I started playing this sport at the age of 5. After playing for couple of years as I was growing up questions started popping up how this exciting and wonderful game originated? I asked to my parents and they told some interesting facts as well along with the history of this amazing game.
I am sure you might be wondering that there might be a committee formed to create such an exciting game. But what if I tell you that this game was not created formally with the intention to create a game rather accidentally for recreational purposes. Read this article as it will take you on a journey, starting with the game’s origins and then the official spread around the United States.
image source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kPJDi4LF1o&t=37s
When did this sport originate?
The origin of this game takes us back to 1965, i.e. around a half-century ago, during the summer vacation on Bainbridge Island near Seattle in Washington, the parents (Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum) trying to keep their children busy out of boredom invented this exciting game.
They had an old badminton court in their home backyard but did not have Badminton shuttles; they took the wiffle ball (A perforated baseball game ball) and Pingpong paddles and started playing in the court.
Joe Prichard was a politician and a United States congressman. On a typical lousy weather day on this beach, the families’ children were bored and annoying their parents.
Parents were thinking about how to keep their kids busy? So Joe and Bill took a wooden ping pong paddle and a baseball ball that was around.
They called the kids and told them to go around the badminton court and start playing the game by hitting the ball. Observing the ball bouncing high, they lowered the badminton net and put it up to a person’s waist.
Later the next day, to add some fun to the game, they discussed and argued over defining the game rules and how they should be played. They debated and argued about the rules of ping pong, Badminton, and Tennis and later decided to rely more on Badminton rules.
Read this article to know how to play pickleball now.
The first paddle
Barney McCullum discovered, after a week, that cutting the ping pong paddles would result in them breaking up, so he made an effort to give them shape.
So Barney drew some design drafts to cut on a bare wooden paddle and had no buildup on handles or specifically customized ones that could work very well. They were just basic wooden paddles
Today due to advancement in technology paddles are manufactured using different technologies. Click on this link to know How are pickleball paddles made?
How did this game expand beyond the Island where it was invented?
After playing games, summer vacations ended, and families had to move back to their homes. The families were now addicted to the game and could not resist continuing to play. Barney McCallum took this game to his home, Magnolia Bluff, in Seattle.
The city streets were twenty feet wide, suitable for playing this game. Continuing to play consistently in turn helped these people exercise in the winter.
One reason it started moving out from these families was there were a couple of guests, and one of them was Fr. Fetterer. He was the president of Seattle University, and one day, he started a pickleball night at the new Connolly Center at Seattle University.
The other reason was that Joe was associated with Congress. He promoted this sports by playing the games at fundraisers and Political events, randomly picking up four hearty people, explaining the rules, and starting to play with them.
Apart from the above two reasons, after they commercialized the company Pickle-ball Inc., there was a player and the Times newspaper president. He informed a guy in New York that we were playing a game in Seattle. The guy from New York visited Seattle to play the game and took it back to New York.
Commercialization of game set
As the game spread, McCullum started receiving calls from people asking for paddles.
So they had no choice but to start the business because they would be responsible for handling the sourced raw material, Plywood, and the money. So Joe Prichard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCullum wrote a cheque and started a company, “Pickle-ball Inc,” in 1977 to handle the money.
Price of first commercial set ever.
Later, the guy from New York called Barney McCallum and asked for the price of a set. Barney said approximately $30. The guy said let’s close the deal at $29.5, and Barney agreed to it. The following week, They received several envelopes of $29.5 from the post office.
The set included 4 balls, 4 paddles and a net for $29.50
Later, Pickle-ball Inc. had success spreading the word at schools. They went to school shows to set up and explain how to play the game, going to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Missouri states.
How it got its name as Pickleball?
My mother explained me two stories which are popular amongst this sport community.
Pickleboat story
Let me start with the first one. Its said Pickleball derived its name from “Pickle boat”. Its a rower boat which has a team by left out rowers which did not make up to other teams. Usually this boat is the one finishing the last. Applying similar analogy to this sport. Its equipments were derived from different sports as listed below
Court : Badminton
Paddle : Pingpong
Ball : Wiffleball
Net : Badminton net lowered down.
The family dog ‘pickle’ story
The other story which is popular is this sport derived name from one of the founders dog named Pickle. Pickle dog used to play around the courts and collect the ball going outside the bounded areas. So this game was named from it. However in actual the family member mentioned in one of the interview as the other way round the dog joined the family after 3 years this game was invented. As this dog loved to play around the court and collect the balls the family named it as Pickle.
I believe the first story makes more sense this sport deriving its name.
So I hope you are now aware about the amazing history of this sports how it got invented and how it got its name. Happy Pickling!
Frequenty Asked Questions
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When was Pickleball invented?
Pickleball was invented in 1965.
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Who invented Pickleball?
Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum parents to entertain their bored children in summer Vacation invented the pickleball.
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When is National Pickleball Day celebrated?
National pickleball day is celebrated on August 8
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From which country and city did Pickleball originate?
This sports originated from Bainbridge island in USA.
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