by Debby Dyess

Created on: July 02, 2009   Last Updated: July 04, 2009

Volleyball has grown in popularity in the US in the last few years. Every week, 46 million Americans play volleyball. Ever wonder where this popular sport originated?

In 1895, William Morgan created 'mintonette', a new game that combined elements from baseball, basketball, handball and tennis. An instructor at the YMCA in Holyoke, Mass., Morgan wanted a game that would require less physical contact that basketball, but still keep his class of businessmen fit. He used a basketball, a tennis net and borrowed concepts and rules from other games. This new activity raised the tennis net to 6 feet 6 inches and demanded the strike of handball be upward. During a demonstration at the Y, a friend commented that the ball was volleyed back and forth over the net, and an early version of this modern day sport was born.

While the first official game of volleyball was played at Springfield College (Springfield, MS) on July 7, 1896, the 'volleyball' was not designed until 1900. The popularity of this game spread rapidly, and in 1907, a mere twelve years after its conception, volleyball was introduced at the Playground of America convention as one of the most popular sports in the country. But it wasn't just the US that was catching volleyball fever.

Because the YMCA has branches worldwide, the sport was also being introduced to other countries. Canada, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Orient and Southern Hemisphere all became volleyball strongholds, and as the game moved into more and more places, new elements were added. The set-and-spike move, for example, was created in the Philippines in 1916. The sport was also part of WWl. In 1919, the American Expeditionary Forces distributed 16,000 volleyballs to American, French and British forces. Providing much needed relaxation to these allied troops, it also served to further propagate fans of the new game.

In 1928 the United States Volleyball Association (now USA Volleyball) was formed to standardize rules and tournaments guidelines. That year, the first U.S. Open was held. While there had been volleyball tournaments over the past few years, this one was significantly different: it was open to non-YMCA teams.

But volleyball continued to grow, change and attract new fans. In 1946 a study showed that volleyball ranked 5th among team sports in the US. Not to be outdone, Prague, Czechoslovakia hosted the first World Championships in 1949. That same year, volleyball went to college, with collegiate volleyball being introduced to a select

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