Jump shot legend a Hoosier

One of the most basic functions in the game of basketball is the jump shot. Without this weapon, the game would still be grounded in its original roots of underhanded shots, which date back to the sport's beginnings in 1891 with Dr. James Naismith. \nThe inception of the jump shot into the game of basketball is forever unknown, despite what many say. But, the one man that brought the jumper to the college game, which transformed the sport forever, is located right here at basketball-crazed IU. \nA 91-year-old Emeritus Professor of Kinesiology at the School of HPER, John Miller Cooper is the sole reason why basketball is what it is today. He popularized the jump shot during his college days at the University of Missouri.\nBack in his playing days, the main shooting style of choice was the underhand shot. But that all changed when Cooper began shooting jump shots for Missouri. \nCooper is often credited with inventing the jump shot, but that is not the case. He is the first college basketball player to use the jump shot as his primary offensive weapon, despite what many of the experts might think. \n"It is not accurate really," Cooper said.\nOne afternoon during his high school years, Cooper was shooting in a gymnasium on his own in his hometown of Corydon, Ky., when he noticed a member of the University of Chicago basketball team shooting what at the time was considered a jump shot.\n"The ball came off the board; he jumped and shot it back in, in mid-air," Cooper said.\nHaving tried the jumper to no avail in his high school days at Corydon High School as well as Hopkinsville High School, where he transferred his senior year, Cooper brought the shot and the future of basketball with him to Missouri. \nBack in that era of basketball, Cooper said jump shots were shot on accident. But no one used it or perfected it like he did. \n"Players would jump to catch a pass in mid-air and have nowhere to throw it, so they would toss it to the basket," Cooper said. "Or they would jump to pass it and have no one open, so they would shoot it instead."\nCooper took the jump shot to new levels during his stay at Missouri, which included being named All-Conference in the former Big-Six conference in 1932, compiling a 29-25 record in a season that lasted from Dec. 9 to March 6. He also participated in the first Illinois-Missouri basketball game, in which he scored 11 points. \nHe was first notified by his former coach George Edwards about him being the only, and subsequently the first player to use the jump shot in the college game, Cooper said. \nEdwards was the secretary of the College Basketball Coaches Association at the time, and during one of their meetings, which included coaches from the east, midwest and south, Edwards asked if they had seen or heard about anyone using the jump shot. They all said no. \n"No one at the meetings saw the jump shot being used consistently or at all," Cooper said. \nAs the games wore on, he said, the jump shot was the only way to go. After a player would hit a few shots from outside with the underhand style, the defense would then start to defend them tight. This would then stifle the offense and not allow them to get their shots off. But that was not the case with Cooper, who just jumped over everybody and released it in the air with great accuracy. \nIn given seasons, Cooper scored 47 percent of his teams total points, and as a sophomore during the 1931-1932 season, he averaged 10.7 points per game. \nCooper was known to be able to jump on top of his shooting. During his future studies in Kinesiology he would learn why, but in an unnamed newspaper article from 1973, Edwards described how his leaping ability helped him get his shot off.\n"Johnny is a great leaper," Edwards said. "He was about six feet tall, but he could jump up and put a hand on the rim, so he'd always be guarded by a big fella. He'd leap up over the fella, and shoot his jump shot. He had to, it was the only way he could get it off."\nEdwards thought back then that leaping was an essential part of being a great jump shooter. Now, assistant basketball coach John Treloar thinks differently, he said.\n"It takes great balance, great footwork, great judgment and an understanding when to use it or when to drive," he said.\nThe man who has also been credited for inventing the jump shot and is recognized by the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., is Kenny Sailors. Cooper's name has been proposed to the HOF because of his contributions to the game of basketball, but each time the HOF has rejected the proposal. \n"Sailors was after my time," Cooper said. "He took the jump shot into the pros." \nEven though he did not make it to the Hall, Cooper was elected to the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990, and has also been elected to the University of Missouri Hall of Fame. Cooper was selected as a member of the top 14 Tiger Heroes of Yesteryear when Missouri moved from the Breuer field house in 1971. He was also a candidate for Missouri's All-Time basketball team.\nThe one accomplishment Cooper said has brought the most notoriety was him being the answer to a question on a College Basketball Trivia Game on the back of Raisin Bran boxes in May of 1992.\nAccording to an excerpt from the book, "Origins of the Jump Shot: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball" by John Christgau, Sailors began shooting jump shots in 1934, about five years after Cooper took his, and Sailors was not in the NBA until 1946, over 15 years after Cooper first used the jump shot as his main weapon of scoring. Christgau does not mention Cooper when referencing the foundations of the jump shot. \nSince Cooper first brought the jumper to the college game, which then spurred it to become the choice offensive weapon of almost every basketball player on the face of the earth, he said the individual expression was lost when everyone began to shoot the same way. \n"Television brought it all over the country," Cooper said. "Everyone wanted to copy the great shooters. Now, all players shoot a jump shot. They shoot the jump shot from all over the court, no matter where you are."\nCooper said he thinks Washington Wizard and basketball legend Michael Jordan is the greatest jump shooter ever. \nIU star point guard and jump shot marksman Tom Coverdale said Larry Bird is the all-time best jump shooter.\n"I think he is the best shooter of all time, even if he was not the most athletic player," Coverdale said.\nCooper could not have been working at a better school than IU, whose team for the last 30 years has been jump shot focused, with such players as Quinn Buckner, Isiah Thomas, Steve Alford, Calbert Cheaney and Coverdale. \nCooper has been here for those players and then some. After teaching at the University of Southern California from 1945 to 1966, he accepted a position at IU, and was a professor of Kinesiology at the School of HPER from 1966 until his retirement on June 30, 1982. \nAfter being a prominent figure in the field of Kinesiology, and writing numerous books, Cooper now works every Thursday at the HPER on new experiments focusing on the elderly.