Last Updated: September 25, 2023
As a volleyball enthusiast, knowing the sport’s history is important. It helps you understand the game’s roots and how it evolved into what it is today.
In this post, I will review volleyball’s history, highlighting how it began, where and who started it, and what developments it has undergone. Additionally, I’ll also discuss its international governing body.
If this history looks like something you’d want to learn, keep reading.
The Beginning
Volleyball can be traced back to very humble beginnings. Its origin is pinned to William G. Morgan, born in 1870. (1)
Morgan undertook his university studies at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Springfield College. It is while there that he met and interacted with James Naismith – the man who had earlier invented basketball.
One year after graduating, William G. Morgan moved to the YMCA in Holyoke, Massachusetts (2), where he became the director of physical education. This role allowed him to develop, establish, and direct various sports and exercise programs for male adults.
During this time, basketball had begun developing as a sport, but it suited younger people because of the intensive energy needed to play it. So, this sparked the idea of developing a less intensive and less violent sport suitable even for the older members.
After much research and consideration, in 1895, William invented volleyball as a fallback activity for basketball players who found the game’s ‘jolting’ and ‘bumping’ a bit strenuous. Initially, he referred to the game as Mintonette.
William Morgan then approached John Lynch and Dr. Frank Wood, his friends from Holyoke, to help him assemble volleyball’s basic concepts and the first 10 rules.
He introduced it a year later, in 1986, at the YMCA physical director’s conference at Springfield College in Massachusetts. This conference brought together all YMCA physical education directors, before which Morgan demonstrated his proposed game.
William Morgan put together two teams of five people each and some fans and brought them to Springfield to make the demonstration. One of the teams’ captains was J.J Curran and the other was John Lynch, who were mayor and Chief of Holyoke fire brigade, respectively.
During the Conference, Morgan explained that the new game, volleyball, was by design meant to be played indoors but could also be played outdoors. He added that the number of players was not limited to 5 but unlimited, and the game’s objective was to keep the ball in constant motion from one side to the other over the high net.
At the time of its introduction, volleyball was incomplete. It had no concrete rules or specific format that guided its play. Nonetheless, Morgan explained the few rules he formulated with the assistance of his friends and handed the YMCA physical education directors present at the conference hand-written copies of the rules to guide them as they developed the game. A special committee was constituted to study the game’s rules and give suggestions for its teaching and promotion.
In the 1896 edition of Physical Education, a brief report on volleyball and its rules was published. In 1897, the sport’s rules were included in the North American YMCA Athletic League’s first official handbook,
As a result, the delegation was convinced and won over, and thus, volleyball became part of the YMCA’s broad network.
Mintonette, Volley Ball and Volleyball
Initially, volleyball was referred to as Mintonette. How did the name change occur?
During the demonstration game at YMCA College in Springfield, Professor Alfred T. Halstead, who was among the delegates present, noted the ball movement. He then called the attention of everyone to the ball’s movement and remarked that the players seemed to be volleying the ball continuously over the net.
He then suggested changing the name from “Mintonette” to “Volley Ball” since the latter was more descriptive of the game. Morgan and the conference adopted this suggestion, and the name was changed.
The name Volley Ball survived the years until it was slightly altered in 1952 by the Administrative Committee of the United States Volleyball Association (3). The committee voted to spell Volley Ball as a single word, “Volleyball.”
Origin of Volleyball Equipment
Perhaps you are wondering, if the sport was a new invention, how was the volleyball’s equipment pieced up?
During volleyball’s introduction, William explained how he put together the sport’s equipment.
He explained that tennis crossed his mind as he looked for an alternative sport for the basketball players. However, playing tennis requires balls, rackets, a net, and other equipment. So the entire game wasn’t a viable option, safe for the net, which seemed great. So, volleyball adopted the net from tennis, and the height of the net was raised as high as above the head of an average man.
After finding the net, the sport needed a ball. Since it was basketball-inspired, the basketball bladder was the first ball they tried out. This was light and slow. They also tried the basketball itself, but this was not only too big but also heavy.
Eventually, Morgan approached A.G Spalding & Bros. to make a ball suitable for volleyball. The company did this at their factory close to Chicopee, Massachusetts. (4)
The outcome was good enough: a leather-covered ball with an inner rubber tube and a circumference between 25 and 27 inches (63.5 and 68.6 centimeters, respectively). Its weight was between 9 and 12 ounces (252 and 336 grams).
This new ball was lighter and smaller, just what was needed. It was introduced in 1900 and opened up various technical and tactical possibilities for volleyball.
How Volleyball Developed
After its introduction, the following years saw many of the game’s new rules being drawn up. The game banked heavily on the YMCA’s vast popularity to go worldwide. YMCA had established solid foundations in Africa, China, India, South America, and Europe, which was invaluable in helping promote volleyball in such regions.
In 1896, volleyball, through the YMCA network, reached Asian and Japanese regions, and over the next two decades, rules and structures were put in place.
In 1916, the “set” and “spike” were created in the Philipines, a new method of offensively playing the game. It was called the ‘Filipino bomb’ or ‘bomba’ because of the ball’s landing pace in the opponent’s court.
Two years later, the six-a-side play was set to be the standard. Rules mandating back-row attacks and three hits per side were instituted by 1920.
During the 1920s, Russia, the United States, and Japan started national volleyball associations. The U.S. soldiers also took the sport overseas during the Second World War, which caused the game to spread speedily across Europe.
In this period, Volleyball was restricted to just a few regions, and different countries had varied rules. But this changed in 1947 when Volleyball’s international governing body was formed.
A few years later, France joined the list of countries recognizing the sport nationally.
In 1949, Volleyball was made a non-Olympic sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the first men’s World Championships took place in the same year. Three years later, the first world championships for women were held.
Over time, the Russians dominated the sport until mid-1980, when the U.S. teams won back-to-back gold in 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul).
Volleyball’s International Governing Body
Since it was introduced, volleyball had no international governing body. But in 1947, the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) was established.(5)
Representatives from 14 nations (Brazil, Belgium, Egypt, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Uruguay, Yugoslavia, and the USA) met in Paris to set up a volleyball international governing association.
This meeting was done under the leadership of France’s Paul Libaud, who assumed office as the association’s first president. He held the position up until 1984.
The FVIB has consistently grown and is one of the largest sporting organizations worldwide. In addition to the world championships, the game’s biggest attraction, the governing association has developed additional events over the years, such as the FVIB World Cup, FVIB World League, FVIB Grand Prix, and FVIB Grand Champions Cup.
Olympics Volleyball
After the FVIB took over the governing of volleyball, the sport gained massive popularity, and in 1957, the International Olympic Committee granted indoor volleyball Olympic status.
In 1964, the Sport made its debut during the Tokyo Games.
Since the sport was granted Olympic Status, Italy, Brazil, and the erstwhile Soviet Union have taken home the most medals in the men’s Olympic volleyball. Each of them has six medals. The South American team leads the honors with three gold and three silver medals.
Only six countries have won the women’s Olympic volleyball gold medal. The Soviet Union tops the list of most medals won with six: two silvers and four golds.
During the Summer Olympics between 1964 and 1980, the Soviet Union and Japan participated in each of the four gold medal matches. In the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan won its first-ever gold. But in the two subsequent matches in 1968 and 1972, the Soviet Union beat Japan to win the gold. In 1976, Japan won its second gold in Montreal.
The Soviet Union won two more golds in 1980 at Moscow and 1988 at Seoul.
In 1984, China won the first of its medals in Los Angeles and the second one in 2004 in Athens.
Cuba bagged three golds in a row. The first was in 1992 in Barcelona, the second in 1996 in Atlanta, and the third in 2000 in Sydney.
In the history of women’s Olympic volleyball games, Brazil became the third country to win gold in a row by bagging the first in 2008 at the Beijing Games and the second in 2012 during the London Games.
The women’s volleyball Olympic reigning Champion is the U.S. They won the 2020 Tokyo Games after beating Brazil.
Since its introduction, the women’s volleyball in Olympics has undergone some major changes. One of them is the number of teams that play. In 1964, at the Tokyo Games, the women’s category was played by only six teams. The number of teams was doubled by 1988, and 12 teams have played ever since.
Recommended read: Demystifying Volleyball’s Scoring System Point by Point
Beach Volleyball
Beach Volleyball can also be traced back to the United States, although it did not spread as fast. It was included in the Atlanta Games Olympic program in 1996, which helped popularize it globally and take the sport to an entirely new level.
Over the years, America has dominated this event: it has won seven golds, two silvers, and two bronzes so far.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in 1997 succeeded their Olympic bow. This event is hosted once every two years, with Brazil being the most successful country, having bagged 12 gold medals.
History of Volleyball in Summary
William G. Morgan invented the sport in 1890. Being one of the physical education directors in the YMCA, he first introduced the idea within the organization. He did this at a physical education directors’ conference, and the idea was adopted. In the event, the name Volley Ball was suggested to replace the game’s initial name, Mintontte. The name was later changed to one word, “Volleyball.”
YMCA’s adoption of the sport fueled volleyball’s widespread knowledge worldwide. Since its invention, the sport’s basics with rules and regulations have been fine-tuned. An international governing body, FIVB, was also formed in 1947 to assist in streamlining the sports.
Initially, individuals mostly engaged in volleyball for recreation or leisure, with just a few international competitions and activities. But volleyball has become more competitive over the years, requiring a high technical and physical performance.
Currently, the game is experiencing great recognition stemming from the success of global competitions such as the FVIB World League, FVIB World Championships, FVIB World Cup, FVIB Grand Prix, and the Olympic Games. The participation levels at all these levels continue to grow exponentially, pushing the sport further.
Beach volleyball, since its introduction in the Atlanta Olympic games, also enjoys an overwhelming spectatorship that grows as time goes by.
The extraordinary success of volleyball has opened it up to entirely new markets.