Father of Soccer

Ebenezer Cobb Morley drew up the Laws of the Game， the rules that govern soccer， in the 1860s. But a few of the original rule he suggested would have changed the sport greatly. Players would have been permitted to catch the ball and run with it， and defenders would have been allowed to “hold， trip or hack him.” Members of the Football Association ultimately voted against those two rules， though， and the beautiful game began to blossom.

Father of Surfing

He won three Olympic gold medals as a swimmer， but Duke Kahanamoku had a bigger impact on the sport of surfing. He travelled extensively to give swimming exhibitions， and he surfed as well， introducing the Hawaiian sport to a wider audience. In 1925， Duke used his board to rescue eight sailors whose boat had turned upside down in the water， ferrying them to shore.

Father of Basketball

James Naismith was born in Canada， but he was working as a physical education teacher in Springfield， Massachusetts， in 1891 when his boss gave him two weeks to come up with a game that could be played indoors in the winter. Naismith came up with basketball， basing it partly on a game he played as a youth called duck on a rock. In that game， a player uses a small stone to knock a larger one （the duck） off a tree stump that is being defended by the other team. While most players threw their stones at the duck， Naismith realized the benefit of lofting his stone over the defender—similar to a basketball shot. Naismiths new game originally used peach baskets as goals. It caught on quickly： Basketball was a demonstration sport at the Olympics just 13 years after its invention.

Father of Baseball Umpires

For 37 years， Bill Klem was the most respected ump in the game. Nicknamed the Old Arbiter， Klem introduced the practice of using hand signals for balls and strikes. “That guy in a 25-cent bleacher seat is as much entitled to know a call as the guy in the boxes，” he said. Players and managers knew not to mess with Klem. The ump was famous for drawing a line in the dirt. Anyone who crossed it while arguing got tossed.

Father of Baseball

Journalist Henry Chadwick didnt invent the national pastime， but no one did more to popularize it. In the 1850s， Chadwick began writing a well-known newspaper column， and he introduced the box score to his readers. He also came up with several stats， including batting average and ERA （Earned Run Average）. Chadwick is the only writer inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.