Happy Birthday Volleyball

I wonder if Karch Kiraly, Misty May and Kerri Walsh all get together and throw a birthday party on February 9th every year. Well they should, because if it wasn't for the birth of volleyball on February 9th, 1895, they'd be quite out of luck. Volleyball is said to have been born on this day by William Morgan, a YMCA physical education director in Holyoke, MA. Wow. I didn't know they had YMCAs in 1895! Could you get yourself clean? Could you have a good meal? Could you do whatever you feel?

Morgan invented a game called Mintonette, played indoors with any number of players, that was intended to be similar to basketball, but less rough. Apparently for the, uh, less-than-spring-chickens who regularly hung out at the YMCA. The game was a little different back then. There were nine innings and teams did not have a limit as to the number of times they hit the ball before sending it back over the net. That seems odd... I'm seeing a whole lot of people standing around doing nothing until someone decides to give up the ball so the other team can play.

The first country to adopt volleyball outside of the U.S. - Canada. Makes sense. They needed some indoor sports too for the people who didn't like snow sports. (There are others like me - I know it)

Not sure when and where beach volleyball got its start...more on that later. In the meantime, I'm thinking up ways to celebrate the birth of my favorite sport to play. A volleyball shaped cake? Garland made of netting? Candles shaped like knee pads? Wilson party favors? I can't believe the party stores haven't caught on to this. Someone should alert them. Mark your calendars for next year!