The History of Women’s Volleyball
Why do you need to know the history of women’s volleyball? Well, it was definitely one of the first sports that welcomed women and allowed them to compete. For the first time, women could also play a sport along side men and be taken seriously in one of the most popular sports in the United States.
Of course, the best way to explore the history of women’s volleyball is to start at the beginning with the invention of the game.
Volleyball Beginnings
Volleyball was actually started in a city in Massachusetts back in 1895. The man behind the sport, William G. Morgan, wanted to take elements from many other popular sports and combine them into one single sport. The game quickly became popular and was spread throughout North America during the early part of the 20th century.
By 1950, more than 50 million people all over the world were playing volleyball.
Women in Volleyball
Women had been playing volleyball for a long time. However, they had to wait until 1949 for the U. S. Volleyball Association to begin sponsoring actual competitions as they had already been doing for years for men.
After the sport was added to the Olympics in 1964, it opened the door for women to make a name for themselves and gave them a different way to earn gold medals for their country.
Before they reached the Olympics, many women were already showcasing their volleyball skills for the world. Mary Jo Peppler was named “outstanding volleyball player” at Bulgaria’s International Games in 1970. Just five years later, she was named Coach of the Year by the International Volleyball Association.
Eleven years later the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association begins and their first event is held in May in 1987 at Newport Beach in California.
In 1999, the Pan American games which were being held in Manitoba, Canada that year decided to include beach volleyball, as well as seven other sporting events for women. Women from the United States succeeded in landing a spot at the Olympics for the third consecutive year in 2000.
Four years later, player Holly McPeak breaks a record by scoring her 68th Professional Beach Volleyball title. She broke the record for the most tournament wins during a woman’s sports career. That same year the U. S. volleyball team takes home the gold at the Olympics in Athens, Greece.
In 2005, a member of that gold medal winning Olympic team earned even greater honors by being named the NCAA’s woman athlete of the year.
Today, women like Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor who have been named Sportswoman of the Year by the Woman’s Sports Foundation for three consecutive years continue to showcase all of the talent, hard work, and discipline women can bring to the table in competitive volleyball. Without their and others’ contribution to the sport, women would certainly have had a much harder time breaking through boundaries in the sports world. And that’s exactly why understanding the history of women’s volleyball is so important.