The History of Pickleball: How the Sport Began

Quick Answer: Pickleball history begins in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell improvised a game for bored kids on an old badminton court, with neighbor Barney McCallum joining days later to build paddles and shape the rules. Six decades later, SFIA counts 24.3 million US players in 2025, up from 4.2 million in 2020.

Pickleball is a paddle sport that borrows from badminton, table tennis, and tennis, and its entire history traces back to one backyard experiment. The story runs from a lowered badminton net in 1965 to a national governing body, a state-sport designation, professional tours, and an SFIA-documented jump from 4.2 million US players in 2020 to 24.3 million in 2025. Here is the full arc, with each claim sourced.

How Did Pickleball Start in 1965?

Pickleball started as a cure for summer boredom. In the summer of 1965, Joel Pritchard, then a Washington state legislator, was at his family’s summer place on Bainbridge Island with his friend Bill Bell. According to HistoryLink, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history, Pritchard’s kids were complaining that they had nothing to do, so the two men headed for the property’s old badminton court.

They could not find a full set of badminton rackets. USA Pickleball’s official history says they grabbed ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball instead, strung the net at badminton height, and started hitting. The ball bounced surprisingly well on the hard surface, so the net came down over time to 36 inches, a height that let players drive the ball instead of just lofting it. HistoryLink records Pritchard’s explanation: “You’ve got to be able to hit the ball hard. Nobody plays golf to putt.”

USA Pickleball’s history adds that Barney McCallum was introduced to the game at Pritchard’s home the following weekend. The trio then spent the rest of that summer, and the years after, turning a backyard improvisation into a sport with real rules.

Who Were the Three Founders?

The three founders were a politician, a lawyer-businessman, and a manufacturer, and each played a distinct role.

• Joel Pritchard (1925 to 1997) supplied the property, the instigation, and the public profile. He later served six terms in the US House of Representatives and two terms as Washington’s lieutenant governor.
• Bill Bell (1924 to 2006) was the co-conspirator on day one. A Seattle lawyer and international businessman, the Pickleball Hall of Fame credits him with helping shape the kitchen and the two-bounce concept and calls him the sport’s first ambassador for Pickle-Ball Inc.
• Barney McCallum (1926 to 2019) became the builder. He cut the first plywood paddles in his home workshop, helped codify the rules, and ran Pickle-Ball Inc. for decades.

The full profiles, including what happened to each man, are in the guide to who invented pickleball.

How Did the Rules Take Shape?

The rules formed through trial and error on that first court. The founders kept what made rallies longer and threw out what ended them early. The lowered net stuck. So did the non-volley zone, the 7-foot box at the net that still defines the sport under the 2026 rulebook, and the two-bounce rule, which under the 2026 rulebook requires the serve and the return each to bounce before anyone volleys. The Pickleball Hall of Fame credits both Bell and McCallum with shaping those two features.

The dimensions the founders settled on have barely moved. The net hangs at 36 inches at the sidelines and 34 inches at center under the 2026 rulebook, and games run to 11, win by 2, as the standard format under the 2026 rulebook. Anyone comparing that first backyard game to the modern version described in the guide to what pickleball is and how to play it will recognize the same sport.

How Did Pickleball Get Its Name?

Joan Pritchard, Joel’s wife, named the game. According to USA Pickleball’s official account, she said the mash-up of borrowed sports reminded her of the pickle boat in rowing, the boat crewed by leftover oarsmen from other crews. A rival story claims the game was named for the Pritchards’ dog, Pickles, but USA Pickleball’s research found the dog was born in 1968, three years after the game was played and named. The dog was named for the game.

The short version of that debate lives in the overview of why it is called pickleball, and the full evidence file, quotes and timeline included, is in the deep dive on the pickle boat story.

How Did the Sport Spread Beyond Bainbridge Island?

Pickleball spread the way most backyard games do not: its inventors organized. USA Pickleball’s history records that the first permanent pickleball court, built for pickleball rather than adapted from badminton, went in at Joel and Joan Pritchard’s home in the Magnolia Bluff area of Seattle in 1967.

On February 13, 1968, according to HistoryLink, Pritchard and friends filed articles of incorporation for Pickle Ball Inc., “to develop the game of Pickle Ball and to sell and promote said game in a lawful manner.” USA Pickleball’s own timeline dates the corporation to 1972, but the filing HistoryLink documents came four years earlier. Either way, the company gave McCallum a vehicle to manufacture paddles and balls, and HistoryLink notes the game traveled with Pritchard’s circle to legislators in Olympia and beyond.

Competition followed. USA Pickleball records the first known pickleball tournament in the world in spring 1976 at South Center Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington. The story of the island itself, including what remains of the original court, continues in the guide to where pickleball originated.

When Did Pickleball Become Organized?

Pickleball got a governing body in 1984. The United States Amateur Pickleball Association, the USAPA, was organized that year and published the first rulebook in March 1984, with Sid Williams serving as first executive director and president from 1984 to 1998, according to USA Pickleball’s history. By 1990 the game was being played in all 50 states.

In 2005 a new corporation, the USA Pickleball Association, was established with Mark Friedenberg as its first president, and that body grew into today’s national governing body. What the organization does now, from rules to sanctioning, is covered in the guide to what USA Pickleball is. The year-by-year detail of every milestone sits in the timeline of when pickleball was invented.

What Explains the Modern Pickleball Boom?

The boom is a 2020s story, and the numbers are stark. SFIA counted 4.2 million US pickleball players in 2020 and 24.3 million in 2025, nearly a sixfold jump in five years. USA Pickleball notes that in 2023 SFIA named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America for the third year in a row.

The sport’s home state made it official too. On March 28, 2022, Governor Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5615 making pickleball Washington’s official state sport, after the measure passed the Senate 46 to 1 and the House 83 to 15, according to HistoryLink. The culture followed the numbers, from the films and series collected in the roundup of pickleball documentaries and shows to the long list of celebrities who play pickleball.

The design deserves some of the credit. The founders built a game that kids and grandparents could play on the same small court in the same afternoon, and that low barrier to a first fun game is exactly what a surge of curious newcomers needed in the 2020s.

Where Is Professional Pickleball Now?

Professional pickleball arrived in the sport’s sixth decade. The PPA Tour launched in 2018 as a formal pro circuit, and the APP Tour followed in 2019 as the first tour sanctioned by USA Pickleball. Major League Pickleball, a team-based league founded by entrepreneur Steve Kuhn, played its first season in 2021.

The pro game now has its own rivalries and formats, covered in the guides to Major League Pickleball and the PPA Tour versus the APP Tour. For a sport invented to entertain bored kids, that is a long way to travel in 60 years. More oddities from that journey are collected in the list of surprising facts about pickleball.

FAQ

When did pickleball start?

Pickleball started in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, at Joel Pritchard’s family summer place. USA Pickleball’s official history and HistoryLink both date the first game to that summer, played with ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball on an old badminton court.

Who invented pickleball?

Three men invented pickleball: Joel Pritchard, a Washington state legislator who later served in Congress, his friend Bill Bell, and their neighbor Barney McCallum, who joined the following weekend and went on to make the first purpose-built paddles.

Why is it called pickleball?

Joan Pritchard named the game after the pickle boat in rowing, the boat crewed by leftover oarsmen, because the game threw together leftovers from badminton, table tennis, and tennis. That account comes from her own words and is backed by USA Pickleball’s official history.

Was pickleball named after a dog?

No. USA Pickleball’s research found the Pritchards’ dog Pickles was born in 1968, three years after the game was played and named in 1965. The dog was named for the game, though the dog story circulated for decades because the founders enjoyed telling it.

Where was the first permanent pickleball court built?

USA Pickleball’s history says the first permanent pickleball court was built in 1967 at Joel and Joan Pritchard’s home in the Magnolia Bluff area of Seattle. It was the first court built specifically for pickleball rather than adapted from badminton.

When was the first pickleball rulebook published?

The first rulebook was published in March 1984 by the newly organized United States Amateur Pickleball Association. The rules have been revised many times since, and rule references on this site cite the current edition, meaning a rule like the two-bounce rule is stated as it stands under the 2026 rulebook.

How many people play pickleball in the United States?

SFIA counted 24.3 million US pickleball players in 2025, up from 4.2 million in 2020. In 2023, SFIA named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America for the third consecutive year.

What is the two-bounce rule?

The two-bounce rule requires the serve to bounce before the return and the return to bounce before the third shot, so each side must let the ball bounce once before volleys begin, under the 2026 rulebook. It dates to the founders’ earliest tinkering and keeps the serving team from crashing the net.

Is pickleball Washington’s official state sport?

Yes. Governor Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5615 on March 28, 2022, making pickleball the official state sport of Washington, the state where the game was invented in 1965.

Did pickleball come from badminton?

Partly. The first game was played on the Pritchards’ badminton court with the net at full badminton height, and the founders lowered it over time to 36 inches, the same sideline height the net keeps under the 2026 rulebook. The paddles were borrowed from table tennis, and the net exchanges owe plenty to tennis.

Sixty years after three dads lowered a badminton net, the game they improvised is played on tens of thousands of courts, and the way in has never changed: find people to play with. A local search of the pickleball clubs directory turns up groups carrying that 1965 experiment forward.

Written by the Pickler Junction Team.