| Imagine a ball hit so hard it is coming toward you | | | | California. The 7959 Official Volleyball Guide lists |
| at a speed of 110 miles per hour! The ball is | | | | eighty-nine colleges and universities, which have |
| moving so fast you can hardly see it. Your job is | | | | varsity or representative teams.* The game is |
| to get under this flash of white and pass it | | | | one of the strongest intramural sports in colleges |
| accurately to the proper teammate. He, in turn, | | | | and universities. Volleyball has always been an |
| then passes the ball up to a spiker who jumps | | | | important activity among |
| high in the air and smashes this moving ball with | | | | *J. Edmund Welch, ed., 1959 Official Volleyball |
| tremendous speed over the net and into your | | | | Guide (Berne, Ind.: USVBA Printer), p. 141. |
| opponents' court. | | | | YMCAs, where the game was invented and |
| This is volleyball as played by some of the | | | | nurtured; Jewish Community Centers; city and |
| greatest athletes in the world today. The game is | | | | industrial recreation departments; and American |
| played in more than sixty countries and by more | | | | Turners. |
| than fifty million people each year. In countries | | | | The armed services of the United States are one |
| such as France, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Russia, | | | | of the big promoters of this sport. The Army and |
| Japan, Mexico, and Brazil, championship matches | | | | Air Force have invited outstanding coaches to |
| draw crowds rivaling and many times exceeding | | | | conduct clinics throughout the world. Their |
| those at football and basketball games in the | | | | command and All-World championships are |
| United States. | | | | tournaments run with the utmost attention to |
| So popular has volleyball become that it is ranked | | | | color, ceremony, proper procedure, and spectator |
| third in the world as a recreational team sport. In | | | | appeal. |
| at least twenty-five countries it is rated as a | | | | Indicative of the interest which the armed |
| leading competitive sport. Perhaps the greatest | | | | services have in volleyball is the following |
| advance occurred in 1957 when the International | | | | statement made by Maj. Gen. Herbert B. Powell at |
| Olympic Committee recognized volleyball as an | | | | the 1957 All-Army Championships. |
| official Olympic sport. | | | | Volleyball is an integral part of the Army athletic |
| Volleyball was played in the 1955 Pan-American | | | | program, and is highly effective in building the |
| Games in Mexico City and in the 1959 | | | | teamwork required in our military endeavors to |
| Pan-American Games in Chicago. The 1958 Asian | | | | gain success in combat. This activity develops the |
| Games held in Tokyo featured outstanding | | | | "keenness of eye," muscular coordination, and |
| volleyball, which attracted large crowds. The 1956 | | | | physical ability needed for the alert and aggressive |
| World Volleyball Championships in Paris drew | | | | soldier of today. By winning the right to represent |
| teams from twenty-seven countries and filled the | | | | your command in this competition, it has been |
| Palais des Sportes on several occasions with | | | | proven that you have attained the above |
| crowds of twenty-five thousand people. Another | | | | attributes, and I tender you my congratulations. |
| world's championship occurred in Rio de Janeiro in | | | | Volleyball is an extremely desirable sport judged |
| 1960. | | | | by almost any of the criteria used in evaluating |
| In the United States volleyball is played relatively | | | | activities in a physical education or recreational |
| little as an interscholastic and intercollegiate sport. | | | | program. The game is sufficiently vigorous, if |
| However, the sport is growing, and athletic | | | | properly played, to develop organic power; it calls |
| directors in schools and colleges are looking for | | | | for the development of a high degree of |
| ways to add volleyball to their competitive | | | | neuromuscular co-ordination; as a leisure time |
| programs. Wisconsin, New York, Florida, Texas, | | | | activity it must be ranked near the top in the list |
| and Pennsylvania hold state high school | | | | of games, since it can be played satisfactorily |
| championships. | | | | over such a long period of one's life; and, finally, |
| Los Angeles high schools held their first city | | | | the game stresses the importance of cooperative |
| championships for both boys and girls in 1959. | | | | effort, thus helping to develop a major quality of |
| Catholic Youth Organizations sponsor large | | | | the good citizen. |
| volleyball programs in Pennsylvania and southern | | | | |