Sports in the United States have evolved and the sport that is dubbed “America’s favorite” has changed several times.  Sports have been a substantial aspect of American culture, and the U.S. has created their unique version of three sports that remain popular today, both spectator and participation-wise.  These sports are baseball, American football, and basketball.  Baseball was developed from a British game known as rounders, and can be traced back to documents describing it being played in the United States as early as the late 18^th century, not long after the nation earned its independence.  Half a century later, clubs were founded that would later grow into leagues.  It is perhaps the tie with America’s early history that made baseball “America’s pastime,” a mantle that some argue has recently been passed to football.
American football was generated through a merging of several similar British sports, and became popular at American colleges during the beginning of the 19^th century.  Leagues were later formed and in 1920 the American Professional Football Association, which soon became known as the National Football League, or NFL, was officially founded and has been a prevailing American sport ever since.
Basketball was not derived from any other country, but rather originated in the most American of places: the YMCA in Massachusetts.  Stuck inside due to the bitter New England winter, a professor improvised the game for his students, using a football and a wicker basket nailed to the wall.  It was known as “basket ball” from the get-go, and was dispersed to other YMCAs across the country.  Although efforts were made to form clubs, nothing lasted until the sport’s popularity at colleges advocated the formation of a national league in the mid-twentieth century. It would later become the National Basketball Association.
Baseball, football, and basketball, with their unassuming beginnings in the United States, have come to define current sports in the country—sports that have become globally known and popular.