Editing Volleyball (section)

=== Origins ===
{{Further|YMCA}}
[[File:William G. Morgan.jpg|thumb|[[William G. Morgan]] in {{Circa|1915}}]]
[[William G. Morgan]] invented the sport in 1895 while he was the [[YMCA]] physical education director in [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The International Association Training School Notes (vol. 4 no. 8), October, 1895 |url=https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16122coll3/id/389/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602014956/https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16122coll3/id/389/ |archive-date=June 2, 2019 |access-date=May 31, 2018}}</ref> Because he originally derived the game from badminton, he initially named the sport ''mintonette''.<ref>{{cite web |date=2016-01-30 |title=In 1895, William Morgan Invents Mintonette |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/1895-william-morgan-invents-mintonette/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929075629/http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/15634-2/ |archive-date=September 29, 2018 |access-date=25 October 2021 |publisher=New England Historical Society |quote=Putting his mind to the challenge, Morgan examined the rules of sports such as [[baseball]], basketball, handball and badminton. Taking pieces from each, he created a game he called Mintonette. He took the name from badminton}}</ref> He was a one-time student of [[basketball]] inventor [[James Naismith]] and invented the game for his clients at the YMCA, most of whom were middle-aged businessmen for whom the physical demands of basketball were too great.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Berkshire encyclopedia of world sport |date=2005 |publisher=Berkshire Pub. Group |isbn=978-0-9743091-1-8 |editor-last=Levinson |editor-first=David |volume=3 |location=Great Barrington, Mass |pages=1142 |editor-last2=Christensen |editor-first2=Karen}}</ref>

The first rules, written down by Morgan, called for a net {{convert|6|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} high, a {{convert|25|x|50|ft|m|abbr=on}} court, and any number of players. A match was composed of nine innings with three serves for each team in each inning, and no limit to the number of ball contacts for each team before sending the ball to the opponents' court. In case of a serving error, a second try was allowed. Hitting the ball into the net was considered a foul (with loss of the point or a side-out)—except in the case of the first-try serve.<ref name="ncva" />

After an observer, Alfred Halstead, noticed the volleying nature of the game at its first exhibition match in 1896, played at the International YMCA Training School (now called [[Springfield College]]), the game quickly became known as ''volleyball'' (it was originally spelled as two words: "''volley ball''{{-"}}). Volleyball rules were slightly modified by the International YMCA Training School and the game spread around the country to various YMCAs.<ref name="ncva">{{cite web|url=http://www.ncva.com/page.aspx?id=14 |title=How Volleyball Began |access-date=2007-09-21 |publisher=Northern California Volleyball Association |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701143054/http://www.ncva.com/page.aspx?id=14 |archive-date=July 1, 2007 }}</ref><ref name="FIVB Volleyball History">{{cite web |title=The Volleyball Story |url=http://www.fivb.com/EN/volleyball/story.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070127012658/http://www.fivb.com/EN/Volleyball/story.htm |archive-date=January 27, 2007 |access-date=2007-09-21 |publisher=Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB)}}</ref>

In the early 1900s [[Spalding (company)|Spalding]], through its publishing company American Sports Publishing Company, produced books with complete instruction and rules for the sport.<ref>{{cite book |title=Books Added, 1911–1915: Five Year Cumulation of the Book Bulletin of the Chicago Public Library |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eMtAAAAYAAJ&q=spalding+athletic+library+how+to+sprint%2F&pg=RA1-PA317 |publisher=The Chicago Public Library |date=January 1916 |pages=317–320}}</ref>