William G. Morgan

William G. Morgan

William George Morgan (January 23, 1870 – December 27, 1942) was the inventor of volleyball, originally called "Mintonette", a name derived from the game of badminton which he later agreed to change to better reflect the nature of the sport. He was born in Lockport, New York, U.S. He met James Naismith, inventor of basketball, while Morgan was studying at Springfield College 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. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William G. Morgan has received more than 529,232 page views. His biography is available in 36 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 35 in 2019). William G. Morgan is the 48th most popular inventor (down from 35th in 2019), the 425th most popular biography from United States (down from 295th in 2019) and the 10th most popular American Inventor.

William George Morgan is most famous for being the inventor of the game of volleyball. He created the game in 1895 while working as a physical education director at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Volleyball quickly gained popularity and became an Olympic sport in 1964. Today, it is one of the most widely played sports in the world.