National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - News & FeaturesJune 17, 1996Spalding becomes official ball for NCAA volleyballThe NCAA has signed an agreement with Spalding Sports Worldwide to use the Spalding Top-Flight TL 4000 Gold volleyball as the official ball for men's and women's volleyball championships through 1998.The Top-Flight 4000, developed by Spalding eight years ago, will feature the NCAA logo and will be used in this year's National Collegiate Men's and Divisions I, II and III Women's Volleyball Championships. "The Top-Flight 4000 has been used by some of the best collegiate teams in the country over the past eight years," said Chris Waldeck, Spalding's institutional product manager. "The agreement with the NCAA was a logical fit for us. "Over the past eight years, we've been working on our distribution and becoming more of a player in the institutional marketplace with a complete line of products for football, basketball, soccer and volleyball, and the timing was right for us to position ourselves for an adoption like this. We certainly feel like we've got the right line of products for it." The contract with the NCAA extends for three years. Spalding, the nation's oldest full-line sporting goods company, developed the first volleyball for Dr. William Morgan, who is known for creating the sport at Springfield College in 1895. Volleyball celebrated its centennial last year. |