- Does the fact that both volleyball and basketball were invented within ten miles of one another have anything to do with the area, Springfield and Greater Springfield?
At the Hall:
In terms of quality of museum, the Volleyball Hall of Fame gets a C. In terms of historical information and intrigue however, it gets an A. As it turns out volleyball is closely linked to many of the major events of late the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
The game was invented by William G. Morgan, the Director of Physical Education at the Holyoke YMCA in 1895. Morgan was looking for a game less strenuous than basketball but that still had a "strong athletic impulse" but no "physical contact" so that local businessmen could play on their lunch breaks and after work without overexerting themselves. The game spread quickly within the YMCA organization across the U.S., and spread globally on account of Imperialism at the end of the 1800s. Because the game required team work and an honor system in scoring, it was used to spread Christianity in the Philippines, Japan, and Cuba. It spread further across the U.S. and around the world during WWI and WWII. The YMCA had strategically included the game’s rules in the Recreation and Education Programs of several of the world’s armed forces. On my Intrepid visit, there was a photo of sailors playing on the flight deck elevator. On aircraft carries, everyone but pilots could play. Further historical parallels include the roaring twenties when the game was promoted as a means to use the new found leisure time offered by economic prosperity and the Depression when was sold as a way to “cure the blues.”
Volleyball claims to be the first sport that made a global effort to establish consistent rules, style, and philosophy. By 1984, 153 volleyball federations existed globally. In Japan in 1964, the game appeared in the Olympics for the first time. It’s incredible how this little game, created in a YMCA in Holyoke, MA 1895 is so vast in its reach across American history and across the globe.
In terms of quality of museum, the Volleyball Hall of Fame gets a C. In terms of historical information and intrigue however, it gets an A. As it turns out volleyball is closely linked to many of the major events of late the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
The game was invented by William G. Morgan, the Director of Physical Education at the Holyoke YMCA in 1895. Morgan was looking for a game less strenuous than basketball but that still had a "strong athletic impulse" but no "physical contact" so that local businessmen could play on their lunch breaks and after work without overexerting themselves. The game spread quickly within the YMCA organization across the U.S., and spread globally on account of Imperialism at the end of the 1800s. Because the game required team work and an honor system in scoring, it was used to spread Christianity in the Philippines, Japan, and Cuba. It spread further across the U.S. and around the world during WWI and WWII. The YMCA had strategically included the game’s rules in the Recreation and Education Programs of several of the world’s armed forces. On my Intrepid visit, there was a photo of sailors playing on the flight deck elevator. On aircraft carries, everyone but pilots could play. Further historical parallels include the roaring twenties when the game was promoted as a means to use the new found leisure time offered by economic prosperity and the Depression when was sold as a way to “cure the blues.”
Volleyball claims to be the first sport that made a global effort to establish consistent rules, style, and philosophy. By 1984, 153 volleyball federations existed globally. In Japan in 1964, the game appeared in the Olympics for the first time. It’s incredible how this little game, created in a YMCA in Holyoke, MA 1895 is so vast in its reach across American history and across the globe.
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