The History of Pickleball.

The summer of 1965: a bored family and improvised gear

Pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, just across Puget Sound from Seattle. Congressman Joel Pritchard and his friend Bill Bell returned to Pritchard's home one afternoon to find their families restless and bored. The property had an old badminton court, but no one could find a full set of rackets.

Improvising with what they had, they grabbed ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball, and started hitting it over the badminton net. They quickly lowered the net from badminton height to 36 inches when they realised the ball bounced well on the asphalt, and a new game began to take shape. The following weekend they were joined by another friend, Barney McCallum, and together the three men refined the rules — deliberately designing a game the whole family, of any age or athleticism, could play together.

Where the name really came from

The origin of the name "pickleball" is the sport's most enduring debate, and there are two competing stories.

The most-cited version comes from Joel Pritchard's wife, Joan, who said the game reminded her of the "pickle boat" in crew rowing — the boat crewed by the leftover oarsmen chosen from the remnants of other boats. The improvised, thrown-together nature of the game fit the metaphor.

The second, more charming story is that the game was named after the Pritchards' family dog, Pickles, who would chase the ball and run off with it. This version is beloved but has a timing problem: by most accounts the dog Pickles arrived a few years later, around 1968, and was named after the game — not the other way around. Both stories still get told, and the family themselves have given slightly different accounts over the years.

From backyard to organised sport (1967–1990s)

The game spread quickly among friends and neighbours. The first permanent pickleball court was built in 1967 in the backyard of Joel Pritchard's neighbour. In 1972, the founders incorporated Pickle Ball, Inc. to protect and promote the new sport, and Barney McCallum began manufacturing equipment.

The first known pickleball tournament was held in 1976 in Washington State. In 1984, the United States Amateur Pickleball Association (USAPA) was formed to govern the sport nationally, and the first official rulebook was published the same year. For the next two decades pickleball grew steadily but quietly, spreading through community centres, retirement communities, and YMCAs — especially popular with older adults who loved its smaller court and lower-impact movement.

The explosion (2010s–2020s)

In the 2010s, pickleball's growth accelerated dramatically. What had been seen as a game for retirees became a phenomenon across every age group. Dedicated indoor and outdoor facilities opened, tennis courts were converted to pickleball courts nationwide, and participation numbers climbed steeply year after year.

By the early 2020s, industry reports (including the Sports & Fitness Industry Association) named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in the United States for several consecutive years, with participation more than doubling in a short span. The combination of an easy learning curve, a social doubles format, and low equipment cost made it uniquely well-suited to explosive, word-of-mouth growth.

The professional era: PPA, APP, and MLP

As participation surged, a professional scene emerged. The PPA Tour (Professional Pickleball Association) and the APP Tour (Association of Pickleball Players) established professional circuits with prize money, rankings, and broadcast coverage. In 2021, Major League Pickleball (MLP) launched a team-based league that drew high-profile investors, including professional athletes and celebrities.

Equipment evolved alongside the pro game — from the original wooden paddles to composite and then carbon-fibre faces engineered for spin and control. Players like Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters became the sport's first genuine stars, dominating the tours and drawing mainstream sports coverage. You can read about today's top players on our player profiles.

Pickleball today and where it's headed

Pickleball is now firmly mainstream: millions of players, professional tours with real prize money, purpose-built facilities in most major cities, and a culture with its own etiquette, slang, and debates (the sport's rapid growth has even sparked well-documented noise disputes between courts and neighbours).

The sport continues to expand internationally, and there is an ongoing, organised push toward eventual Olympic recognition. Whatever happens at that level, pickleball's core appeal hasn't changed since that 1965 afternoon on Bainbridge Island: it's a game almost anyone can pick up in an afternoon and enjoy for life.