Pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, by three dads trying to keep bored kids entertained on a slow Saturday afternoon. There was no master plan, no patent application, no business strategy. Just a backyard, a badminton net, some wiffle balls, and a few ping-pong paddles.
The three fathers were Joel Pritchard, then a state representative (later a U.S. Congressman and Washington’s Lieutenant Governor), Bill Bell, a businessman, and Barney McCallum, also a businessman. The first known game took place on the Pritchard family’s old badminton court at their summer home.
The first game
The story, as told by the founders and their families: the kids were complaining about having nothing to do. The dads looked at the badminton court, but there were no shuttlecocks. They found a wiffle ball and some ping-pong paddles in the garage. They lowered the badminton net to the ground and started hitting the ball back and forth.
The rules got invented as they played. Some details from those first games still exist in the modern rule book:
- The court is the same size as a doubles badminton court (20 by 44 feet)
- The net was eventually settled at a height between badminton and tennis (36 inches at the sidelines, 34 in the middle)
- A “non-volley zone” near the net was added to prevent the kind of net-camping that made the early game stale
Within a few weeks they had a working ruleset. Within a couple of years, friends and neighbors were playing it. By 1972, the first pickleball corporation was formed to protect the rules and produce equipment. By 1976, the first official tournament was held in Tukwila, Washington.
How it got its name
This is the most-asked question about pickleball, and the answer has two versions.
Version one (Joan Pritchard’s account). Joel Pritchard’s wife Joan, a competitive rower, said the game’s mixed equipment reminded her of the “pickle boat” in rowing: a boat made up of leftover oarsmen from other crews. Joan started calling the new game “pickleball,” and the name stuck.
Version two (the family dog). Years later, some members of the Pritchard family said the game was named after their dog Pickles, who would chase stray balls. Joan Pritchard maintained that Pickles the dog came along after the game was already named.
The pickle boat origin is generally considered the truer one. The dog story is the version that got told to kids and out-of-towners.
From backyard game to fastest-growing sport
For its first 35 years, pickleball was a niche sport played mostly in the Pacific Northwest and at retirement communities in the Sun Belt. It had a small but devoted following, and a remarkably casual rule book.
The growth curve flipped sometime around 2018-2020. Several things happened at once: pickleball-specific clubs started opening; the first dedicated courts (not just tennis-court overlays) became common; the pandemic pushed people toward outdoor, socially-distanced activity; and the sport’s low barrier to entry made it the fastest way to feel athletic without spending years getting good.
By 2023, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association called pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America for three consecutive years. By 2026, the sport had roughly 36 million U.S. players according to industry estimates.
Where the original court still stands
The Pritchard family eventually sold the Bainbridge Island summer home, but the property still exists. There’s no official plaque or museum, but the site is part of the sport’s mythology. The U.S. National Pickleball Hall of Fame is now located in Naples, Florida, the city with the highest pickleball density in the United States.
If you want to play in the spirit of the original game, the rules haven’t changed all that much in 60 years. Find a public court, grab a paddle, and play. That’s how it started.