When Did Pickleball Start?

A summer is a season when you get a lot of creative ideas. Try to imagine one of your creative ideas becoming a super hit and causing a rage all over the world. Sounds really interesting, right? Pickleball is a popular and a growing sport that was invented in quite a similar way.

What Is Pickleball & When Did It Start?

Pickleball is a racquet sport, similar to tennis. It is played by two or four players with paddles, usually wooden, and a perforated ball. Although the game was first recognised in 1972, the question is when did pickleball start, actually. The game was created by three friends for their children, on a mid-summer day in 1965. Pritchard and his friends had just returned from a golf game, to find their children bored. They wanted to entertain the children with a game of badminton. However they couldn’t find the shuttle, and so they made do with table tennis racquets and lowered the net. This created the game that went on to be a sport that is played worldwide. One of Pritchard’s neighbours even made a court dedicated to pickleball in 1968, that became the first pickleball court in history.

The name, pickleball, was derived from ickle boat,’ because the racquets resembled paddles from a pickle boat. Also, Pritchard’s dog was named Pickles, because he loved chasing balls.

Pickleball gained quick popularity because of it’s adaptable, fun, and easy rules. It’s cost of equipment and set-up are quite cheap, and it can be played indoors as well as outdoors. It’s highly adaptable rules allow people from all ages to play. It doesn’t require any highly skilled athletic abilities to start playing pickleball. You don’t even have to have a past experience with racquets, to begin playing the game.

How Pickleball Has Evolved Through The Years

At first, when Pritchard’s neighbourhood caught on the rage of pickleball, a lot of people started designing their own paddles that were much more suitable for pickleball, than normal table tennis racquets. This was when Pritchard’s friend, McCallum, who also was one among the three friends who invented the game, started manufacturing pickleball paddles.

Since the game started in a badminton court with a badminton net, the rules then were slightly different than the rules today. There were some trials and errors made by the three friends later, and they lowered the net from 60 inches to 36 inches. The o-volley’ zone rule was also created then.

1968 saw the first pickleball organisation, Pickle Ball Inc., being created by Pritchard and his friends. Then, for a decade, the game spread greatly all over the country. It was no longer a backyard game, but a national sport. Many transitions took place during the first decade, and by the end of the decade, it was recognised by the National Observer, had an article published in a tennis magazine, and also had the first official pickleball tournament held.

In 1984, the USAPA, USA Pickleball Association, was founded.

By the 1990s, it became really common and played at various communities, sports, and fitness centers. And finally, the first national tournament was held in 2009.

Pickleball now is seen being played in international competitions and is one of the fastest growing games in the world. Also, recently Para-Pickleball, a form of the game for people who use wheelchairs, was created, and it was highly adaptive and the players found it easy to play. It was also officially recognised by the USAPA in 2016.

Initially, a backyard sport, the game is fun, easy, cost-efficient, and worth the try!