Pickleball, from Bainbridge Island to the governing-body splits.

Pickleball's founding is recorded mainly by HistoryLink, the free online encyclopedia of Washington State history. Even there, the founders and their families gave different years for the first game and three different accounts of the name. This page gives each, then follows the game's organisation up to the disputes of the 2020s.

A summer game, 1965

HistoryLink's essay on pickleball, by Jim Kershner (11 November 2016), records that Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum invented the game at Pritchard's summer cabin on Bainbridge Island, Washington. It says they played on a badminton court with the net lowered to 36 inches, using paddleball paddles, which were later redesigned, and a perforated plastic ball of the whiffle type.

Which year?

HistoryLink says the accepted date, used by the USA Pickleball Association and Pickle-Ball Inc., is summer 1965. It also records the other dates the founders' own circle gave:

Year	Who gave it, as HistoryLink records
Summer 1963	Joel Pritchard himself, on one occasion
July or August 1965	McCallum and Pritchard, in most accounts; the accepted date
Summer 1966	Joan Pritchard, Joel Pritchard's wife at the time, in writing

Which paddles?

HistoryLink says paddleball paddles were used. Other accounts, from Wikipedia and a maker's blog, both seen in search summaries, say table tennis paddles came first.

Wikipedia, in a summary, says Pritchard later served in the US Congress and as Washington's lieutenant governor. HistoryLink records his death in 1997.

Where the name came from

HistoryLink records three accounts:

The pickle boat. Joan Pritchard, in a 2008 column, said the name came from the "pickle boat" in rowing, a crew made up of oarsmen left over from the other boats.
"In a pickle". Barney McCallum said it came from telling opponents they were in a pickle.
A nutty name. Joel Pritchard said the founders wanted a deliberately odd name, and that "tenny pong" was once considered.

The dog called Pickles

A widely repeated version says the game was named after the Pritchards' dog, Pickles. HistoryLink records Pritchard saying it was the other way round: the dog was named after the game. Wikipedia, in a summary, says the Pritchards stated the dog came after the name, and that a reporter in the early 1970s may have caused the confusion. USA Pickleball published its own piece on the naming, but the page returned an error when fetched for this site, so its account was not read.

Early organisation

HistoryLink says a Bainbridge Island neighbour paved the first permanent court in 1967. The founders' company is dated two ways. HistoryLink records articles of incorporation for Pickle Ball Inc. filed on 13 February 1968 and a first annual report filed on 3 August 1972, and says Pritchard and others date the start of the business to 1972. Most other accounts, including USA Pickleball's as summarised, give 1972 for the company's formation.

HistoryLink says Tennis magazine called pickleball "America's newest racquet sport" in 1976, and that the first known tournament was held in Tukwila, Washington, the same year. Search summaries of Wikipedia and USA Pickleball add that it was billed as the world's first pickleball championship and that David Lester won the men's singles; no primary page confirmed those details.

A national association, 1984

USA Pickleball's 2026 rulebook says the body published the sport's first official rulebook in March 1984. HistoryLink says the USA Pickleball Association was formed in 1984 and that courts existed in all 50 states by 1990. The 1984 body's name is given two ways: Wikipedia says it was the United States Amateur Pickleball Association, based in Tacoma, with a new USA Pickleball Association corporation formed in 2005 and the name USA Pickleball adopted in 2020; HistoryLink calls the 1984 body the USA Pickleball Association.

The state sport, 2022

Washington made pickleball its official state sport when Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill sponsored by Senator John Lovick on Monday 28 March 2022, according to the senator's release, datelined Bainbridge Island, which names Pritchard, McCallum and Bell as the founders. Search summaries of HistoryLink and USA Pickleball add that it was Senate Bill 5615, signed on Pritchard's original court, and give the votes in each chamber; those details are unconfirmed here.

The international bodies

The trade publication The Dink reported on 21 November 2025 that an International Federation of Pickleball was founded in 2010 and later lapsed, a World Pickleball Federation (WPF) started in 2018, the old federation was revived as the IPF in April 2023, and the Global Pickleball Federation (GPF) was founded in November 2023 after the United States, Canada, Australia and others left the IPF. The IPF and WPF merged in June 2025, and a unification committee with the GPF met on 8 November 2025. A European Pickleball Federation press release of 4 August 2026 shows unification was still not complete on that date. Each body's position is on pickleball bodies and tours.

The US professional split, each side

The PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball came under one owner first. A joint statement of 10 November 2022, seen in a summary, announced a strategic merger between Major League Pickleball (MLP) and the PPA Tour. Sportcal reported on 1 March 2024 that the two had merged under one parent company in early 2024, keeping their separate brands and formats; another trade report, seen in a summary, dates the closing to 29 February 2024. Later trade press, including The Dink, names the parent the United Pickleball Association (UPA).

On 16 May 2024, The Dink reported, the UPA announced a new governing body, the UPA of America (UPA-A), led by Jason Aspes, to replace USA Pickleball as the governing body for its events, citing the need for a nimble body and for paddle regulation.

The APP Tour's side. The APP Tour backed USA Pickleball as an independent governing body and criticised a single commercial entity trying to own the sport (The Dink, 16 May 2024). KCTV5 later described the APP as the first professional tour sanctioned by USA Pickleball.
USA Pickleball's side. At a March 2025 panel, its representative Carl Schmits said there is only one national governing body, and that the two standards should merge.
The UPA-A's side. At the same panel its president, Jason Aspes, said independence matters to the UPA-A while acknowledging that it falls under the UPA in ownership terms, and that the two standards are close enough to unify.

No agreement was reached. In practice, as The Dink described it in March 2025, the UPA-A governs professional play on the PPA Tour and MLP, while USA Pickleball sets the standards for amateur and recreational play. The UPA-A announced its own paddle rule updates effective 1 September 2025; the paddle lists are on pickleball paddles and approval.

Sources