page_title: William G. Morgan
section_title: Creating the sport
hierarchical_section_title: William G. Morgan / Creating the sport
caption_attribution_description: English: The interior of the old gymnasium where William G. Morgan developed volleyball in Holyoke, Massachusetts
context_page_description: William George Morgan was the inventor of volleyball, originally called "Mintonette", a name derived from the game of badminton which he later agreed to change to better reflect the nature of the sport. He was born in Lockport, New York, U.S.A.
  He met James Naismith, inventor of basketball, while Morgan was studying at Springfield College in 1892. Like Naismith, Morgan pursued a career in Physical Education at the YMCA. Influenced by Naismith and basketball, in 1895, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Morgan invented "Mintonette" a less vigorous team sport more suitable for older members of the YMCA but one that still required athletic skill. Later Alfred S. Halstead watched it being played and renamed it "Volleyball", because the point of the game is to volley the ball back and forth over the net.
  In 1985, he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame as the inaugural member.
context_section_description: As he worked as the Director of Physical Education at the YMCA in Holyoke, he noticed that the game of basketball was not meant for everyone to play. The weaker young men, non-athletic adults, and the older adults were not able to keep up with running up and down the court, along with the amount of contact they would occasionally run into. Morgan then had to think of a game in which everyone would have an equal amount of participation but also had similar objectives to basketball. He wanted to create a game which everyone could play, no matter their age or physical ability.
  Between trying to run classes at the YMCA                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     and creating a new sport suitable for all, Morgan decided it was best that he use ideas from various sports such as handball, tennis, and badminton, and his own knowledge from sports training methods and experience, to create this new sport. He decided that the game would involve a six-foot, six-inch net in the middle dividing the 2 separate playing areas, and that it would be played on a 30 ft. × 60 ft. court, so that it could be played in gyms anywhere across the nation.
  After creating some ground rules, William Morgan had to experiment with his game. First, he had to decide which ball to use. A basketball was too heavy while the basketball bladder was too light. After testing all of the balls he had available, he had come to the conclusion that his best option was to ask A.G. Spalding & Bros. to make him a ball. A young A.G. Spalding & Bros. equipment designer and master marine cloth tailor, Dale Callaghan, developed and produced the first prototype volleyball. Morgan was very pleased with Spalding & Bros. work. They created Morgan the perfect ball for his sport, which was covered in leather, with the circumference of 25–27 inches. The ball was also the perfect weight for Morgan's sport. The ball weighed 9–12 ounces. This new ball that had been made for Morgan's sport was the perfect finishing touch to the basics of the sport. The last thing that had to be done by Morgan was to create a name. Morgan came up with "Mintonette" as the new name for his game.
caption: The YMCA gymnasium where Morgan developed volleyball, in Holyoke
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