The history of volleyball
Volleyball continues to grow in popularity. More than 900 million people play volleyball today, and the International Volleyball Federation calls it one of the world’s biggest international sports.
So, when and where did volleyball start, and how did it become a world-wide phenomenon?
Who invented volleyball?
Back in 1895, an American educator named William G. Morgan served as director of physical education for a YMCA in Holyoke, MA. Morgan knew James Naismith, who’d invented basketball four years earlier. Morgan wanted to find a sport like basketball that would be fun to play, but which would be less physically demanding and more enjoyable for a wider range of athletes.
Morgan wound up inventing a new game that combined elements of sports like basketball, badminton, and handball. His idea was for players to hit a ball over a net using only their hands rather than racquets. Morgan started with a badminton net and called his game called “mintonette,” a combination of “badminton” and “net.”
Morgan tried using several balls borrowed from other sports, and even internal bladders from basketballs and soccer balls, but they all were too heavy or too light. Morgan turned to a now-famous sporting goods company, A.G. Spaulding & Sons, to design a new ball. He also asked two friends to help him write a set of rules.
How did volleyball get its name?
Morgan introduced his new sport at a YMCA conference in 1896, explaining that anyone could play, indoors or outdoors, just using a net and a ball. All they had to do was keep the ball moving over the net.
After watching this first demonstration, a professor named Alfred Halstead suggested that Morgan change the name to “volley ball” to better describe how players “volleyed” the ball back and forth. Morgan and the conference agreed, and the name “volley ball” lasted until 1952, when the two words were combined into today’s “volleyball.”
How quickly did volleyball grow?
The YMCA quickly spread volleyball across all of its branches in the United States, Canada and other countries. In just ten years, the Playground of America convention highlighted volleyball as one of country’s most popular sports. A 1916 magazine article estimated that 200,000 Americans already played volleyball, just 20 years after Morgan invented it.
That same year the YMCA convinced the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to publish volleyball’s rules and to write stories about the sport. Colleges quickly formed teams, and volleyball’s popularity rose even more. The United States Volleyball Association (USVA) was founded in 1928.
Volleyball grew just as fast internationally. In 1913, volleyball debuted at the first Far-Eastern Games in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. In 1947, the FIVB (the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, or International Volleyball Federation) was founded in France as a world-wide governing body for the sport. Volleyball officially joined the Olympics at the Tokyo games in 1964.
Has volleyball changed over the years?
Volleyball has matured quite a bit since William Morgan first demonstrated mintonette nearly 120 years ago. Offensive plays like sets, spikes and kills were first introduced in the Philippines in the early 1900’s. In 1920, a new rule sped up the game by limiting players to three touches before returning the ball over the net. 1999 saw the introduction of rally scoring, which allowed either team to score a point no matter which team served.
Learn more about today’s volleyball rules here.
Volleyball has reached many other milestones, but one development in particular transformed the face of the sport forever.
Who invented beach volleyball?
William Morgan invented volleyball, but no one knows for sure who took it to the beach. Many believe that beach volleyball began in Waikiki, Hawaii, when players at a club set up a net and began volleying.
The two-player sport we know today as beach volleyball probably started around 1930 at The Athletic Club in Santa Monica, CA. The story goes that, when enough players didn’t show up for a match, someone at the club decided to compete using just four players – two for each team. This new version quickly caught on, and Santa Monica soon gained fame as the beach volleyball capital of the world.
Beach volleyball debuted as a demonstration sport at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and officially joined the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. Like its indoor cousin, beach volleyball continues to attract more and more players and fans.
Learn more about the differences between indoor and beach volleyball players here.
