History of Volleyball

In 2007, the sport of Volleyball is 112 years old!

The sport originated in the United States, and is now just achieving the type of popularity in the U.S. that it has received on a global basis, where it ranks behind only soccer among participation sports.

Today there are more than 46 million Americans who play volleyball. There are 800 million players worldwide who play volleyball at least once a week.

In 1895, William G. Morgan, an instructor at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Mass., decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen which would demand less physical contact than basketball. He created the game of Volleyball (at that time called mintonette). Morgan borrowed the net from tennis, and raised it 6 feet 6 inches above the floor, just above the average man's head.

During a demonstration game, someone remarked to Morgan that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth over the net, and perhaps "volleyball" would be a more descriptive name for the sport. On July 7, 1896 at Springfield College the first game of "volleyball" was played.

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• 1895: William G. Morgan created the game of volleyball.



• 1900: a special ball was designed for the sport.



• 1916: in the Philippines, an offensive style of passing the ball in a high trajectory to be struck by another player (the set and spike) were introduced.



• 1917: the game was changed from 21 to 15 points.



• 1920: three hits per side and back row attack rules were instituted.



• 1922: the first YMCA national championships were held in Brooklyn, NY. 27 teams from 11 states were represented.



• 1928: it became clear that tournaments and rules were needed, the United States Volleyball Association (USVBA, now USA Volleyball) was formed. The first U.S. Open was staged, as the field was open to non-YMCA squads.



• 1930: the first two-man beach game was played.



• 1934: the approval and recognition of national volleyball referees.



• 1937: at the AAU convention in Boston, action was taken to recognize the U.S. Volleyball Association as the official National Governing Body (NGB) in the U.S.



• 1947: the Federation Internationale De Volley-Ball (FIVB) was founded.



• 1948: the first two-man beach tournament was held.



• 1949: the initial World Championships were held in Prague, Czechoslovakia.



• 1964: Volleyball was introduced to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.



• 1965: the California Beach Volleyball Association (CBVA) was formed.



• 1974: the World Championships in Mexico were telecast in Japan.



• 1975: the U.S. National Women's team began a year-round training regime in Pasadena, Texas (moved to Colorado Springs in 1979, Coto de Caza and Fountain Valley, CA in 1980, and San Diego, CA in 1985).



• 1977: the U.S. National Men's team began a year-round training regime in Dayton, Ohio (moved to San Diego, CA in 1981).



• 1983: the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) was formed.



• 1984: the U.S. won their first medals at the Olympics in Los Angeles. The Men won the Gold, and the Women the Silver.



• 1986: the Women's Professional Volleyball Association (WPVA) was formed.



• 1988: the U.S. Men repeated the Gold in the Olympics in Korea.



• 1989: the FIVB Sports Aid Program was created.



• 1990: the World League was created.



• 1995: the sport of Volleyball was 100 years old! This Web site - Volleyball.Com goes live!



• 1996: 2-person beach volleyball debuted as an Olympic Sport.



• 1997: Dain Blanton (with Canyon Ceman) becomes the first African-American professional beach volleyball player to win a tournament on the Miller Lite/AVP Tour.



• 1999: For the first time beach volleyball was included in the Pan American Games which were held in Canada.



• 2000: Olympic Beach Volleyball Men's Gold medallists: Eric Fomoimoana & Dain Blanton (USA). The women's Beach Volleyball America (BVA) announces their inaugural season of play.



• 2002: Beach volleyball court dimensions reduced to 8m x 8m per side.



• 2003: Karch Kiraly becomes the first player to earn US$3M in prize money and oldest player to win an AVP tournament at age 42 years, 9 months and 14 days. (You're never too old for volleyball!)



• 2004: Kerri Walsh and Misty May Win the Women's Olympic Beach Volleyball Title



• 2005: Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor win their second Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Open women's title and the 2005 overall women's championship.



• 2007: Misty May-Treanor passes Brazilians Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede as the winningest player since the women's competition on the international beach volleyball circuit began in 1992.