Today In Sports History (February 9, 1895)

On this day in 1895, William “WG” Morgan created the game of volleyball in Holyoke, Massachusetts at a YMCA. Morgan claims that the at-the-time recently created game of basketball inspired volleyball. Originally, volleyball was called mintonette, a combination of basketball, tennis, baseball and handball. The game of mintonette initially went for nine innings like baseball, but that also changed over time. In 1896, it was suggested to Morgan that the name of the game be changed to volleyball. Volleyball continues to be played by a large amount of people today, however it was primarily considered a women’s sport in some regions of the country.