Volleyball, like basketball, is a sport whose origin is known almost to the day. Oddly enough, both sports were invented at the same college and within a few years of one another. Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, a student at Springfield College and a director of the YMCA at Holyoke, Massachusetts. The game was originally called "Mintonette".

同篮球一样，排球的历史可以追溯到一百多年之前。非常凑巧，两项运动在同一所大学诞生，只是时间上相差几年而已。排球是韦廉姆·G·摩根（William G. Morgan）在1895年发明的，他是美国斯普林菲尔德专科学校的学生，也是马萨诸塞州霍利奥克城的基督教青年会干事。最初这项运动被称做“Mintonette”。

Volleyball quickly spread around the world and became more popular in other countries than in the United States. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) was formed in 1946. The sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1964 by the Japanese, although it was never contested as a demonstration sport at the Olympics. No country has been truly dominant in volleyball, although the Soviet Union has won the most medals. Originally the Japanese had the world's best women players while the United States had the best men's team in the world throughout the 1980s.

排球运动很快传遍世界，而且在别的国家的流行程度甚至超过了美国。国际排球联合会(FIVB)成立于1946年。尽管排球从未作为表演项目出现在奥运会上，但1964年日本人还是将它引入了奥运会。没有一个国家曾在这个项目上真正地独占鳌头，尽管从获得奖牌数量上讲苏联占优势。最初在整个20世纪80年代，日本拥有世界最佳女子排球队，美国拥有最佳男子排球队。

Volleyball has now reached great heights of popularity in the United States and Brazil, largely thanks to the discipline of beach volleyball. The beach volleyball phenomenon, although hugely visible, is still just in its infancy. From the first FIVB World Tour event just over ten years ago, to the overwhelming spectator and television success of 'Beach' at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, beach volleyball has opened up Volleyball to a completely new market.

今天排球在美国和巴西能够很高的普及率，应归功于沙滩排球的发展。正处在起步阶段的沙滩排球运动已经颇受世人瞩目。从10多年前国际排联举办第一届世界沙滩排球巡回赛，到1996年亚特兰大奥运会和2000年悉尼奥运会“沙滩”赛场上如潮观众和电视转播的巨大成功，沙滩排球为排球运动打开了一个全新的市场。