People behind VolleyBall

William G. Morgan (1870-1942)

inventor of the game of volleyball

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William G. Morgan (1870-1942), who was born in the State of New York, has gone down in history as the inventor of the game of volleyball, to which he originally gave the name "Mintonette".
The young Morgan carried out his undergraduate studies at the Springfield College of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) where he met James Naismith who, in 1891, had invented basketball. After graduating, Morgan spent his first year at the Auburn (Maine) YMCA after which, during the summer of 1896, he moved to the YMCA at Holyoke (Massachusetts) where he became Director of Physical Education. In this role he had the opportunity to establish, develop, and direct a vast programme of exercises and sports classes for male adults.
His leadership was enthusiastically accepted, and his classes grew in numbers. He came to realise that he needed a certain type of competitive recreational game in order to vary his programme. Basketball, which sport was beginning to develop, seemed to suit young people, but it was necessary to find a less violent and less intense alternative for the older members.

This black and white photograph portrait of Alfred Thompson Halstead (1862-1908), a YMCA secretarial student at the YMCA Training School, now Springfield College, in 1891 andfaculty there from 1892-1895, shows him sitting in an ornate chair, looking distinguished and staring into the distance on the camera’s right. Halstead is credited for popularizingvolleyball. Invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan (1870-1942), a physical director at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts, volleyball wasoriginally intended for businessmen who desired an activity less strenuous than basketball. First played by raising a tennis net to a six foot height and using the inside bladder of abasketball as a volleyball, the game combined the rules of tennis, handball, and baseball. The game did not require a fixed number of players and went for nine innings with three"outs" per team. Although Morgan originally called this game “mintonette,” Halstead suggested “volley ball” (then two words) as a more accurate representative of the gameduring its 1896 premiere at the YMCA Sports Conference hosted by Springfield College.