History of Volleyball.
On February 9, 1895, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, William G. Morgan, a
YMCA physical education director, created a new game called
Mintonette as a pastime to be played preferably indoors and by any
number of players.
The game took some of its characteristics from tennis and handball.
Another indoor sport, basketball, was catching on in the area,
having been invented just ten miles away in the city of Springfield,
Massachusetts only four years before. Volleyball was designed to be
an indoor sport less rough than basketball for older members of the
YMCA, while still requiring a bit of athletic effort.
The first rules, written down by Morgan himself, called for a net 6
feet 6 inches high; a 25 x 50 foot court; any number of players; a
match composed of 9 innings with 3 serves for each team in each
inning; and no limit to the number of ball contacts allowed each
team before sending the ball to the opponents’ court. In case of a
serving error, a second try was allowed and a ball hitting the
net was to be considered a foul except in the case of the first-try
serve . To protect the fingers of the ladies, they were allowed to
catch the ball and then throw it again.
After an observer noticed the volleying nature of the game at its
first exhibition match in 1896 played at the Springfield YMCA, the
game quickly became known as volleyball (originally spelled as two
words).
Volleyball rules, along with rules for basketball, were
slightly modified by the Springfield YMCA and spread around the
country to other YMCA locations.
