William Morgan Letter to George Draper

William Morgan Letter to George Draper

Volleyball--History; Springfield College; Springfield College--Alumni and alumnae; International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (Springfield, Mass.); International Young Men's Christian Association College;

Morgan, William G.; Draper, George O.; Letters;

A letter written by William Morgan, the inventor of volleyball, in response to a letter sent to him from Springfield College, then the International YMCA College, Alumni Association president, George Draper, requesting any anecdotes he may recall regarding the history of volleyball. In his letter, Morgan responds with his account of how volleyball, which had originally been called Mintonette, received its name. During an exhibition game at the YMCA Training School (now Springfield College), faculty member Dr. Halstead suggested the name Volley Ball because of how the ball volleyed back and fourth over the net. The catalogue in the collection, so it is not known what this document is, that he mentions sending was not with this letter, though it is believed that the rules contained in this folder were the rules that he sent. Morgan graduated from Springfield College in 1894 and became a physical director at the YMCA in Auburn, Maine. In 1895 he left Maine and became a physical director at the YMCA in Holyoke, MA. While working as the physical director at the YMCA in Holyoke, Morgan developed the game of volleyball as a less strenuous alternative to basketball for middle-aged business men. Morgan's game combined elements of both basketball and badminton and was first debuted at Springfield College. Morgan left the YMCA in 1897 to begin work with General Electric and Westinghouse but maintained his ties to the college and the game he created. Morgan died in 1942 at the age of 72.

192 Elmwood Ave
Lockport, NY
March 3, 32-

Mr. George O. Draper-
Springfield, Mass.

Dear Mr. Draper-

In reply to yours of Feb 26th I would say most of the facts connected with the creation of Volley Ball will be found in the 1917 catalogue which was in that collection I sent you, but perhaps it will be of interest to know why it was called Volley Ball.
We gave the exhibition mentioned in the catalogue, and about that time I visited Dr. Halstead of the Training School faculty who asked me what we called the game; no name had been decided upon but we had spoken of it as “Mintonette”. He didn’t think that was appropriate and in as much as the ball was vollied back and forth over the net we decided to name it Volley Ball. I can think of no other items which would be of general interest.
With best wishes-
William G. Morgan

Processed;

Morgan, William G.

Springfield College

1932-03-03

2012-03-15

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MS 511 William G. Morgan Papers

http://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15370coll2/id/1584

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ms511-01-04-002