[caption id="attachment_841" align="alignright" width="192"] *Updated 12/16/2015[/caption]

A unique team sport with a short history, volleyball is one of the few team sports that was invented in the United States; today volleyball is a favorite among many and is played all over the globe. In fact, it is considered to be the second most popular sport worldwide, coming second to soccer. Many of you I'm sure are very familiar with the game of volleyball, some of you might think you know it all-think you do? If so, test yourself and compare your knowledge to these 15 interesting facts about volleyball.

1. Volleyball was invented in 1895 in Massachusetts by William G. Morgan.
2. Volleyball was initially named "mintonette" but was changed to volleyball when Morgan heard an observer of the game point out that the players were "volleying" the ball back and forth to each other over the net.
3. In 1916, the skills of set and spike were originated during a match in the Philippines.
4. Volleyball originally was an indoor only game, beach volleyball stems back to the 1920's in California.
5. The first two-man beach game was played in 1930.
6. In 1900 the first specially designed ball for the sport was created.
7. Having over a hundred years of history, on July 7th, 1896 the first official volleyball game was played at Springfield College in Massachusetts.
8. Although in 1924 volleyball was demonstrated as an unofficial event during the Olympics that year in Paris, men's and women's volleyball wasn't introduced as an official sport at the Olympic Games until 1964 in Tokyo, Japan.
9. In 1947 the Federation International De Volleyball (FIVB) came into existence, and volleyball became an official game.
10. The first men's World Championships were held in 1949; in 1952 the first Championship was held for women.
11. During the summer of 1976, at Will Rogers State Beach, the first professional beach volleyball tournament took place. It was called the "Olympia World Championship of Beach Volleyball".
12. Beach volleyball became an Olympic sport in 1996 for both men and women.
13. Volleyball is a great workout, as most volleyball players jump about 300 times a match!
14. The only Olympic sport that has a rule prohibiting the players from wearing too much is beach volleyball.
15. 75 hours and 30 minutes is the time for the longest volleyball game ever recorded; the game took place in Kingston, North Carolina. That's quite the workout!