Allentown Y.M.C.A. vs. Bethlehem Prep Basketball Ticket, 1904

A full, unused admission ticket to a basketball game between the Allentown Y.M.C.A. and Bethlehem Prep, played Thursday night, February 18, 1904, with admission set at 15 cents and the game called for 8:15. The ticket is a striking reminder of how young the sport still was at the time, just thirteen years after James Naismith invented basketball at the Springfield Y.M.C.A. in 1891, and it captures the game in its earliest competitive era, when Y.M.C.A. leagues were the primary venue for organized play across the country. PSA graded (PR 1, full ticket), a tough survivor given how disposable game tickets from this period were. An early and rare piece of basketball's formative years, tying directly into the same Y.M.C.A. network that gave the sport its start.