Welcome to a very quiet and special October twenty-third in pickleball history. Today we look back, not on a specific event that happened on this calendar day, but on the story of invention and community that brought pickleball into being and made it the fastest-growing sport in America. It’s a tale of summer, creativity, and family fun that started on a quiet island in nineteen sixty-five, and now, nearly sixty years later, has produced courts and players in every state and on six continents.

The story goes back to the summer of nineteen sixty-five, on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Future congressman Joel Pritchard and his friend Bill Bell found their families a little bored on a summer afternoon, and with an old badminton court in the yard, they decided to invent something new. Thanks to a shortage of equipment, they grabbed some ping-pong paddles and a plastic, perforated whiffle ball, lowered the net, and began creating a whole new sport. Over the next weeks, Pritchard, Bell, and neighbor Barney McCallum refined the rules, aiming for something fast, fun, and easy for everyone in the family. According to many accounts, including those from the families involved and the USA Pickleball Association, this was the birth of pickleball, a sport now enjoyed by millions of people of all ages.

Pickleball is sometimes described as a mix between tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, played with paddles and a plastic ball with holes, on a court about the size of a badminton court, with a net set lower than tennis, at thirty-six inches. The game’s rules were meant to keep things friendly and accessible, with a focus on keeping the ball in play and making sure everyone could join in. It quickly became popular on Bainbridge Island and, soon after, spread among friends and neighbors, including fellow lawmakers in Olympia. The first permanent pickleball court was built in nineteen sixty-seven in the backyard of a neighbor, and by nineteen seventy-six, the first known tournament was held in Tukwila, Washington.

The name “pickleball” has a couple of quirky origin stories. Some say it was named after the Pritchards’ family dog, Pickles, who loved chasing the ball. Others, including Joan Pritchard, Joel’s wife, believe it was named after the “pickle boat” in crew, where rowers were chosen from leftover team members—a metaphor for the way the game came together from leftover equipment. There’s also a story that Bill Bell named it because he liked putting his opponents “in a pickle.” Regardless of which story is true, the name stuck, and the sport took off.

Pickleball’s history is full of little innovations. The first composite paddles were invented by the Paranto family in the nineteen eighties, and the first official rules were published by the newly formed USA Pickleball organization, also in the eighties. It was not until nineteen ninety that pickleball reached all fifty states, but in the past twenty years, the game has truly exploded in popularity. Today, there are nearly seventy thousand courts in the United States, and as of early twenty twenty-five, nearly twenty million people play pickleball in the U. S., with casual players likely even higher. The sport has become an international phenomenon, with national championships, professional leagues, and even a Pickleball Hall of Fame.

So, while October twenty-third might not mark a specific event in pickleball history, it is a good day to remember how a simple family project became one of the most inclusive and popular sports in America. Whether you play on a court in Arizona, Florida, or your own backyard, you are part of a story that started with bored kids and a badminton net, that grew into a sport enjoyed by millions. Thanks for tuning in to quiet please for your daily pickleball history. If you liked what you heard, make sure to subscribe for more stories from America’s fastest-growing game. This has been a quiet pleaseBack to Episodes