Julius Goldman

Who was Julius Goldman?

Julius "Goldie" Goldman was a Canadian basketball player.

A father of modern basketball, Canada's representative on the 1936 Olympic Basketball Rules Committee, Julius Goldman suggested the elimination of the basketball rule that called for a "jump ball" after every field goal. The 1936 games marked basketball's first appearance in the Olympics. The Rules Committee agreed with Goldman, and the game was forever changed. This rule change has been credited with modernizing basketball; speeding up the pace of the game, increasing scoring and making teams with shorter centers more competitive. In 1958, NCAA rules committee chairman Ed Steitz credited Goldman's rule change as the most radical change in the entire evolution of basketball.

Goldman was born in 1910 in Mayesville, South Carolina to Lithuanian immigrants Isaac and Rebecca Goldman. The family moved to Canada when Julius was two. Goldman captained and was the leading scorer for the Windsor Ford V-8's team that won Canada's 1935–36 national championship, qualifying them to represent Canada in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. However, Goldman's U.S. citizenship made him ineligible to play for another country, so he was made an assistant coach and appointed Canada's representative to the Olympic Basketball Rules Committee. The Canadian Basketball team won a silver medal, losing 19-8 to the USA in the muddy gold medal game in a driving rainstorm outdoors.