William G. Morgan

William George Morgan (23 January 1870 – 27 December 1942) was the inventor of volleyball, originally called "Mintonette". He was born in Lockport, New York, USA. Morgan was the eldest of his siblings. His parents were George Henry Morgan (1841-1915) and Nancy Chatfield (1848-1932). He later married Mary King Caldwell and had 4 children.

He met James Naismith, inventor of basketball, while Morgan was studying at Springfield College, Massachusetts 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 Mintonnette and renamed it "Volleyball" as the point of the game is to "volley" the "ball" back and forth over the net.

William Morgan graduated high school at Northfield Mount Hermon School and moved on to attend the YMCA International Training School (Later renamed Springfield College) in Massachusetts with James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. Both Morgan and Naismith pursued careers in Physical Education at the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association). Auburn, Maine, at the YMCA, was where Morgan spent one year working prior to graduating from Springfield College. During the summer of 1895, Morgan moved to Holyoke, Massachusetts, where he continued to work for the YMCA, becoming the Director of Physical Education. With Morgan being the Director, it allowed him to devise workout plans and teach sports in depth to the young male adult.

As William Morgan worked as the Director of Physical Education at the YMCA in Holyoke, he started to notice that the game of basketball was not meant for everyone to play. The weaker young men, non-athlete 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 where 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 your 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. x 60 ft. court, so that it could be played in gyms anywhere across the nation.

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