Page "YMCA" Paragraph 32

In 1891, James Naismith, a Canadian-American, invented basketball while studying at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts ( later to be named Springfield College ).

Naismith had been asked to invent a new game in an attempt to interest pupils in physical exercise.

The game had to be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play indoors in winter.

Such an activity was needed both by the Training School and by YMCAs across the country.

Naismith and his wife attended the 1936 Summer Olympics when basketball became one of the Olympic events.

In 1895, William G. Morgan from the YMCA of Holyoke, Massachusetts, invented the sport of volleyball as a slower paced alternative sport, in which the older Y members could participate.

In 1930, Juan Carlos Ceriani from the YMCA of Montevideo, Uruguay, invented the sport of futsal as a synthesis of three indoor sports, handball, basketball, and water polo, maintaining the motivation of the sport foot-ball ( soccer ) on playgrounds reduced.