The world was changing in 1964.

The Civil Rights Bill was signed.

Nikita Khrushchev was deposed as leader of the Soviet Union.

The Beatles launched the “British Invasion” of America.

And Japan became the first Asian country to host the Olympics.

It also was the first time that volleyball was played at the Games, becoming the first team sport for women.

As it has for nearly every Olympic volleyball competition over the past 50 years, Hawaii played a role. Papakolea’s Pedro “Pete” Velasco captained the men’s team and three players who later would impact the sport in the islands — Sharon Peterson, Verneda Thomas and the late Gail O’Rourke Wong — were on that initial women’s roster.

Although the 1964 men’s and women’s squads did not medal, their golden memories were shared May 21 in Phoenix in conjunction with the USA Volleyball Open National Championships. The teams were honored as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the sport being included in the Olympics.

“It was the first time that I had been back to the nationals in years,” said Peterson, who coached Hawaii Hilo to seven national championships and is the girls and boys volleyball coach at Hawaii Prep Academy. “It was fun seeing all the age brackets now, even 65-and-older, and great to see people still playing as they get older.

“I didn’t know (until last week) that it was the first women’s team sport. We actually didn’t qualify, kind of back-doored our way into the Olympics. But it was the beginning for us.”

Peterson, who also played in the 1968 Games, recalled that a spot opened up for the U.S. women’s team when Brazil didn’t have enough money to send both their men and women. The U.S. men had qualified, along with Brazil, at the 1963 Pan American Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“Japan was a wonderful experience,” said Peterson, who moved to Hawaii from California in 1968. “We had only three months to work together and, obviously, other teams had been together much longer. Back then, there weren’t many places where the sport was popular. It was mostly California, Hawaii and the Chicago area.

“It doesn’t surprise me that there have been quite a few Olympians from Hawaii. The sport is popular, it has been promoted. My first teaching job was at Punahou and, coming from California, where we didn’t have organized sports in high school, it was wonderful to see all the opportunities for girls to play even then. I had no idea that Hawaii was so far ahead in that respect. It was a positive experience, and that’s when I fell in love with coaching.”

The selection process for the Olympic teams was much different 50 years ago. Tryouts were held in conjunction with the then-USVBA nationals, with the top-finishing open teams then moving on to round-robin tournaments. A dozen men and women were chosen; the men’s team including Velasco (Robert Hogan, Outrigger Canoe Club, was an alternate) and the women’s team with Peterson and O’Rourke off the South Bay (Calif.) Triumphs and Thomas from the Chicago Rebels.

Thomas, fairly new to the sport, was tall, athletic and the only African-American. She had been a member of U.S. women’s track and field team, winning the national high jump title in 1957, and had been coached by Dr. Donnis Thompson, who would later become the University of Hawaii women’s athletic director.

“The California girls knew each other, and then there was me, from Chicago,” said Thomas, a chemist and former research associate at The Queen’s Medical Center. “I was a little older (28) and we had nothing in common. And in the ’60s, it was kind of devastating as far as the racial discrimination thing. At the nationals, I couldn’t stay in the same hotel as my team. I had competed internationally in track and never had that same segregation in other countries that I encountered in the U.S.”

Thomas moved to Hawaii in 1973, having had enough of Chicago’s cold winters. Her other warm-weather option was Greece, but she didn’t want to learn a new language and “I knew that Hawaii had a lot of good volleyball players.”

Thomas continues to officiate in Hawaii and nationally. Last week’s nationals were her 44th consecutive as either an official or a player.

O’Rourke Wong moved to Hawaii after the 1964 Olympics. She remained active in the volleyball community and continued to play at the local and national level until her death in 2000.

Velasco also had extensive international playing experience, in both volleyball and basketball. He said that making the Olympic team hadn’t been a goal, but “I always wanted to be the best in whatever I got involved with.” Velasco also played on the 1968 Olympic team in Mexico City.

The 12-time USVBA All-American (both as a hitter and a setter) went on to coach the Hawaii Pacific men’s team and Cal State Los Angeles women. He said the training process was so different back then, where many players trained on their own and could only practice together at certain times.

That was an obstacle for Velasco, living in Hawaii, but not the biggest. When he was chosen for the U.S. team at age 27 he already had seven children.

“The challenge was spending time away from home because that was time spent away from making money to support the family,” he said. “But I was so proud to be selected to the team, not just to represent the United States but to represent Hawaii. I think Hawaii will always be there (on Olympic teams) because they have the basics of the game and, most important, the awareness of the game.”

That is reflected in Hawaii’s Olympic volleyball legacy. On the men’s side, only twice has there been no Hawaii connection when the U.S. qualified and competed in the Games, the last being in 1988. When the men won gold in 2008, the MVP was Clay Stanley (Kaiser, UH).

On the women’s side, it’s happened just once, in 1984. In 2008, three University of Hawaii alumnae (Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, Heather Bown and Kim Willoughby) and Punahou graduate Lindsey Berg helped the U.S. to a silver medal.

“Hawaii’s contributions to volleyball have been significant. It has a pretty long history starting with the ’64 teams and continuing through the present teams,” Doug Beal, former U.S. men’s Olympic coach and current CEO of USA Volleyball, said in a telephone interview from Colorado Springs, Colo. “It’s pretty unusual to have had that many members from one state, but given the popularity of the sport there and the participation in the game at all levels — high school, college, club — it’s not a surprise.

“USA Volleyball has been very fortunate and blessed to have had the relationship it has had with Hawaii.”