HISTORY
The Creation of a New Sport FUN
Pickleball is a sport created in the United States in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, Jordan Steranka, and Barney McCallum. This sport was designed to be fun and challenging for everyone. The founders used a badminton court to play and created wooden paddles larger than table tennis and opted for a perforated plastic ball. The initial rules were similar to badminton and the net was at 150 cm, but it was reduced to 91.5 cm as the ball bounced well on asphalt. The name of the game came from the Pritchard's Cocker Spaniel, Pickles, who would retrieve the ball when it was played and bring it back to its owner.
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timeline
Evolution of Sport
In the early years, pickleball was played by families in their backyards on a hard surface, on the street, or anywhere else they could find a flat surface. As the sport grew in the 1970s, it went from being originally a family activity to a racquet sport with formal rules. Pickleball is now played in schools, sports clubs and multi-sports centers throughout the United States, Canada, Spain and up to 80 countries and growing in other countries.
1965
After playing golf on a summer Saturday, Washington State Congressman Joel Pritchard and successful businessman Bill Bell returned to Pritchard's home on Bainbridge Island, WA (near Seattle) to find their families sitting around with nothing to do.
The property had an old badminton court, so Pritchard and Bell looked for badminton equipment and couldn't find a full set of rackets. They improvised and started playing with ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball.
At first they placed the net at a badminton height of 60 inches and volleyed the ball over the net. As the weekend progressed, the players found that the ball bounced well on the asphalt surface and soon lowered the net to 36 inches.
The following weekend, Barney McCallum was introduced to Pritchard's home game. Soon, the three men created rules, based largely on badminton.
They didn't lose sight of the original goal, which was to provide a game that the whole family could play.
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1967
The first permanent pickleball court was built in the backyard of Joel Pritchard's friend and neighbor Bob O'Brian.
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1972
A corporation was formed to protect the creation of this new sport.
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1975
The National Observer published an article about pickleball, followed by a 1976 article in Tennis magazine about "America's new racquet sport."
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1976
During the spring of 1976, the first known pickleball tournament in the world was held at the South Center Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington. David Lester won the men's singles and Steve Paranto was second. Many of the participants were college tennis players who knew very little about pickleball.
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In fact, they practiced with large wooden paddles and a softball-sized plastic ball.
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1978
The book "The Other Racquet Sports" was published, which included information on pickleball.
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1982
Pickleball pioneer Sid Williams began playing and hosting tournaments in Washington state.
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1984
The United States Amateur Pickleball Association (USAPA) was organized to perpetuate the growth and advancement of pickleball nationally.
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The first regulation was published in March 1984.
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USAPA's first executive director and president was Sid Williams, who held the position from 1984 to 1998. He was followed by Frank Candelario, who served until 2004.
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The first composite blade was manufactured by Arlen Paranto, an industrial engineer at Boeing. He used the fiberglass/nomex honeycomb panels that commercial airlines use for their floors and as part of the aircraft's structural system.
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Arlen made about 1,000 blades using fiberglass/honeycomb core and graphite/honeycomb core materials until he sold the company to Frank Candelario.
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1990
Pickleball is played in all 50 states.
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1992
Pickle-Ball, Inc. manufactured the pickleballs in-house with a custom punching machine.
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1997
Joel Pritchard has died at the age of 72. Although he was lieutenant governor of Washington state from 1988 to 1996, he is probably best known for his connection to the birth of pickleball.
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1999
The first pickleball website on the Internet, Pickleball Stuff, launched and provided players with information, equipment and products.
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2001
The game of pickleball was introduced for the first time in the Senior Olympics of Arizona thanks to the efforts of Earl Hill. The tournament was played at Happy Trails RV Resort in Surprise, AZ and attracted 100 players.
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It was the largest event played up to that point. In the following years, the event grew to nearly 300 players.
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2003
The Pickleball Stuff website lists 39 known places to play in North America. This represents 10 states, 3 Canadian provinces and about 150 individual tracks.
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Pickleball was first included in the Huntsman World Senior Games, held each year in St. George, Utah, during the month of October.
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2005
A new corporation was established for pickleball called the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA). Mark Friedenberg was named the first president of the new USAPA and the first Board of Directors included:
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-Vice President - Steve Wong
- Secretary - Fran Myer
-Treasurer - Lela Reed
- General Counsel - Phil Mortenson
- Claims - Phil Mortenson
-Marketing - Erne Perry followed by Pat Carroll in March 2006
-Affiliation - Carole Myers
-National/International Relations and Ambassador Program - Earl Hill Newsletter - Jettye Lanius -Qualifications and Classifications - Mark Friedenberg Standards - Dennis Duey
-Tournaments - Barney Myer
-Training - Norm Davis
-Webmaster - Steve Wong
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Steve Wong (former USAPA Webmaster) created the first USAPA website which went live in March. Website activity continued to increase as pickleball's popularity grew and website features increased.
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USAPA became a non-profit corporation on July 1. The USAPA cooperated with several websites to suspend their Places to Play links and consolidate all their entries into the USAPA database creating a single reliable source for players to find places to play. Today that website is: places2play.org
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2006
One of the founders of this sport, Bill Bell, dies at the age of 83.
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2008
The USAPA Rules Committee, chaired by Dennis Duey, published the (1) USA Pickleball Association Official Tournament Rulebook - Revision: May 1, 2008.
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Pickleball was included for the first time in the National Senior Games Association (NSGA). There are now 420 places to play in North America, as shown on the USAPA website. This represents 43 states and 4 Canadian provinces and around 1500 individual tracks. This does not take into account sites that are adding tracks to private homes.
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ABC's Good Morning America aired a live segment on pickleball that included a short demonstration. This was the first exposure of this sport in the media.
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2009
The first USAPA National Tournament for players of all ages was held in Buckeye, Arizona, November 2-8, 2009. The tournament attracted nearly 400 players from 26 states and several Canadian provinces.
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USAPA established the Grants Program to help players create new headquarters for new players. At the end of 2013, the program counted more than 1,400 new headquarters.
2010
To help foster the growth of the sport internationally, the USAPA established the International Pickleball Federation (IFP) organization and its corresponding website (ifpickleball.org).
2012 comes to Spain
Pickleball arrived in Spain about 10 years ago, in 2012, when the Spanish Pickleball Association was created, which is our representative body in Spain and an international member (IFP) officially registered by the Ministry of the Interior.
2013
In January, Justin Maloof was brought into the USAPA as the first full-time Executive Director. USAPA begins the year with a record 4,071 members.
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USAPA is rebranding with a new logo and a red, white and blue color scheme that is more consistent with other US national sports bodies.
2014
USAPA launched a new, more user-friendly website. The Pickleball Channel was also launched, becoming the sport's first professional media group.
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2015
USAPA surpasses 10,000 members for the first time. The first USAPA Ambassadors' Retreat was held in Tahoe City, California. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), there are now just over 2 million pickleball players.
USAPA and author Mary Littlewood are collaborating with Human Kinetics Publishing to produce a new pickleball book for beginners titled (2) Pickleball Fundamentals, Master the Basics and Compete with Confidence. After 6 years in Buckeye, AZ, the USAPA is moving the USAPA National Championships to Casa Grande, AZ.
The total number of tracks for Places2Play continues to grow and exceeds 10,000 tracks and ends the year with 12,800, both indoor and outdoor.
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2016
USAPA reports that it now has more than 17,000 members. USAPA creates a national referee certification program. Pickleball Magazine, the first professional full-color print and digital publication, is launched.
USAPA members receive a free digital copy and a discounted subscription by mail. The first US Open Pickleball Championships were held in Naples, FL and included the first national telecast of pickleball on the CBS Sports Network.
More than 4,600 places now appear on Places2Play. USAPA chooses Children's Research Hospital St. Jude as a national charity partner. The Super Senior International Pickleball Association (SSIPA) is created which links with the USAPA and sanctions all its tournaments.
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2017 brings pickleball to Catalonia
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On 11-21-2017, the Catalan Pickleball Association was registered with the Catalan Government in the Department of Justice, General Directorate of Law and Legal Entities.
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the first pickleball court in Catalonia is held at the Montcabrer tennis club (CABRILS).
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USAPA's pool of volunteer ambassadors exceeds 1,500. Places2Play reflects almost 5,900 places. The USAPA expands the number of USAPA regionals from 8 to 11.
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USAPA and the American Sports Builders Association (ASBA) are partnering to co-author the first official pickleball construction book for the sports industry. (3) Pickleball Courts - a Construction & Maintenance Manual provides detailed technical information for the proper construction of pickleball courts and facilities.
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USAPA and the International Pickleball Teaching Professionals Association (IPTPA) launched a Pickleball Hall of Fame. The inaugural members were Joel Pritchard, Barney McCallum, Sid Williams, Arlen Paranto, Mark Friedenberg and Billy Jacobsen. With more than 1,300 players, the USAPA National Championships set a record for participants and, for the first time, a 2-hour segment of the event is being broadcast to a national audience on CBS Sports Network.
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USAPA membership doubles in two years and reaches 22,000 in December.
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2018
the Catalan pickleball association makes the first 4 courts dedicated exclusively to pickleball in all of Europe. at the Mora tennis club (Sant Andreu de Llavaneres)
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USAPA membership exceeds 30,000. The total number of tracks by Places2Play locations is almost 7,000, and there are almost 21,000 known tracks across the United States. The USAPA partners with Pickleballtournaments.com to produce and release the first Results Based Tournament Player Rankings (UTPRs).
The USAPA partners with the newly formed Professional Pickleball Registry (PPR), a subsidiary of the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR). In the first 6 months, PPR certifies over 1,000 new pickleball instructors.
USAPA members Jennifer Lucore and Beverly Youngren co-author and publish the sport's first history book, (4) History of Pickleball, Over 50 Years of Fun! USA Pickleball partners with Desert Champions, LLC in a multi-year agreement and moves the National Championships to the world-renowned Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, CA.
Registration for the newly-branded Margaritaville USA Pickleball National Championships soars to over 2,200 participants. The event featured over 17 hours of content broadcast live to a national audience on ESPN3 and a 1-hour segment aired nationally on ESPNEWS.
The event also provided the largest purse ($75,000) in the history of the sport.
The USAPA Facebook team streamed several live matches of the National Championships on Facebook and had a total reach of over 1.5 million viewers. The members of the Pickleball Hall of Fame were Earl Hill, Fran Myer and Robert Lanius
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2019
The United States Pickleball Association, as part of its growth agenda, is adding several new staff members, including key positions in Marketing and Communications, Competition and Trades, Recreation Programs and Member Services.
The Sports Fitness Industry Association's 2019 report indicates that pickleball remains one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, with participants reaching 3.3 million. The last of the three founders of this sport, Barney McCallum, has died at the age of 93.
The Margaritaville USA National Pickleball Championship puts a greater emphasis on the spectators and the spectator experience. A VIP lounge and live video screens were placed just outside the stadium court, where fans could enjoy the action from the food and beverage areas.
The event attracted nearly 28,000 fans. The members of the Pickleball Hall of Fame were Dan Gabanek, Jennifer Lucore, Enrique Ruiz and Steve Paranto. USAPA reaches nearly 40,000 members by the end of the year, a growth rate of 1,000% since the beginning of 2013.
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2020
The USAPA has changed its name to USA Pickleball, aligning more consistently with other US sports bodies and our National Pickleball Championships. The brand relaunch also includes a new, modern logo and an updated website.
The new name, logo and website are designed to reinforce USA Pickleball's global image as the official pickleball organization in the United States.
2021
The first indoor club dedicated exclusively to pickleball opens in September (villa-pickleball, Sabadell)
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2022
The sport is growing rapidly internationally, the IFP (International Federation Pickleball) has more than 50 countries.
2023
The sport continues its rapid growth internationally, the IFP (International Federation Pickleball) has more than 80 countries.