10 Facts about Volleyball You May Have Not Known

by | Feb 26, 2020 | Volleyball Info

John Speraw

Looking to stockpile your volleyball info? Check out 10 fun volleyball facts to serve your friends during your next trivia night. 

  1. The first person in men’s volleyball to win an NCAA championship as a head coach, assistant coach and player was John Speraw. Speraw actually won three championships as the head coach at University of California Irvine (2007, 2009, 2012); three championships as an assistant coach at UCLA (1996, 1998, 2000); and two championships as a middle blocker for UCLA (1993, 1995). Speraw is currently the head coach for the USA Men’s National Team and UCLA Men’s Volleyball. 
  2. NBA player Wilt Chamberlain also played professional indoor volleyball and doubles beach volleyball. While he played center for the Warriors, 76ers, and Lakers, he also played in and was president of the International Volleyball Association (which ended in 1979). Standing 7’1”, Chamberlain first discovered volleyball while recovering from a knee injury during the 1969-70 season with the Lakers and loved it so much that he played for the Seattle Smashers after he retired from the NBA in 1974. 
Wilt Chamberlain didn’t pick up volleyball until he was in his 30s. Photo courtesy of volleyballmag.com.

3. Although volleyball has been an Olympic sport since 1964, Team USA didn’t win its first gold medal in men’s volleyball until 1984. That year, the Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles, and teams played volleyball at Long Beach Arena. Doug Beal coached that team, and Bill Neville acted as an assistant coach. Neville went on to coach the 1992 Olympic team. The 1984 games also marked the first time Karch Kiraly won gold indoors.

4. Volleyball was first invented in Holyoke, Massachustes in 1895 by William G. Morgan, a YMCA director. Morgan created it as an indoor sport for the YMCA’s older members. Adapting rules from badminton, Morgan called the sport Mintonette (literally, little badminton). In 1896, an observer of the game namedAlfred Halstead, x, noticed the way the ball volleyed across the net, and renamed the sport volleyball. The sport quickly spread to other YMCAs across the country. 

5. Karch Kiraly was the first player ever to win Olympic medals in both indoor and beach volleyball. He first won gold for indoor volleyball in the 1984 Olympics, then for beach volleyball in the 1996 Olympics. Kiraly has coached the USA Women’s National Volleyball Team since 2012, and will continue coaching them at the 2020 Olympics. 

Karch Kiraly at the 2007 Hermosa Beach Open. Photo courtesy of volleyballmag.com.

6. NBA player Vince Carter was named the 1994 Volleyball Conference Player of the Year in High School. Carter will retire after the 2019-2020 season with the Atlanta Hawks. He told USA Today that he was made fun of for playing volleyball at Mainland High School inDaytona Beach, Fla. because the sport wasn’t popular. He said he continued playing volleyball because it helped him work on his jump. Maybe Carter will follow in the steps of Chamberlain and pick up volleyball again after he retires. 

7. The average height of members of the USA Men’s National Teamis 1.99 meters, or 6 feet, 5 inches. By comparison, the average height of an NBA player is 2.01 meters, or 6 feet, 7 inches. Height is part of the reason why basketball players also make great volleyball players. The tallest players on Team USA are Jeffrey Jendryk and Jake Langlois, who both stand 6 feet, 10 inches tall. The shortest player is Dustin Watten, who is exactly 6 feet tall. 

Jake Langlois leads BYU in kills this season/BYU Photo. Photo courtesy of volleyballmag.com.

8.The International Olympic Committee introduced volleyball into the Olympics on Sept. 24, 1957 and made the Federation Internationale De Volleyball (FIVB) its international governing body. However, the first time a team could medal in volleyball wasn’t until the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games. The USSR took the very first men’s Olympic gold medal for volleyball, and Japan took the first women’s gold medal. The USSR actually holds the record for most Olympic medals for volleyball. 

9.In December 2011 in the Netherlands, The Guinness World Record for volleyball lasted 85 hours. The members of the SVU Volleybal were the ones who played the longest marathon involving a total of 63 matches consisting of 338 sets totaling 14,635 points.

10. The fastest serve ever recorded in volleyball was 83.2 mph. Matey Kaziyski served this ball playing for Bulgaria in 2012.