The Stories Behind the Name Pickleball

Dog or Boat?

The story behind the name Pickleball is no different than any other story of folklore behind a children's game  As with all stories, things get embellished over time and a good story is made even better. 

There are two basic versions of how the game Pickleball got its name.  The first and most popular is the fact that Joel Pritchard and his buddy Bill Bell had spent too much time golfing on that Saturday in 1965 and came home to unhappy spouses who suggested they had promised to spend time with the children rather than golfing all day.

          Pickles


That prompted the two inventors to come up with a game that would keep the children happy and pacify the wives.  They proceeded to cut the poles of a badminton court down to waist height, borrow a whiffle baseball from teenager Jim,  next door, and to fashion paddles larger than ping pong paddles in the wood shop.

As the the game progressed with made up rules, errand balls were chased down by the family cocker spaniel, named Pickles, but hidden under bushes as great doggie fun.  Of course the kids would yell,  "Pickles took our ball."  This got shortened to Pickle's ball and then Pickleball.  Cute story and the one the usapa wants to keep.

Click to read the history of the game on the usapa website History of Pickleball.



         A picture of the first Pickleball court

The second story was written after Pickleball appeared on Good Morning America in the summer of 2008. Joan Pritchard, the wife of  late Congressmen Joel Pritchard, wrote a different version of how Pickleball got its name in her column in the Ohio News and Sentinel, July 28, 2008.

In her story, she indicated that Pickles was not even adopted until 2 years after the game had been invented and that the dog was actually named after the game.  She indicates that she named the game after the term pickle boats.  Joan says, " The name of the game became Pickle Ball, after I said it reminded me of the Pickle Boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats."

My research suggests that pickle boat is a nautical term for the boat that comes last in a race.  In early boat races, if a team got way behind they stopped racing and started fishing and pickling the fish for sale, thus the term pickle boat

For more information on the name of the game and the people involved read Pickle Ball featured on Morning show By JOAN PRITCHARD, Local Columnist.

I think we all agree the dog version is the better story and should remain as the reason the game is called Pickleball.  You may have wondered why it is spelled as one word when spell check says it should be two.  The is one of those "because" stories.  Because the usapa, said it will be spelled as one word and is copyrighted.  Maybe in Canada, it becomes Pickle Ball.