Assignment 2

History of Volleyball & Famous

Indian Players
Harish Tripathi
2K20/B17/14

Volleyball is a popular team sport that is played by using a net and a ball. There
are two teams on either side of the net that divides the court from the centre. The
game involves hitting the ball with the fist across the net to the other team's
court, and the other team hitting it back across the net within bounds.

In the winter of 1895,in Holyoke, Massachusetts (United States), William G.

Morgan, a YMCA physical education director, created a new game
called Mintonette, a name derived from the game of badminton, as a pastime to
be played (preferably) indoors and by any number of players. The game took
some of its characteristics from other sports such
as tennis and handball. Another indoor sport, basketball, was catching on in the
area, having been invented just ten miles (sixteen kilometers) away in the city
of Springfield, Massachusetts, only four years before. Mintonette was designed to
be an indoor sport, less rough than basketball, for older members of the YMCA,
while still requiring a bit of athletic effort.

The first rules, written down by William G Morgan, called for a net 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
high, a 25 ft × 50 ft (7.6 m × 15.2 m) court, and any number of players. A match
was composed of nine innings with three serves for each team in each inning,
and no limit to the number of ball contacts for each team before sending the ball
to the opponents' court. In case of a serving error, a second try was allowed.
Hitting the ball into the net was considered a foul (with loss of the point or a side-
out)—except in the case of the first-try serve.

After an observer, Alfred Halstead, noticed the volleying nature of the game at its
first exhibition match in 1896, played at the International YMCA Training School
(now called Springfield College), the game quickly became known as volleyball (it
was originally spelled as two words: "volley ball"). Volleyball rules were slightly
modified by the International YMCA Training School and the game spread around
the country to various YMCAs.

In the early 1900s Spalding, through its publishing company American Sports

Publishing Company, produced books with complete instruction and rules for the
sport.
The first official ball used in volleyball is disputed; some sources say Spalding
created the first official ball in 1896, while others claim it was created in 1900. The
rules evolved over time: in 1916, in the Philippines, the skill and power of the set
and spike had been introduced, and four years later a "three hits" rule and a rule
against hitting from the back row were established. In 1917, the game was
changed from requiring 21 points to win to a smaller 15 points to win. In 1919,
about 16,000 volleyballs were distributed by the American Expeditionary
Forces to their troops and allies which sparked the growth of volleyball in new
countries.

The first country outside the United States to adopt volleyball was Canada in
1900. An international federation, the Federation International de Volleyball
(FIVB), was founded in 1947, and the first World Championships were held in
1949 for men and 1952 for women. The sport is now popular in Brazil, in Europe
(where especially Italy, the Netherlands and countries from Eastern Europe have
been major forces since the late 1980s), in Russia, and in other countries
including China and the rest of Asia, as well as in the United States

Beach volleyball, a variation of the game played on sand and with only two
players per team, became a FIVB-endorsed variation in 1987 and was added to
the Olympic program at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Volleyball is also a sport at
the Paralympics managed by the  World Organization Volleyball For
Dissables.Nudists were early adopters of the game with regular organized play in
clubs as early as the late 1920s. By the 1960s, a volleyball court had become
standard in almost all naturist clubs.

Volleyball was introduced in India in the early 20th century, when some Indians
left for overseas countries and learnt physical education and training. They were
trained in volleyball and brought this game to India. The first organization, which
provided training of volleyball to the youngsters, was YMCA College of Physical
Education. They were also responsible to introduce this game in many other
parts of the country. Then the government formed Volleyball Federation of India
with a view to create awareness and regularize the game on pan-Indian level.

The VFI came into existence in 1951; prior to that the events regarding the game
were organized by Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Prior to the independence,
interstate volleyball championships were held once in every two years in the
men's category in India. The first meeting of VFI was held in Ludhiana in Indian
state of Punjab and it paved the way for the participation of Indian volleyball team
in international events such as Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and many
other national and international competitions.

India added the first feather to its cap by winning a gold medal in 1955, in
volleyball at the invitation Asian Meet held in Japan. Indian volleyball team
proved its excellence once again, when they won the bronze medal at the Asian
Games in Tokyo in 1958, followed by a silver medal in fourth Asian Games held in
Jakarta in 1962. However, none of the player could win the Arjuna Award from
volleyball team until 1971 and the period between 1963 to1973 was not that
noticeable. In 1974, Indian volleyball team participated in Tehran Asian Games
but they were dropped to fifth place, which was not a good sign.

Again in 1980, in the Commonwealth Games India attained third place and it was
felt that the quality of the game was improving. In the 80s, India won many
national and international events. The VFI started to promote club volleyball in
order to promote the game in line with the international standards and that is how
India joined the league of selected countries where club volleyball is prominent.

Soon the National Volleyball League Club Championship became popular all
across the country and gave birth to Final League. The club volleyball not only
made the volleyball popular, but also talented players thus got ample
opportunities to play for national team and attain greater exposure. It also
resulted into emergence of some of the top volleyball clubs in India with
volleyball players of international level.

Being played both indoors and outdoors, the Indian volleyball courts are of
18mx9m size with two halves of equal size. The height of the net is 2.43m for men
and 2.24 for women. The team of six players is divided into front & back rows and
the standard of Indian volleyball is as per international standards.

A big boost came to Indian volleyball in 1987 at the South Asian Federation
Games at Kolkata, when the Indian volleyball team won the gold medal, followed
by another gold medal in 1991 in Colombo. Women's volleyball also gained
prominence in 90s and they put a spectacular performance in SAF Games in
1993. The Indian junior volleyball team clinched the Asian title in 2003 in
Vishakhapatnam

Year Name

1961 A. Palanisamy

1962 N. Singh

1972 B. S. Ballu

1973 G.M. Reddy

1974 M.S. Rao

1975 Sub. Insp. R. Singh

1975 K.C. Elamma

1976 Jimmy George

1977-78 A. R Rao

1978-79 K Krishnan

1979-80 S.K. Mishra

1982 G.E. Sridharan

1983 R.K. Purohit

1984 Saley Joseph

1986 C. C. Valloor

1989 Abdul Basith

1990 D. S. Ror

1991 K. U. Kumar

1999 Sukhpal Singh

2000 P.V. Ramana

2001 Amir Singh

2002 R. Reddy

2010 K. J. Kapil Dev

2011 S. Kumar