Pickleball

Pickleball is a sport born from the creativity of three friends in 1965. Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell were spending time with their families in Pritchard’s backyard on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

They decided to play a game of badminton but realized they didn’t have rackets, so they used ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball instead. That improvised match gave birth to pickleball.

From there, Pritchard and Bell collaborated with a friend, Barney McCallum, to further develop the game. They drew inspiration from the rules of tennis, badminton, and ping pong, shaping pickleball into the sport we know today. The game quickly spread, first in Florida and then to other parts of the United States, engaging players of all ages.

In the 1970s, standard rules were established, and the first tournaments were organized.