Why Is It Called Pickleball? The Two Stories of How Pickleball Really Got Its Name

The history of pickleball and how it got its name is full of mystery and folklore. It was created almost 60 years ago, in the Official site summer of 1965, and how it came to be known as pickleball is a hotly debated topic among scholars across the globe.

How Pickleball Began
Pickleball began as something that the entire family could do together. Joel Pritchard, a congressman from Washington State, and Bill Bell finished playing golf one Saturday. They returned home to find everyone sitting around with nothing to do. The property they lived on had a badminton court, so Pritchard tried to find some equipment so they could all play.

Instead, he discovered a mix of sports equipment that included a Wiffle ball and ping-pong paddles. They started playing with the net at the height needed for badminton and noticed that the ball bounced well on the asphalt. Eventually, they decided to lower the net. They had such a good time that they spent the next several weeks developing the game and creating rules that they mostly adapted from badminton.

The first pickleball court was constructed in Joel Pritchard’s backyard in 1967. They formed a corporation to protect and make the new sport official five years later. The National Observer published an article about pickleball in 1975, and in 1976, the first tournament was held at the South Center Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington.

In 1984, the United States Amateur Pickleball Association (U.S.A.P.A.) was formed and focused on the advancement of pickleball on a national level. The first rulebook was published that year. By 1990, 25 years after Joel Pritchard set out to find badminton equipment, pickleball was being played in all 50 states across the U.S.