排球运动：美国教授发明Volleyball

　　The sport originated in the United States, and is now just achieving the type of popularity in the U%26#46;S%26#46; that it has received on a global basis, where it ranks behind only soccer among participation sports%26#46;

　　Today there are more than 46 million Americans who play volleyball%26#46; There are 800 million players worldwide who play Volleyball at least once a week%26#46;

　　In 1895, William G%26#46; Morgan, an instructor at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Mass%26#46;, decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen which would demand less physical contact than basketball%26#46; He created the game of Volleyball (at that time called mintonette)%26#46; Morgan borrowed the net from tennis, and raised it 6 feet 6 inches above the floor, just above the average man’s head%26#46;

　　During a demonstration game, someone remarked to Morgan that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth over the net, and perhaps "volleyball" would be a more descriptive name for the sport%26#46;

排球历史

　　1892年在美国马萨诸塞州，耐史密斯博士挂起了两个篮筐从而发明了篮球，而摩根在观察了他的朋友的新发明之后想，对于那些已过中年的商人来讲篮球运动也许过于激烈了一些。因此，四年之后，摩根发明了自己的运动项目。又过了一个世纪，他的发明——排球同篮球一道成为了奥运会上速度最快、对抗性最强的比赛项目之一。

　　摩根最初给他的发明起的名字是“mintonette”，当地的一位教授很快将其定义为一种把球击过球网的游戏，于是，它最初的名字也就发生了改变。