In 1895, William G. Morgan developed the game “Mintonette”, otherwise known as volleyball. He originally created this game for businessmen because of its lack of physical contact. Morgan adopted many aspects from several other sports such as the net from tennis. He also borrowed skills from basketball, baseball, and handball. One day while demonstrating the game, a comment was made that the game was more about volleying, resulting in the more modern name, volleyball. After the first official game of volleyball in 1896 at Springfield College, the sport began to blossom around the world. The sport first began moving from America to Canada in 1900. This was also the year that a special ball was designed just for volleyball. Five years later, volleyball has reached Cuba, signifying the start of the volleyball era. Volleyball was one of the few sports that went international in its early days.
In 1907, volleyball recieved recognition of being one of the most popular sports of the Playground of America Convention. the first official volleyball competition was held in the Far Eastern Games in 1913. In 1916 many advancements were made to the game of volleyball. The set and spike were brought to the game from the Philippines, altering the gameplay to include this new form of offensive pass. During the same year, the game of volleyball was established in colleges and other schools as part of the standard physical education courses and intramural programs by the NCAA. A year later, the scoring system was changed so that a game ended after 15 points instead of 21, allowing more games to be played. In 1919, the American Expeditionary Forces donated 16,000 volleyballs to the troops, providing a stimulus for growth.
With this rise in growth, new rules were developed. The three hits per side rule and the back row attack rules were put into place in 1920. By 1928, the United States Volleyball Association (USVBA) was formed and the first tournament was held. In 1934, the recognition of official referees to oversee the games caused another great change to the game of volleyball. This change altered the calls and fairness of the game. The 1940s held several special events for volleyball such as the first world championship volleyball game. Around this time, over 50 million people were playing worldwide in over 60 different countries.By 1964, volleyball and finally spread enough to be inducted into the Olympic games.
The first games took place in Tokyo, where a rubber carcass with leather panels was used for the ball. Volleyball was able to grow further, placing itself as the second most played game in the world. It wasn’t until 1986 that the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association (WPVA) was formed. Volleyball had finally reached its full potential of popularity, with the growing rate of interest between men and women. Elementary, middle and high schools, as well as colleges provided courses in their physical education so that the sport was known in most households. Still trailing behind soccer for popularity, volleyball has done extremely well for a game that flourished in such a short period of time.