Ten fun facts about Volleyball
Fact 1:
The game of volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan. In the next year, the game was introduced at what is now Springfield College. To demonstrate the game, Morgan brought two teams to play against each other in front of 29 directors who were attending the conference.
Fact 2:
The first World Championships for men were held in 1949 in Czechoslovakia with 10 teams attending. The Soviet Union won the gold medal while the hosting nation was awarded the silver medal. Three years later, in 1952, the first world championships for women were held in the Soviet Union who also won the tournament with Poland as runner-up.
Fact 3:
Volleyball was first introduced as an Olympic sport at the 1964 Tokyo games. An upgrade from its introduction as a non-Olympic sport in 1949. As with the world championships, the Soviet Union continued its reign as a volleyball powerhouse and won the very first Olympic gold medal in volleyball.
Fact 4:
Most volleyball players jump about 300 times a match. In addition, research has shown that a player has to jump around 5 times per play in order to score a point for his/her team.
Fact 5:
Volleyball took some of its characteristics from tennis and handball. In fact, the first volleyball net was actually a tennis net that was raised to 6.6 feet (201 centimeters).
Fact 6:
The first two-man beach game was played in 1930. But it took until 1948 before beach volleyball's first official tournament was held at California's Will Rogers State Beach in Santa Monica, California.
Fact 7:
Volleyball was called mintonette at first but it was later changed to volleyball to better reflect the nature of the game. However, at first, it was spelled as two words "volley ball" which was how it was spelled for more than 50 years until it was changed to its current one-word spelling in 1952.
Fact 8:
The first specially designed ball for the sport was created in 1900 (the company Spalding claims to have created the first volleyball a few years prior, but it is disputed).
Fact 9:
Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world with almost 1 Billion participants worldwide. With 220 national federations registered with FIVB (International Volleyball Federation), volleyball can be found in almost all corners of the world.
Fact 10:
In December 2011, The longest recorded volleyball game was played in Amstelveen, the Netherlands which lasted more than 85 hours. If that wasn't enough, a little more than six years later, in January 2017, the record was yet again broken in Amstelveen. This time the game lasted for more than a whopping 101 hours.
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