On September 25 in pickleball history, one interesting note is that it occurred near the time when pickleball was beginning to cement its identity and growth back in the late 1960s. While an exact standout event on this precise date is not recorded, this period was pivotal for the sport after its invention in 1965. By the late 1960s, pickleball was evolving from a backyard pastime on Bainbridge Island into a formalized sport with dedicated courts and an emerging community. In 1967, just a couple of years after its creation, the very first permanent pickleball court was built in the backyard of Joel Pritchard’s friend and neighbor, Bob O’Brian, signifying the sport’s transition from improvised play to formal establishment.
The game’s creation began that summer of 1965 when Joel Pritchard, a Washington congressman, Bill Bell, a businessman, and their friend Barney McCallum looked for a way to entertain their families. They combined elements of badminton, ping-pong, and tennis, initially playing with ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball over a badminton net, which they soon lowered to 36 inches to suit the plastic ball’s bounce on asphalt. Barney McCallum, known for his craftsmanship, then designed better paddles from plywood, which helped standardize equipment and enhance play quality.
Another key aspect from this era around September was related to the naming of the sport. Although widely believed to be named after a dog named Pickles, modern research by USA Pickleball has clarified that the dog was born in 1968, three years after the game began. The sport’s name actually comes from the term “pickle boat,” a rowing term for the leftover crew members, reflecting the mash-up nature of the game itself. This naming story was solidified in these early years, which set the tone for pickleball’s quirky and family-friendly reputation.
In the years following, the sport grew steadily, with the formation of Pickle Ball Inc. in 1972 to protect its creation legally, and media coverage starting with a 1975 article in the National Observer and a feature in Tennis magazine in 1976, calling it America’s newest racquet sport. These events propelled interest just a decade after those first informal games that started on a summer day much like today but decades earlier.
Today, as pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the United States and spreading internationally, it is fascinating to think that it all started with a simple idea of entertaining bored children on a summer day. The incremental milestones around this late September timeframe in the 1960s were crucial steps toward the sport becoming the phenomenon it is today — blending competitive spirit with accessibility for all ages and abilities.
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