Newcomb ball Newcomb ball Newcomb ball (also known simply as Newcomb, and sometimes spelled Newcombe (ball)) is a ball game played as a variation of volleyball. Invented in 1895 by Clara Baer, a physical education instructor at Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University in New Orleans, it rivaled volleyball in popularity and participation in the 1920s. The game is significant because it was invented by a woman and became the second team sport to be played by women in the United States, after basketball. In an article in the Journal of Sport in 1996, Joan Paul speculates that Newcomb ball may have been
YMCA YMCA in Springfield, Mass. in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a clergyman, educator and physician. Naismith was asked to create an indoor "athletic distraction" to keep rowdy youth busy in the cold New England winter months. Luther Gulick, the head of the Springfield Y, gave Naismith two weeks to come up with a game to occupy a particularly incorrigible group. Naismith decided the game had to be physically active, simple to understand and would have minimal physical roughness. The original game was played with a soccer ball and two peach baskets nailed to the balcony of the Springfield Y. The