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William G. Morgan invented volleyball because basketball was too rough. He was a
1895 Event

February 9

Volleyball Invented: William Morgan Creates Mintonette

William G. Morgan invented volleyball because basketball was too rough. He was a YMCA instructor in Massachusetts. His older businessmen clients kept getting injured. So he hung a tennis net at six feet six inches and told them to bat a basketball bladder back and forth. Too light. He tried a basketball. Too heavy. A local company made him a leather ball that weighed nine ounces. He called it Mintonette. The name lasted three weeks. Someone watched a game and said "they're volleying it" — and that stuck.

February 9, 1895

131 years ago

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