FUN FACTS 

With its recent rise in popularity, pickleball has quickly become one of the country’s most popular sports. Prepare your paddles and widen your knowledge of this new sports craze with these interesting facts about America’s new favorite paddle sport.

1. Pickleball was invented in 1965 by three fathers from Bainbridge Island, Washington to entertain their kids. Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum made the equipment for the game by hand from items they had lying around the house and used rules from the games of tennis, badminton, and table tennis to create a fun new game for their families to enjoy.
2. Despite the name, pickleball has nothing to do with actual pickles. Some claim that the name “pickleball” came from Pritchard’s cocker spaniel, whose name was Pickles. However, that family dog, who made his debut two years after they invented the sport, got his name from the game.
3. Pickleball is almost equally as popular among men and women, with 53% of players being male and 47% being female.
4. Pickleball has its own national governing body, the United States of America Pickleball Association (USAPA),which regulates professional play for the sport.
5. The sport’s popularity across the world led to the creation of the International Federation of Pickleball, helping to regulate the sport in countries like the US, Canada, France, Great Britain and Spain.
6. The first permanent court for pickleball was built in 1967. 
7. Like tennis, pickleball can be played as both a singles and doubles sport and has rules that allow teams with standing players and wheelchaired players to play each other.
8. More than 3 million players play pickleball in the United States and that number has been growing by more than 10 percent each year over the past decade.

Copyright Annapolis Pickleball Club, January 1, 2023
Annapolis Pickleball Club is a 501(c)7 non-profit organization located at 1011 Bay Ridge Ave. #118,  Annapolis, MD  21403