(NEXSTAR) — By now, you’re likely familiar with pickleball, the net-and-paddle sport that quickly gained popularity during the pandemic.
But long before it was taking over suburban tennis courts, Super Bowl commercials, the lives of retired professional athletes, and even movie theatres (yes, a pickleball movie is in the works), it was a simple backyard sport.
Its name, however, doesn’t give much insight into what the game entails. Basketball, for example, implies the use of a basket and a ball. In baseball, there must be some bases and a ball. Football — well, that one does not entirely fit the sport, but you get the idea.
Consider pickleball: Does it conjure images of attempting to swing a pickle at a ball — say, even, a pickled olive?
Fortunately, pickleball is not a food-based game. The origin of its name, though, is still a bit murky.
Pickleball was created in the 1960s by friends Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell in Washington state as a means to appease their children while they “were too long on the golf course,” Pritchard’s wife, Joan, explained in a 2008 article.
It’s unclear when exactly the game was created. In one interview, Joel said it was 1963. But a pickleball company named after him, as well as his son, Frank, say it was 1965. And Joan has claimed it was the summer of 1966.
In any case, the story goes that the Bell and Pritchard’s children were upset that their fathers had been gone so long.
“When they arrived and found the children upset with them, Joel stated when he was young, kids made up their own games,” Joan wrote. “As a result he promised he could make something that was not yet made that they would enjoy.”
According to Joan, there was a badminton court on the property of their summer home. The net was lowered to roughly hip height, paddles were cut out of a piece of plywood by fellow friend Barney McCallum, and a Wiffle ball was collected from a young neighbor. Before long, the ball was being volleyed over the lowered net. Joel explained during an interview that it was the neighborhood adults who were on the court more than the children.
Naturally, the game now needed a name.
The story you may be familiar with, thanks in part to “a national story on the game,” is that the new sport was named after the Pritchard family dog, Pickles, who allegedly had a reputation for taking off with the ball.
It’s actually the other way around, according to the Pritchards.
Joan wrote in 2008 that while they did have a dog named Pickles, he came years after the game was created. She took credit for the game’s name instead, explaining that it reminded her of pickle boats in rowing when “oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats.”
“The dog was named for the game, but stories about the name’s origin were funnier thinking the game was named for the dog,” she added. Even though McCallum, credited with helping to establish pickleball’s equipment and rules, knew the true origins of the name, he maintained the dog story until his death, Frank Pritchard said.
The spelling, however, has been known to vary.
Joan Pritchard wrote it as “pickle ball” in her article detailing the game’s history. When its creators established a corporation for the game, they used “pickle ball” and “pickle-ball.” Today, you’re more likely to see “pickleball,” as in USA Pickleball and the J. Pritchard Collection of pickleball apparel and equipment.
There is no clear explanation why the game’s name has changed so slightly in recent years but the premise remains the same.
It’s also worth learning more about an aforementioned name nearly synonymous with picklepall itself: Joel Pritchard. Born in Seattle in 1925, Pritchard was elected a state representative in 1958. He would later serve as a state senator before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972.
After 12 years in Congress, Pritchard returned to Washington state to serve as lieutenant governor, “a dream that he had cherished for some time,” according to the state legislature. He retired in 1997 and died the same year.
According to Pritchard’s daughter, Peggy Pritchard-Olson, it wasn’t his long resume he was most proud of — it was the creation of pickleball.
“He said that out of all the things he’d done in his life, he was most proud of that game,” Pritchard-Olson recounted at a party shortly before his death. “It’s made such a lasting impression on so many people. It’s made people healthy and happy.”
