Sports in New England Sports in New England Two popular American sports were invented in New England. Basketball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1895. Also, the first organized ice hockey game in the United States is widely believed to have been played in Concord, New Hampshire in 1883. The region is famous for its passion for baseball and the Boston Red Sox, as well as for the intense rivalry between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees. On November 1, 1924, the Boston Bruins of the National
William B. Morgan Variable Pressure Water Tunnel, and the Large Cavitation Channel (now named in his honor). Morgan was given numerous awards from national and international technical societies, academia, and the Navy. He is the only U.S. citizen to receive the William Froude Medal from the Royal Institute of Naval Architects. In 1992 he entered the National Academy of Engineering and in 1997 was awarded the Gibbs Brothers Medal by the National Academy of Sciences. William B. Morgan Dr. William B. Morgan is an American naval architect and renowned expert in propeller design. Morgan was born in Iowa, received his M.S. in Mechanics