The Electronic Coach

[Recorded: circa 1959]
"The Electronic Coach" is a short film made by IBM describing the use of computers in the management of a university basketball team. The film features computer science legend Don Knuth, then a junior at Case Institute of Technology. For all four of his undergraduate years at Case (1956-60), Knuth was manager of the basketball team and sought ways to improve his team's play by analyzing a series of special statistics he captured during games. The scoring method was unusual in the weightings it gave to activities not necessarily associated with traditional coaching but Knuth's insights into basketball, combined with his computerization of the reams of data he collected, helped Case's coaching staff make their basketball team a winner. The computer used is an IBM 650.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Computer
• History
• Museum
• Don
• Knuth
• Case
• Western
• Reserve
• University
• Basketball
• College
• Science
• IBM
• 650

[tehks0032]

Well, there's your problem. Knuth's taller than the entire team!

[Molo9000]

50,000 calcualtions per minute.... speedy :)

[ericaduncan21]

cool vid.. i like it, really great keep it up!

[100thwindowful]

why is he not playing for the team! hes huge!!!!!!! get him some sport kit now!

[Paethon]

Hehe 50000, thats low. Wait, what ... a minute?

[GenericCoder]

this guy is a legend an inspiration for all computer scientists.

[badger500]

I don't know how many people viewed this short film originally, but my guess is it was shown in 1959 and then wasn't seen again by more than a few people--if any--until it was posted here in 2010. Who would think, on the day they filmed it in 1959, that more than 50 years later it would be watched by > 20,000 people, from their homes or offices, using some futuristic technology called "The Internet", because that basketball manager became a major figure in computer science.

[sbalogh53]

I am looking at Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming" set of books on my shelf and thinking how wonderful it is to see the author when he was so young. This man had a HUGE influence on the IT industry in years to come.

What an amazing printer at 0:44 . The operators better watch their fingers near that monster.

[3w4v]

Young Knuth! This is so fabulous.

[Dms12444]

That looks like an IBM 650 if I'm not mistaken.

[orcmid]

Wow, a real blinkin-lichten IBM Model 650 Computer. I remember wiring plugboards for that Model 402 tabulator (aka printer) too.

[Molo9000]

@MTGandP

I wonder what they mean by "calculations". Do they mean instructions?

12years later the first microprocessor was able to perform more than 5million instructions per minute.