The game of volleyball, invented in Massachusetts, was intended as an alternative to basketball, which is also rooted in Massachusetts.

Olympics.com says, “History has it that William G. Morgan, who invented the game of volleyball in 1895, came up with the idea so that people who found basketball’s ‘bumping’ or ‘jolting’ too strenuous could have an alternative physical activity to fall back on.”

Morgan, who served as the physical director at the Young Men’s Christian Association in Holyoke, Massachusetts, “introduced the sport – called mintonette, the original name of volleyball – at the YMCA Physical Director’s Conference a year later at Springfield College, Massachusetts.”

Volleyball “traced its origins” to basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball can be found in the game of volleyball, says Olympic.com. Over 800 million people play volleyball worldwide.

In 2014, the Massachusetts Senate voted to make volleyball the state’s official “recreational and team sport.”

Volleyball is not without controversy these days over the inclusion of trans athletes in the NCAA women’s volleyball program.

Fox Sports reported on a “mass exodus” of players from the San Jose State University women’s program after a “controversy-ridden season involving a trans athlete on the team.”

Basketball was invented in 1891 at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Canadien-American James Naismith, a physical educator, physician, Christian Chaplin, and sports coach.

Basketball was named the official state sport of Massachusetts in August of 2006.

Massachusetts is home to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield and the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke.