58 Fun Facts About YMCA

In which city was the Young Men's Christian Association founded?

London: the association began on 6 June in a room at 72 St Paul's Churchyard, above the Hitchcock & Rogers shop where the founder lodged and worked.

Who founded the YMCA with eleven friends?

George Williams, a young shop assistant from Somerset, started the association with eleven colleagues; he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894 and buried in St Paul's Cathedral in 1905.

In which year was the YMCA founded?

1844: the founder held the first meeting on 6 June that year, to improve the spiritual condition of young men working long hours in the city's shops.

What was the trade of the YMCA's founder?

Draper: the founder was a draper's assistant at Hitchcock & Rogers in St Paul's Churchyard, living in with fellow shop workers whose hours outside work he hoped to fill with prayer.

Which sport was invented at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield in 1891?

Basketball: the instructor wrote 13 rules for an indoor winter game, and the first match was played with a soccer ball by a class of 18 students in December 1891.

Who invented the game played at the Springfield YMCA in December 1891?

James Naismith, a physical educator who later qualified as a physician, devised the game for a restless winter class; he watched it debut as an Olympic sport at Berlin in 1936.

What served as the goals in the very first Springfield games of 1891?

Two peach baskets were nailed to the gymnasium balcony rail, 10 feet up; their bottoms were closed, so the ball had to be retrieved after every score.

William G. Morgan invented volleyball in 1895 at the YMCA in which Massachusetts city?

Holyoke: Morgan was physical director of the Holyoke YMCA and wanted a gentler indoor game for older businessmen, played over a raised net.

What did William G. Morgan originally call his new net game?

Mintonette was Morgan's original name; at an 1896 demonstration, Alfred Halstead suggested 'volley ball' after watching players volley the ball over the raised net.

Futsal, the indoor version of football, was created in 1930 at a YMCA in which country?

Uruguay: Juan Carlos Ceriani devised the game at the Montevideo YMCA in 1930, the year the country hosted and won the first football World Cup.

Who invented racquetball at the Greenwich, Connecticut YMCA in 1950?

Joseph Sobek, a tennis and handball professional in Greenwich, wanted a faster game than squash; he designed a strung paddle and based his rules on handball and paddleball.

What name did the inventor of racquetball give his game?

He founded the National Paddle Rackets Association in 1952, and the game spread through some 40,000 handball courts at YMCAs and Jewish Community Centers.

Which youth organization did YMCA boys' work secretary Edgar M. Robinson help launch in 1910?

Boy Scouts of America: William D. Boyce incorporated it in February 1910 and handed it to the YMCA to develop; Robinson ran it until James E. West took charge in 1911.

Camp Dudley, the YMCA camp founded by Sumner Dudley in 1885, sits beside which lake?

Lake Champlain: after early seasons at other sites, Camp Dudley settled near Westport, New York, on the lake's western shore in 1891 and has run there every summer since.

Under what name did Springfield College open in 1885?

School for Christian Workers was the 1885 name; it became the International YMCA Training School in 1890 and adopted the Springfield College name in 1954.

Henry Dunant, a young Swiss YMCA secretary, went on to found which organization?

The Red Cross: Dunant founded it after witnessing the Battle of Solferino in 1859, having earlier helped organize the 1855 Paris conference that created the World Alliance of YMCAs.

In which year did World YMCA president J. R. Mott win the Nobel Peace Prize?

1946: Mott shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Emily Greene Balch for decades of YMCA and student-Christian work, and became honorary president of the World Council of Churches at its 1948 founding.

The Paris Basis motto "That they all may be one" is taken from which Gospel?

John: the verse is John 17:21, from Jesus' prayer after the Last Supper, and it appears on the open Bible in the World Alliance emblem adopted in 1881.

According to Luther Gulick, the YMCA red triangle's three sides stand for which three things?

Mind, body and spirit: Gulick, physical director of the YMCA training school, drew the triangle in 1891 to show the whole-person ideal, and the red triangle marked YMCA services for soldiers in both world wars.

In which year did YMCA of the USA rebrand itself as "The Y"?

2010: YMCA of the USA unveiled 'the Y' and a new logo in July that year, offered in several colour combinations in place of the red-and-black mark.

The first YMCA in North America opened in 1851 in which city?

Montreal: its YMCA opened on 25 November 1851, weeks before the first United States branch, and the country's YMCAs shared a governing body with the American ones until 1912.

The first YMCA in the United States, founded by seaman Thomas Valentine Sullivan, opened in which city?

Boston: Sullivan, a retired sea captain turned missionary, opened the branch at the Old South Church on 29 December 1851, a few weeks after the continent's first branch opened north of the border.

In 1853 the Reverend Anthony Bowen founded the first YMCA for African Americans in which city?

Washington, D.C.: Bowen, born enslaved in Maryland, bought his freedom in 1826 and became the first Black clerk at the US Patent Office; the Anthony Bowen YMCA in the city's Shaw neighbourhood bears his name.

By what abbreviation is the YMCA known in Germany, Austria and Switzerland?

CVJM stands for Christlicher Verein Junger Menschen; the final word changed from Männer (men) to Menschen (persons) in 1985 to include women.

What were the 250 YMCA recreation centres set up in Britain within ten days of World War I called?

Huts: the YMCA's 'Red Triangle' huts offered tea, writing paper and concerts to troops, and temporary ones followed in France and near the front, staffed by thousands of volunteers.

In World War II the YMCA helped found which body serving US troops?

The USO: the YMCA was one of six civilian groups that formed the United Service Organizations in 1941, and it also served prisoners of war and Japanese Americans held in internment camps.

The YMCA grew into a worldwide movement founded on the principles of which Victorian ideal?

Muscular Christianity, the Victorian ideal pairing athletic vigour with faith, shaped the YMCA; the 1865 World Conference at Elberfeld in Germany affirmed developing the whole person, body included.

Which social reformer served as the YMCA's first president, from 1851 until his death in 1885?

The Earl of Shaftesbury: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the 7th Earl, was already famous for Factory Act and child-labour reforms, and his patronage gave the young movement respectability.

Which 1851 event in Hyde Park helped the YMCA spread beyond Britain?

The Great Exhibition drew foreign visitors to the YMCA's meetings, and by 1855 the movement was strong enough to hold its first World Conference in Paris.

From 1878 until the 2020s, the world YMCA head office was based in which city?

Its new home is Vernier, after 25 years in a listed villa at 12 Clos Belmont.

In Sweden's KFUM the M was redefined in 2011 as människor, meaning what?

People: the 2011 change replaced män (men) with människor (people) in the name, 45 years after Sweden's YWCA and YMCA merged in 1966.

Patricia Pelton, elected in 2018 as the first female president of World YMCA, comes from which country?

Canada: Pelton, a long-time YMCA volunteer and board member, was elected at the 2018 World Council in Chiang Mai, where Carlos Sanvee of Togo became the first African secretary general.

The Kautz Family YMCA Archives, the US national archives of the movement, are held where?

More of the collection is digitised through Texas Christian University's repository.

A Canadian college named for the YMCA's founder, born from night courses at a local Y, became part of which institution?

Concordia University was formed in 1974 when the YMCA-rooted university named for the founder merged with Loyola College; Northeastern and Youngstown State also began as YMCA classes.

Which disco group released the song "Y.M.C.A." in 1978?

Village People released it in late 1978 as the lead single from their third album; the YMCA first threatened a trademark suit, then settled and embraced the song.

"Y.M.C.A." was the only single from which album?

Cruisin', the group's third studio album, came out in 1978 and reached the US top five on the strength of 'Y.M.C.A.', its only single.

"Y.M.C.A." stalled at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 behind "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and which Chic song?

'Le Freak' held the top spot first, then Rod Stewart's hit took over, leaving 'Y.M.C.A.' stuck at No. 2 for several weeks; it did top the UK chart in January 1979.

On which TV show did the arm-spelling "Y.M.C.A." dance originate in January 1979?

American Bandstand: during the group's 6 January 1979 appearance, the studio audience raised their arms into a Y, and the band adopted the letters on the spot, as Randy Jones recalled.

Which host replayed the song to show the band the audience's hand gestures?

Dick Clark, the show's host, had the song played again so the band could see the crowd spelling the letters; the lead singer copied the moves straight back while the others looked baffled.

Which lead singer co-wrote "Y.M.C.A." and later won a court ruling that removed a third credited writer?

Victor Willis, the group's original lead singer, wrote the lyrics with the producer; a 2015 court ruling struck Henri Belolo from the credits, and Willis has insisted the song was never a gay anthem.

Which French producer, the group's creator, co-wrote 'Y.M.C.A.' after asking what the YMCA was?

Jacques Morali, the French producer who created the group, was gay and had aimed it at disco's gay audience; after asking what the YMCA was, he co-wrote the song with the lead singer.

In which city's Sun Bowl was the 2008 record for the largest "Y.M.C.A." dance, with 40,148 dancers, set?

El Paso: the Sun Bowl game on 31 December 2008 drew 40,148 fans doing the dance while the group performed live, earning a Guinness World Record.

For which brand did the group re-record the song in 1997 for a commercial with dancing bears?

Pepsi: the brand's Super Bowl commercial in January 1997 showed a troupe of bears dancing to the tune, one of the most remembered ads of that game.

At Yankee Stadium, the grounds crew leads the crowd in the dance after which inning?

Fifth: in the middle of the fifth inning the grounds crew drags the infield while dancing to the song, a Yankee Stadium ritual since 1996; the Bleacher Creatures' parody was dropped by agreement.

In which year was 'Y.M.C.A.' added to the National Recording Registry?

2020: the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in March that year, calling its staying power proof that disco never truly died.

Roughly how many copies of "Y.M.C.A." have been sold worldwide?

12 million: the single passed that worldwide sales mark, and it reached No. 1 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart in 2024, 46 years after release.

Outside which New York YMCA branch was the 'Y.M.C.A.' video filmed in 1978?

McBurney YMCA: the group filmed on the sidewalk in front of the Chelsea branch on West 23rd Street, a building later converted into apartments.

Which record label released "Y.M.C.A." in October 1978?

Casablanca, Neil Bogart's label, put out the single in October 1978; it was also home to Donna Summer and Kiss at the height of the disco era.

What were the hotel-like rooms for young men in American YMCAs, built until the late 1950s, called?

Residences: YMCA residences, hotel-like rooms for young men, were built into American branches until the late 1950s and gave the Y its reputation as a cheap, safe place to stay, which the 1978 song leaned on.

The 1855 Paris conference that adopted the Paris Basis drew 99 delegates from how many countries?

Nine: the 99 delegates came from nine countries, meeting in August 1855 while the Exposition Universelle was drawing visitors to Paris; their Paris Basis became the movement's founding statement.

Roughly how much did the YMCA raise and spend on welfare for American soldiers during World War I?

$155 million: the YMCA raised and spent that sum on canteens, entertainment and welfare for American troops, with worker Frances Gulick earning a US Army citation for valour in France.

What was the YMCA's WWII programme supplying POWs with sports kit, instruments and radios called?

War Prisoners Aid was the YMCA programme that delivered sports kit, musical instruments, books and radios to prisoner-of-war camps on both sides of the war, reaching millions of captives in Europe and Asia.

Sonora Smart Dodd organized the first Father's Day in 1910 through the YMCA of which city?

Spokane: Dodd, raised by a widowed Civil War veteran, proposed the holiday at the Spokane YMCA, and the city held the first Father's Day on 19 June 1910.

The YMCA of the USA developed the first nationally organised course for which activity in 1959?

It certified its first skin and scuba diving instructors that year.

The 1973 World Council, the first held in Africa, adopted principles named after which city?

Kampala: the Sixth World Council met in the Ugandan capital in 1973, reaffirmed the Paris Basis and adopted the Kampala Principles on justice and the movement's social role.

In 1940, about how many hotel-like rooms did American YMCAs offer, more than any hotel chain?

100,000: by 1940 American YMCAs offered about that many rooms for young men, a larger stock than any US hotel chain of the day.

Which YMCA China figure devised the 'thousand character system' of mass literacy education?

James Yen, working with the YMCA among Chinese labourers in France during World War I, built a reading course around a thousand common characters that became China's mass education movement.

At which venue was the YMCA's 175th anniversary gathering of young leaders held in August 2019?

ExCeL London hosted YMCA175 from 4 to 8 August 2019, with some 3,200 young delegates from 100 countries and the UN General Assembly president among the guests.