William G. Morgan's application to the International YMCA Training School, 1892
Description:
William G. Morgan's original application to the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College. The application asks questions related to Morgan's personal background, his interest in working as a physical director and his background with the YMCA.
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Morgan applied after being encouraged by Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball and faculty member at the school, following a football game between the International YMCA Training School and the Mount Hermon School for Boys where Morgan was a student. Morgan graduated from the Springfield College in 1894 and began work as a physical director in Auburn, Maine. After a year, he relocated to Holyoke, MA where he became a physical director at the Holyoke YMCA. While there, Morgan recognized the need to create a game that middle-aged businessman could play as he found basketball to be too rough and rowdy. Combining elements of badminton and basketball Morgan created the game of volleyball which he originally named "mintonette." Like basketball before it, volleyball quickly gained popularity, first in the YMCAs and then across the United States and around the world.
