USA - Ian Naismith passes away

NEW YORK (FIBA) - Ian Naismith, who gained worldwide attention in 2010 when auctioning off Dr James Naismith's original 13 rules of basketball, has died.

The family care-taker of his grandfather's two-page, typewritten document, Ian Naismith passed away while taking a train from Massachusetts to New York.

The Naismith International Basketball Foundation has listed his age as 72.

A Kansas University alumnus paid $4.3million for the original 13 rules of basketball document at a Sotheby's Auction on 10 December 2010.

There are plans to showcase it in a purpose-built structure at Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas.

Dr James Naismith, who invented the sport in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, later founded the basketball program at Kansas.

"My grandfather was there for 41 years," Ian Naismith said after the auction.

"I'm just happy it's done."

At the time of the auction, Naismith said that after expenses, $3.8million would go to fund the International Naismith Basketball Foundation and all of its charities.

In an interview with FIBA.com just a month before the auction, Naismith had talked about how he had looked after the original rules for three decades following the death of his father, James S. Naismith.

Ian Naismith, his brother James S. Naismith and sister Frances then donated them to the family's foundation.

FIBA