Albert Goodwill Spalding was a Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher for the Boston Red Stocking and Chicago White Sox. Revered as the greatest player of his era, Spalding was also ahead of his time in the sports industry, founding A.G Spalding & Bro in Chicago, on 1st March 1876, with his brother J. Walker Spalding. He was so respected in sports that he was honoured with the role as the US Olympic commissioner for the 1900 Olympic games.

A.G Spalding began pitching every baseball game with a ball he had developed himself. He was the key voice in persuading the Major League Baseball to adopt a standardised baseball for competition and for the next 100 years, Spalding’s baseball would remain as the official ball of the Major Leagues.

Spalding developed and manufactured the very first American football. Each ball was made from the finest quality foot leather and featured rawhide lacing. Ever since A.G Spalding’s invention, each ball was guaranteed to be “perfect in material and workmanship and correct in shape and size.”

Spalding designed and manufactured the first basketball for games inventor Dr. James W. Naismith after the game became a sensation in 1891. It was only natural that basketball players would want their own ball, rather than playing with a common soccer ball used at that time. Later, Spalding would introduce the first synthetic leather basketball, which would go on to be adopted as the official ball of the NBA.

The game of Volleyball was invented in Holyoke, MA. Spalding was asked to develop a ball for the sport and manufactured the very first American volleyball.