The roots and origins of the games we play
Para Gliding:
We don't know who was the 1st man para-glided. Some people think that it was David Barish in 1963.Videos and photos show a group of skydivers in eastern Montana in the late Seventies. They were flying their parachutes off from the small hills.
Racquetball
: The sport of Racquetball does not have a long history like many other sports that are popular today. Racquetball is a game that was developed from other popular sports in early 20th century. It is a combination of handball, tennis, a Spanish sport - Jai Alai, and squash.
Sailing
can be dated as far back as prehistoric times. They would be used for means of travel, fishing, or for recreational use. Sailing is when ships us the strong force of the wind through sails to drive the boat to move at fast speeds.
Soccer
: In King Edward's reign of England (1307-1327), laws were passed that threatened imprisonment to anyone caught playing soccer. King Edward's proclamation said:" For as much as there is a great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls, from which many evils may arise, which God forbid, we command and forbid on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city future."
Softball
originated in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, 1887. A group of about twenty young men had gathered in the gymnasium of the Farragut Boat Club in order to hear the outcome of the Harvard-Yale football game. After Yale's victory was announced and bets were paid off, a man picked up a stray boxing glove and threw it at someone.
Swimming
: The first modern Olympic Games had only four swimming events, three of them freestyle. The second Olympics in Paris in 1900 included three unusual swimming events. One used an obstacle course; another was a test of underwater swimming endurance; the third was a 4,000-metre event, the longest competitive swimming event ever. None of the three was ever used in the Olympics again.
Table Tennis:
Like most other sports, table tennis had humble beginnings as a "parlor game," open to anyone with access to a table, paddle and ball. The game was begun in the 1880s when lawn tennis players adapted their game to play indoors during the winter.
Tennis
: The nobility learned the game from the monks, and some accounts report as many as 1800 courts in France by the 13th century. The game became such a popular diversion, both the Pope and Louis IV tried unsuccessfully to ban it. It soon spread to England, where both Henry VII and Henry VIII were avid players who promoted the building of more courts.
Track and Field:
The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the nearby city of Elis, won the stadium race, a foot race 600 feet long. According to some literary traditions, this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals.
Triathlon
is defined as a three-part sports discipline comprising swimming, cycling and running. The 3 sports are contested as a continuous event without a rest. The triathlon can be an individual or team event over varying distances.
Volleyball
: The sport of volleyball, originally called "mintonette", was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, following the invention of basketball by only 4 years. Morgan, a graduate of the Springfield College of the YMCA, styled the game to be a blend of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball.
Water Polo
: There is little documentation as to the origins of water polo. It is known however, that the sport originated in the rivers and lakes of mid-19th century England as an aquatic version of rugby football. Early games used an inflated, vulcanized rubber ball imported from India known as a "pulu" (the single Indian word for all "balls"). Pronounced "polo" by the English, both the ball and the game became known as "water polo."
Wrestling
: The ancient Greek Olympics put wrestling on the map. Wrestling made its Olympic debut in the Games of 708 B.C. It was apparently a much more violent, punishing sport in those early days, when it had closer ties to military training.
Excerpted from: http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-sports-m-z.htm
