Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in 1895 after he became the director of physical education at the Young Men's Christian Association in Holyoke, Mass. The sport was created as a blend of basketball, tennis and handball that would have less physical contact than other sports, thus making it well suited for older businessmen. The early rules of the game borrowed from other sports and were much more recreational instead of competitive like today's volleyball rules.
Ball and Net
Morgan's colleague James Naismith invented basketball in 1891 and Morgan borrowed the rubber bladder out of that ball in the initial games of volleyball. This created a ball that bounced well when struck, but was not as hard. The net used in original volleyball games was a repurposed tennis net. It was hung from two poles on either side of the court so the top edge of the net was 6 feet, 6 inches off of the ground.
Court and Players
The court used in Morgan's first incarnations of the game was large by today's standards. Each half of the court was 25 square feet, with the net perpendicularly dividing the halves. Within each half of the court, a team was allowed to have as many players as it wanted. This number was soon reduced to nine players per team and would later be reduced further to six, which is the rule still followed for standard volleyball games.
Game Format
The original game play rules of volleyball heavily borrowed from another popular American sport: baseball. The game was divided into nine innings and each team was allowed to serve the ball three times per inning. The point of the game was to keep the ball in play over the net; if it contacted the net, it was a foul for the offending team. A team was allowed to hit the ball as many time as necessary to get it over to the opposing side of the net. This made for a much slower-paced game than modern day volleyball.
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