Frank Mahan portrait (c. 1893)

This is a portrait of Springfield College alumnus Frank Mahan. On the front he wrote “Sincerely yours” and signed his name.
Frank Mahan came from Memphis, Tennessee, and was a member of the very first basketball team. While at Springfield College, he also played football. According to notes written by James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, Mahan wasn’t sold on the new sport and was the first to walk off the court. He did, however, propose that the new game be named “Naismith Ball” after its founder. James A. Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939), nicknamed "The Father of Basketball," was born in Almonte, Ontario. Both of his parents died of typhoid fever when he was nine. He was raised by his uncle, who later financed Naismith's way through college. He earned his theological degree from McGill University and graduated from Springfield College, then the YMCA Training School, in 1891. After graduation, he was hired as a faculty member, where he taught for five years. It was in his first year as a faculty member at Springfield College that he created the game of Basketball as an activity for an unruly class. In 1895, Naismith enrolled at the Gross Medical School in Denver and received his M.D. in 1898. In that same year, Naismith took the position of department head of physical education at the University of Kansas, where he remained until his death.