History of Volleyball - The Beginning
The history of volleyball has changed dramatically from it humble beginnings. As the popularity has grown and the sport has spread around the world, the game has been adjusted into many different forms. Volleyball was created by the Young Men’s Christian Instructors (YMCA) in Massachusetts, and more specifically by William G Morgan. At the time, basketball was also a new sport, and Morgan found that it was more strenuous then some of the men could play. Morgan saw that the physical contact of basketball and the fast pace tired the older businessmen that enjoyed playing sports. So, he created a sport called “mintonette” which eventually turned into the game of volleyball.
Morgan’s game was played on a rectangular court with a net across the center of the court. The court was small enough so that the players would not need to run often over a large space. To reduce costs and permit more people to play the game, players could use their hands to bat the ball back and forth over the net instead of using rackets or other equipment. The net was positioned six feet six inches above the floor so that it was just above the average player’s head. The ball was a lightweight ball made from an inflated basketball bladder. To eliminate the physical contact Morgan positioned each team on either side of the net. As the game began, players would use their hands to hit the ball back and forth until it went out of bounds or hit the floor. Morgan’s game was designed to be playing in innings, each inning consisted of three serves by each team– just like baseball. Each team was allowed to hit the ball as many times as they wanted in order to get the ball over the net to the opponents. If the ball hit the floor before returning over the net, then the other side won a point.
Morgan called the game mintonette because it resembled badminton, and the game of mintonette quickly took off as men of all ages enjoyed it. About a year after Morgan created mintonette, in 1896 Morgan presented it to a group of YMCA physical education directors. Dr. Alfred Halsted suggested to Morgan that he change the name to “volley ball” since the game consisted of vollying the ball back and forth over the net. The first official volleyball game was playing on July 7, 1896 at Springfield College.