George Nissen was born in 1914 in Iowa. He was inspired to create the trampoline after seeing trapeze artists use safety nets. In the 1930s, he attached a canvas to a steel frame to create the first "bouncing rig", which he later renamed to trampoline. In the following decades, Nissen promoted and developed the trampoline, founding companies to produce them. He performed internationally and held several trampoline records. Nissen married in 1951 and had one daughter. He passed away in 2010 at age 96 from pneumonia.