The history of pickleball in six answers
Pickleball is a fairly new sport. It is about 60 years old. This table gives the main points.
Question | Answer |
|---|---|
When did it begin? | The summer of 1965 |
Where did it begin? | Bainbridge Island, Washington, in the United States, near Seattle |
Who invented it? | Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum |
Why did they invent it? | To make a game the whole family could play together |
Where does the name come from? | The “pickle boat” in rowing |
What about today? | About 24.3 million people played in the United States in 2025 |
This article is based on information published by USA Pickleball, the national governing body for the sport in the United States.
It began in the summer of 1965, on an old badminton court
Pickleball was born on Bainbridge Island, on the west coast of the United States. USA Pickleball tells the story of the first day like this.
- One Saturday in the summer of 1965, Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell came home from playing golf
- At Pritchard’s home, their families were sitting around with nothing to do
- The home had an old badminton court, but they could not find enough rackets for everyone
- So they started playing with table tennis paddles and a plastic ball with holes
- The next weekend, Barney McCallum joined them, and the three men made the rules
The first equipment was whatever was in the house
Equipment | What they first used |
|---|---|
Court | An old badminton court |
Paddles | Table tennis paddles |
Ball | A plastic ball with holes |
Net | About 152 cm (60 inches) at first, later lowered to about 91 cm (36 inches) |
At first, the net was at badminton height and the players hit the ball back and forth without letting it bounce. As the weekend went on, they found that the ball bounced well on the asphalt, and the net was lowered.
- The rules were based heavily on badminton
- The three men kept the first purpose in mind: a game the whole family could play together
Today’s court is almost the same size as a badminton doubles court. Knowing that the first games were played on a badminton court, that makes sense. We compare court sizes in pickleball vs tennis, badminton and table tennis.
Who were the three inventors?
The people who invented pickleball were not sports experts. They were three fathers.
Name | Who he was | Later |
|---|---|---|
Joel Pritchard | A congressman from Washington State | Lieutenant governor of Washington State from 1988 to 1996. He died in 1997, aged 72 |
Bill Bell | A businessman | He died in 2006, aged 83 |
Barney McCallum | He was shown the game at Pritchard’s home the next weekend | He died in 2019, aged 93. He was the last of the three founders |
- Pritchard and McCallum were among the first people chosen for the Pickleball Hall of Fame when it opened in 2017
- Bell was chosen for the Hall of Fame in 2020
The name: a pickle boat, not a dog
There are two stories about the name “pickleball”. USA Pickleball looked for records and photos and spoke to people who were there. It explains that the boat story is the true one.
Story | What it says | What USA Pickleball explains |
|---|---|---|
The pickle boat | Joel’s wife, Joan Pritchard, came up with the name within days of the first game. In rowing, a “pickle boat” is a boat crewed by rowers who were left over and not picked for other boats | This is the true story |
Pickles the dog | The game was named after the Pritchard family’s dog, Pickles | The dog was born in 1968, three years after the game began, so it cannot be the source of the name |
Why a boat of leftover rowers?
In rowing, the rowers who were left over and not picked for the main boats raced for fun in a “pickle boat”. USA Pickleball explains that the name “pickle ball” was a reference to this thrown-together crew.
The game itself was thrown together too: a badminton court, table tennis paddles and a plastic ball.
Where did the dog story come from?
According to USA Pickleball, the dog came along a few years later and was named after the game. The order was the other way round.
How to remember it
The game gave its name to the dog. Pickles the dog was three years younger than pickleball.
Timeline: 60 years of pickleball
This timeline shows how a garden game became a sport played across the United States.
Year | What happened |
|---|---|
1965 | Pickleball is invented on Bainbridge Island |
1967 | The first court built just for pickleball is made at the Pritchards’ home in Seattle |
1972 | A company called Pickle-Ball Inc. is formed to protect the new sport |
1975 | A newspaper writes about pickleball. A tennis magazine follows the next year |
1976 | The first known pickleball tournament in the world is held in Tukwila, Washington |
1984 | A national organisation (USAPA) is formed, and the first rulebook is published in March |
1989 | The Villages, Florida, builds its first permanent courts |
1990 | Pickleball is being played in all 50 states |
2001 | Pickleball is played for the first time at the Arizona Senior Olympics, with 100 players |
2005 | A new organisation, the USA Pickleball Association, is set up |
2009 | The first national tournament for players of all ages is held in Buckeye, Arizona, with almost 400 players |
2010 | The International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) is set up to help the sport grow around the world |
2016 | The first US Open is held in Naples, Florida, and pickleball is shown on national television for the first time |
2020 | The organisation changes its name to USA Pickleball |
2025 | About 24.3 million people play pickleball in the United States |
The equipment changed too
The first paddles were table tennis paddles. In 1984, Arlen Paranto, an engineer at the aircraft maker Boeing, made a new kind of paddle. He used honeycomb panels, the material used for the floors of passenger planes. USA Pickleball records it as the first composite paddle.
To choose a paddle today, see how to choose your first paddle.
The 2020s: rapid growth in the United States
The number of people playing pickleball rose quickly in the 2020s. The chart shows figures from research by SFIA, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association in the United States.
Year | People who played in the United States |
|---|---|
2020 | About 4.2 million |
2021 | About 4.8 million |
2022 | About 8.9 million |
2023 | About 13.6 million |
2024 | About 19.8 million |
2025 | About 24.3 million |
- In the five years from 2020 to 2025, the number became about 5.8 times as large
- SFIA says pickleball grew by 171.8 per cent from 2022 to 2025, making it the fastest-growing sport in the United States
- USA Pickleball passed 100,000 members in 2025
About the numbers
The 2020 and 2025 figures come from the SFIA page. The 2021 to 2024 figures come from a news article reporting on the SFIA report. All of them are based on SFIA research.
Pickleball around the world
Pickleball started in the United States, and it is now played in many countries. Here are two facts recorded by USA Pickleball.
Year | What happened |
|---|---|
2010 | USA Pickleball set up the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) to help the sport grow internationally |
2025 | The USA Pickleball National Championships welcomed more than 2,500 players from 47 states and 20 countries |
For events and places to play in Thailand, see our tournament information and community events. To get started, read how to start pickleball.
Frequently asked questions
Does the name come from pickles, the food?
USA Pickleball explains that the name comes from the “pickle boat” in rowing. A pickle boat is a boat crewed by rowers who were left over and not picked for other boats.
Is the story about the dog wrong?
USA Pickleball looked for records and photos and interviewed people who were there. It reports that Pickles the dog was born in 1968. Pickleball was first played and named in 1965, so the dog was named after the game.
Who invented pickleball?
Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum. The name was chosen by Joan Pritchard, Joel’s wife.
Why is the net so low?
At first, the net was at badminton height, about 152 cm. When the players found that the ball bounced well on the ground, they lowered it to about 91 cm. Today the net is 91.44 cm high at the ends and 86.36 cm in the middle.
When was the first tournament?
The first known pickleball tournament in the world was held in the spring of 1976 in Tukwila, Washington. According to USA Pickleball, many of the players were college tennis players who knew very little about pickleball.
Where can I check what a word means?
Words such as kitchen and dink are explained in our pickleball glossary.
Sources
Sources checked: 14 Oct 2026。 Rules may vary by organizer or competition. Check the latest official sources.