-man production is to "publicize Dr. Naismith ... to bring him due credit for his contribution to the world, but even more to establish him as an inspirational role model. The primary aim is to stimulate the talent in each of us, that it might be nurtured and celebrated and practiced daily to the betterment of our individuality and the world. We may lack genius but we can all be ingenious."
Cheney, who graduated from Oberlin College and has masters degrees from both Bowling Green University and UMass, is an author of "Basketball's Origins: Creative Problem Solving in the Gilded Age.'' He is "fascinated" by the life of Naismith and on Wednesday toured Lawrence such a big part of Naismith's story for the first time.
"Tell me five people who have had more influence on how people world-wide have spent their time the last 50 years?" Cheney said of Naismith. "Anywhere you go in the world, there is a basket and yet people don't know Naismith. They don't know who he was. The birthplace was Springfield (where Naismith invented game), but the cradle was here in Lawrence, Kansas (where Naismith coached and taught)."
Cheney said he will continue to spread the word "at retirement homes, a lot of schools, YMCA's, basketball camps ... there are all kinds of possibilities." He may return to Lawrence in coming months for an encore performance.