Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame
The father of Wabash basketball, Daniel Hains was a native son of Crawfordsville, who, upon graduating from the College in 1895 served as classics professor until 1916. His dear friend, Reverend Nicholas C. McCay was a Presbyterian minister, and taught him the game of basketball. McCay was the secretary to the Crawfordsville YMCA, and went to the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he met Dr. James Naismith. Naismith had invented a game that involved nine players to a side, peach baskets for goals, and players that couldn’t move on the floor without the basketball.
Hains inaugurated the Wabash basketball club in 1895-96, playing club-level games against Crawfordsville High School and YMCA athletes. A year later, on February 19, 1897, he coached Wabash to a 23-19 win over Purdue in the first intercollegiate game ever played outside the state of Massachusetts. Hains coached basketball for nine seasons, finishing with a 23-29 record, which included a remarkable 12-3 season in 1902-03.
