Newcomb ball

Newcomb ball

Newcomb featured in Spalding's Red Cover series of athletic handbooks in 1914
Highest governing body	National Newcomb Advisory Committee (now defunct)
Nicknames	Nuke 'em
First played	1895
Characteristics
Contact	No
Team members	Up to 20 per team
Type	Team
Equipment	Similar to volleyball
Presence
Olympic	No

Newcomb ball (also known simply as Newcomb, and sometimes spelled Newcombe (ball)) is a ball game played as a variation of volleyball.

Invented in 1895 by Clara Baer, a physical education instructor at Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University in New Orleans, it rivaled volleyball in popularity and participation in the 1920s. The game is significant because it was invented by a woman and became the second team sport to be played by women in the United States, after basketball. In an article in the Journal of Sport in 1996, Joan Paul speculates that Newcomb ball may have been an influence in the development of volleyball.

Baer invented the game of Newcomb as the result of an effort "to place before her students a game that could be easily arranged, could include any number of students, could be played in any designated time and in any available space". The game was first publicised in an article by Baer in the Posse Gymnasium Journal, where the name "Newcomb" was first coined. A more detailed paper was later prepared for the American Physical Education Association, which was received with "hearty approval". Baer first officially published a description of the game in 1895, together with the first book of rules for women's basketball.

Originally, Newcomb ball involved two teams placed facing each other in a small gymnasium, the object being for one team to "throw the ball into the other team’s area with such direction and force that it caused the ball to hit the floor without being caught." This was called a “touch-down” and scored a point for the throwing team.