I ran across this today.  I thought it interesting.

American Indian Heritage Month factoid:

Something very much like basketball (ca. 1000 B.C.) was played by American Indians about 3,000 years ago. The Olmec, who lived in what is now southern Mexico/Central America from about 1700 B.C. to 400 B.C., originated the game because latex-producing trees grew in their area and they had developed the technology to create balls made from rubber. Because this game is the first one known to have used a rubber ball, anthropologists consider it to be the forerunner of all modern games that use bouncing balls, including basketball, soccer and football.


Papillon