Sport inventions led to the modern games people play today, including basketball, volleyball and football. These inventions not only created the rules of the game, but also dictated the shape and materials of modern sports equipment, and increased the safety of playing the games. Gatorade is one example of a universal sport invention that can be used by all athletes, fitness enthusiasts and professional players, regardless of the game or activity.
Basketball
Basketball was invented by a Canadian-born doctor named James Naismith. He was trying to create a game for his YMCA students in Massachusetts that required skill instead of strength. Naismith modified a game called duck-on-a-rock to devise basketball. In duck-on-a-rock, the players threw a rock at a small rock sitting on a larger rock. The first basketball game was played in 1891. During the first game, the players used a soccer ball and two peach baskets for goals.
Volleyball
William G. Morgan invented volleyball while working with a class of middle-age businessmen at the YMCA. He wanted to create a game for his class that was competitive, but less strenuous than all the running required to play basketball. The game was first called mintonette but was renamed volleyball in 1986 by Dr. Alfred Halstead while he was watching a game. He said he called it volleyball because that was what the ball was doing.
Frisbee
The Frisbee was invented at Yale University in the 1940s, modified in the 1950s by Walter Frederick Morrison, a flying-saucer enthusiast, and renamed the Frisbee by the manufacturing company Wham-O in the 1960s. A Wham-O employee discovered the flying disc at Yale while on a tour of universities to promote the company. It had become popular among the students for playing catch.
Football Helmet
Football player and Navy cadet Joseph Mason Reeves received news from his doctor that another blow to his head could cause death or instant insanity. Determined to play in the 1893 Army-Navy football game, he commissioned a shoemaker in Annapolis, Maryland, to construct a leather cap to protect his head. It was the first football helmet. The addition of earflaps and a chin strap came from Lafayette College halfback George Barclay, who worked with a harness maker to construct this second-edition helmet. He wanted to avoid getting cauliflower ear.
Gatorade
The invention of Gatorade was prompted by Ray Graves, the University of Florida football coach from 1960 to 1969. Excessive heat at Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium caused players to pass out during every practice session. Graves found that water, juice, soda and other beverages did not hydrate his players sufficiently or prevent them from passing out and being carted off to the infirmary. A research team was formed at the university, headed by Dr. Dana Shires and his colleague, Dr. Robert Cade, to formulate a beverage to fight dehydration. Gatorade was first used by the Florida football team during the 1965 season.
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