In 1891 Naismith developed the game of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts. Today his handwritten original rules are on display at KU's DeBruce Center, and exhibits at the Booth Family Hall of Athletics credit him for starting the basketball program at KU. A bronze plaque on a concrete base at 8th and Kentucky marks the spot where the first official KU basketball game was played in 1899. Sports fans may want to touch the granite cenotaph erected in Naismith's honor at Memorial Park Cemetery, 1517 E. 15th, where he is buried. (8 Wonder of Kansas People)

His simple gravestone is in the Acacia section, Lot 126, grave 1-12.