History

In 1895 William G. Morgan became the director or the YMCA in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Morgan found that the YMCA was needing a new sport. Basketball was to rough for his liking and tennis just didn't have enough competition. He wanted a sport like tennis except he wanted to hit the ball with open hands or fists. Since the tennis ball is to small Morgan had to find a ball that was big enough but soft enough to play with the arms. He tried a basketball and obviously found out that that idea would not work. Then he tried to take the inner lining of the basketball called the "bladder" but he found that would be light. Finally he thought of the perfect ball and wrapped the bladder with leather. This ball was just the perfect size, shape, and weight.

After the ball was just the decided the game could get going. And it got going well. Everyone thought that volleyball was a hit. Except volleyball wasn't the name at first. Morgan called it "Mintonette". Then later on someone thought of "volley ball" (they had it as two words) since you volleyed the ball over the net so much. Volleyball became so big at the Holyoke YMCA that it soon spread to all of the YMCA'S over the United States.

The rules of volleyball have changed dramatically since Morgan started the game. At first the teams stayed in one spot the whole game and did not rotate around the court. They also had an unlimited number of hits on each side of the net. The net was about one foot shorter and players were allowed to reach all the way over the net to hit the ball. Like today the main rule of Mintonette was that the ball could never touch the ground or the other team got a point. And players were not allowed to catch the ball.

The first teams were started at YMCA'S all over the United States. The teams would get together and practice a few times a week and then they would go play games against other teams in their area. The game quickly spread to gym classes, school yard fun, high school teams, college teams, and even lunchtime breaks at peoples work places. In 1964 volleyball was added as an Olympic sport.

Volleyball was and is still a popular sport. It is one of the most rapidly growing sports in the United States. Volleyball is a very competitive sport now a days. There is indoor volleyball, which you play on a court, and outdoor volleyball, which you play on the beach. There are also Olympic teams from almost every country.


Who Started It	What Year It Started In	Where It Was Started	How It Was Made	First Rules	First Teams and Teams Around The World