History of Pickleball

Currently, Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the United States. Like any game, it’s important to know where the sport originated from, at least for curiosity’s sake. Below is a brief history of the sport and how it got its famous name.

Pickleball was born in 1965. One summer day after playing golf, Joel Pritchard, who was a congressman from Washington State and would later become the Lieutenant Governor, along with a successful businessman named Bill Bell returned to Pritchard’s home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Upon arrival, they found the children at home sitting around and being bored. On their estate was an old badminton court however, they could not find all the equipment needed to play badminton. They improvised and used what they had on hand and played with table tennis paddles and a perforated plastic ball. They began playing first at the badminton net height, which happened to be 5 feet high and they volleyed the ball over the net, back and forth. Eventually as they continued to play, they found the ball bounced on the asphalt surface very well and they eventually lowered the net to 3 feet high (36 inches). The next weekend, a family friend named Barney McCallum joined the game play and the three men began creating rules for the game pickleball, from the rules used in badminton. The men remembered the original purpose of creating the game was to provide a game the whole family could play when they were bored.

By 1967, Joel Pritchard’s friend and neighbor, Bob O’Brian constructed the first permanent pickleball court in his backyard. Then in 1972, the men created a corporation in order to protect the new sport and in 1975, the National Observer was the first to write about pickleball. Tennis magazine followed this writing in 1976 with an article about “America's Newest Racquet Sport”.

The first known Pickleball tournament in the world was held in spring 1976 at South Center Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington. Being such a new sport and players knew so little about it, they practiced with large wood paddles and a softball-sized whiffle ball at the time of the tournament.  

In 1978 a book called “The Other Racquet Sports’ was published and it contained information about pickleball. Four years later, a pickleball pioneer, Sid Williams began playing and organizing tournaments in Washington.

In 1984, The United States Amateur Pickleball Association (U.S.A.P.A.) was created to grow and advance pickleball at the national level. They published the first pickleball rulebook.

Also in 1984, the first composite pickleball paddle was made by Arlen Paranto. He was a Boeing Industrial Engineer. The paddle was made with fiberglass/nomex honeycomb panels, which happened to be what the commercial airplanes used for their flooring and structural system. Arlen made approximately 1,000 paddles from this fiberglass/honeycomb core and also graphite/honeycomb core until he sold the company. 

By 1990 pickleball had grown and was then being played in all 50 states. Two years later, in 1992 Pickle-Ball, Inc. began manufacturing pickleballs in-house with a custom drilling machine. By 1999, the first ever pickleball website launched called Pickleball Stuff.

In 2001, pickleball was introduced at the Arizona Senior Olympics drawing 100 players, which happened to be the largest player’s event to be played at that point. Later, this event grew to be nearly 300 players.

In 2005, the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) was born. Three years later in 2008, the USAPA Rules Committee published an official rulebook. Pickleball was included for the first time in the National Senior Games Association (NSGA). The television show, Good Morning America, aired a live segment on pickleball, with a demonstration for the first mass media exposure for the sport. There were 420 places to play pickleball in North America at this time.

The first USAPA National Tournament was held in November 2009 in Buckeye, Arizona and had almost 400 players from 26 different states and several Canadian provinces. 

In 2014, the first professional media group, Pickleball Channel launched.

In 2016, the USAPA reported that it had more than 17,000 members. Additionally, Pickleball Magazine launched making it the first full-color, print and digital publication for the sport. There were, at this time, approximately 4,600 places to play the sport.

By 2023, pickleball has continued to explode in growth and popularity with players of all ages. Tournaments are now played by millions ranging from young to old all over the world. The USAPA has more than 70,000 members. Pickleball is now the fastest growing sport in the United States, as named by Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). Participants reach around 8.9 million players, which was an increase of 4.1 million from the 4.8 million players in 2022.