Volley ball history

The game of volley ball can really be said to have been invented on the 9^th February 1895 in Holyoke Massachusetts USA by William G. Morgan, a Physical training director of the YMCA, who called this new game mintonette.

William Morgan created volley ball, or Mintonette, as a pastime that could be played indoors and enjoyed by any number of players. He wanted a game that most members of the YMCA could play and he based his game, later known as volley ball on a mix of tennis, handball and fist ball. Another new sport, basket ball, was also a YMCA game and although Morgan was impressed by basket ball he wanted a game that was not so rough and physical and which could be played by the older YMCA members.

The name Volley ball was coined by an observer present at the first exhibition match, played at the international YMCA training school in Springfield in1896. Arthur Halstead was a spectator who was struck by the volleying nature of the game and he suggested that volley ball may be a more appropriate name.

A special ball was developed for volley ball in 1900 by Spalding and by the same year

volley ball was already being played throughout the YMCAs of America.

The YMCA then promoted the game further and spread volley ball to their overseas outposts where it reached Canada first, and then was taken to schools in Asia and the southern hemisphere with their missionary workers. Volley ball quickly became so popular in the East that the Oriental Games of 1913 included volley ball even though it was not yet an Olympic sport.

The rules of volleyball gradually evolved over this early period. In 1916, in the Philippines, the nature of volley ball became more aggressive with the introduction of the game play of setting up an attack and the spike and by 1920 some of the early rules invented by Morgan had been changed.

The spread of volley ball continued, aided by the US Army who both played and distributed volley balls to their troops and allies in 1919 and over the years volley ball grew in popularity and gradually the rules evolved.

In the 1924 summer Olympics in Paris, volley ball was played as an American sports demonstration event and volley ball continued its rise to popularity, becoming quickly well known throughout Europe, especially in the Netherlands, Italy and Eastern Europe.

In 1928: it became clear that tournaments and standard rules for volley ball were needed, so the United States Volleyball Association was formed and they staged the first U.S. Open volley ball competition. It was called “open” because it was available to non YMCA teams who up until then had dominated the world of volley ball in the USA.

In 1947, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), an international federation was founded in Paris. This came out of a need to have a governing body for volley ball and was composed from all the early European volley ball federations. This led to the first men’s world competition taking place in 1949, with the women’s world competition following in 1952. Volley ball was first included as an Olympic sport in 1964 when the USSR won both the men’s and women’s medals and volley ball has continued to be played at Olympic level with Brazil, Italy, the USA and the ex USSR dominating the medal winning tally.

Beach volley ball was first played in Hawaii on Waikiki beach Honolulu when nets were put up on the beach in order to give surfers something to do when not surfing. First played as casual games, volley ball soon became more structured and developed into organised 6 man matches.

Beach volleyball really became popular when it started being played in California in the 1920s when the beach area of Santa Monica was developed by the building of new jetties that created a large public sandy area. Volley ball nets were erected on this public beach and by 1922 many private beaches had followed suite leading to the development of beach volley teams.

Beach volley ball quickly rose in popularity because of its appeal as a low cost form of family fun at the beach. It’s wide appeal spread beach volley ball all round the world becoming especially popular on the beaches and outside spaces of Eastern Europe where it has been recorded as being played as early as the 1930s. Beach volley ball was given an added boost in the USA during the Great Depression of the 1930s when thousands of Americans flocked to the beaches to play beach volley ball because it was a virtually no cost way of spending time and a free source of entertainment.

By 1950s volley ball competitions were being held in California where beach volleyball was usually on an entertainment programme that included beauty contests and singing competitions.

The first professional beach volley ball competitions in America started in the 1970s and were usually sponsored by drink and cigarette companies, however the game was finally recognised by the FIVB in 1986.

Beach volley ball was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and was first included properly in the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.

For a sport that was only invented 110 years ago, volley ball has spread across the world very quickly and continues to rise in popularity whether played at club level, internationally, on the beach, or just for fun in the garden.