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Baseball
Invented in New York, in 1845 by Alexander Cartright. The first MLB game was held on May 4th, 1871. -
Football
Invented in New Jersey, in 1869 by Walter Camp. The first NFL game was in 1920 -
Softball
Created in Illinois, in 1887 by George Hancock. The first women's team was formed in 1895 at Chicago's West Division High School. -
Basketball
Made in Massachusetts in 1891 by James Naismith. It was invented to get his students involved at Kansas University. -
Volleyball
Made in Massachusetts in 1895 by William Morgan. Morgan, a teacher at YMCA, decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen that would demand less physical contact than basketball. -
Water Skiing
Created in Minnesota in 1922 by Ralph Samuelson. It was invented when Ralph Samuelson used a pair of boards as skis and a clothesline as a towrope on Lake Pepin in Lake City, Minnesota. Samuelson experimented with different positions on the skis for several days until 2 July 1923, which he first performed in the summer of 1922 in Lake City, Minnesota, just before his 19th birthday. -
Windsurfing
Pennsylvania, 1948 by Newman Darby. 20-year-old Newman Darby was the first to conceive the idea of using a handheld sail and rig mounted on a universal joint so that he could control his small catamaran—the first rudderless sailboard ever built that allowed a person to steer by shifting his or her weight in order to tilt the sail fore and aft. -
Racquetball
New York, 1952 by Joseph Sobek. A professional tennis and American handball player, Sobek sought a fast-paced sport that was easy to learn and play. -
Snowboarding
Michigan 1965, by Sherman Poppen. Poppen’s initial prototype was a simple design: two skis that were cross-braced together. -
Ultimate Frisbee
The sport was created in 1968 by students at Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ, and is now played worldwide across three primary disciplines – grass, beach, and indoor.