The name "pickleball" tends to stop people mid-sentence. It sounds funny, a little random, and almost nothing like any sport that came before it. That's part of the appeal. But where did the name actually come from?
There are two stories — and they've been debated for over fifty years. One involves a dog. The other involves a rowing term most people have never heard of. Sorting out which one is real turns out to be more interesting than the answer itself.
Where Pickleball Began
The game started in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Joel Pritchard — a congressman — and his friend Bill Bell came home from a round of golf to find their families with nothing to do. Pritchard had an old badminton court in the backyard. No badminton equipment was around, so they grabbed a perforated plastic ball from a birthday gift set and a couple of table tennis paddles and started hitting.
The net was set at badminton height (60 inches) at first, but they found the ball bounced well on the asphalt surface, so they lowered it to 36 inches. The weekend after, their neighbor Barney McCallum joined in. The three of them gradually worked out the rules, with one guiding principle in mind: it should be a game the whole family could play together.
That spirit — informal, mixed-together, no single source — is directly connected to how the game got its name.
The Two Stories Behind the Name
Story 1: The Dog Named Pickles
This is the version most people have heard. According to Barney McCallum and a few Bainbridge neighbors, the game was named after the Pritchard family dog — a cockapoo named Pickles — who had a habit of chasing the ball and running off with it into the bushes.
In one retelling from Dick Brown, a family friend who was present during those early sessions: the families were sitting in the Pritchard cabin one night, trying to come up with a name for their new game. The dog was running around as usual. Joan Pritchard suggested "pickleball" because of Pickles, and everyone agreed it was a great fit.
It's a good story. It's specific, visual, and easy to remember. Which may be exactly why it spread.
Story 2: The Pickle Boat
Joan Pritchard — the woman credited with naming the game — told a different story for her entire life. She said she named the game "pickle ball" because the mix of different sports reminded her of a pickle boat in crew racing.
In crew, a "pickle boat" was an informal race crewed by non-starters and leftovers from other teams — rowers who weren't quite good enough for the varsity boat, thrown together for a just-for-fun competition. Joan grew up in Marietta, Ohio, near Marietta College, which had one of the strongest collegiate crew programs in the country. She later followed the sport as a fan at the University of Washington regattas.
The connection she made was direct: pickleball itself was a sport cobbled together from leftovers of other games — bits of badminton, table tennis, and wiffleball, assembled on the fly. Just like the pickle boat pulled together spare oarsmen from whatever was available.
Joan herself wrote in a newspaper column: "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. Somehow the idea the name came from our dog Pickles was attached to the naming of the game, but Pickles wasn't on the scene for two more years. The dog was named for the game, but stories about the name's origin were funnier thinking the game was named for the dog."
Which Story Is True?
The short answer: Joan's version almost certainly is.
The timeline is the clearest piece of evidence. USA Pickleball dug into the history in detail — tracking down photos, dog records, and interviews with people who were present in those early years. The finding was that the Pritchard family's dog Pickles was born in 1968, three years after pickleball was invented and named in 1965.
If Pickles didn't exist when the game was named, the dog couldn't have inspired the name. The dog was named after the game — not the other way around.
Frank Pritchard, Joel and Joan's son, confirmed the sequence: he was there in the summer of 1965, heard his mother say "pickle ball" for the first time while they were on the court, and never heard the game called anything else from that moment forward. It was his sister Jeannie who brought home the puppy in 1968 and named her Pickles — likely with the game's name already in mind.
So where did the dog story come from? Joel Pritchard himself. Sometime around 1969–1970, a reporter from a national publication was interviewing Joel about pickleball. The reporter asked about the name. Joel told the pickle boat story, then floated the dog version as a more colorful alternative. The reporter preferred it. Joel's response afterward — "Don't worry, it's just a funny story. It will never stick" — turned out to be very wrong.
Barney McCallum held to the dog story until he died. Frank Pritchard has spent years trying to restore credit to his mother for the real origin.
A Quick Timeline of Early Pickleball
| Year | What Happened |
|---|---|
| 1965 | Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum invent the game on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Joan Pritchard coins the name "pickle ball." |
| 1967 | First permanent pickleball court built in the backyard of Joel's neighbor, Bob O'Brian. |
| 1968 | The Pritchard family gets the dog Pickles. She is named after the game — not before it. |
| 1972 | Pickleball, Inc. incorporated to help interested players find and buy equipment. |
| 1975 | First national press coverage — the National Observer writes about pickleball. |
| 1976 | First known tournament held at South Center Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington. |
| 1984 | USA Amateur Pickleball Association publishes the first official rulebook. |
| 1990 | Pickleball being played in all 50 U.S. states. |
| 2005 | USA Pickleball Association established. |
| 2009 | First USAPA National Tournament — nearly 400 players from 26 states. |
Why the Name Fits
Whether you find the pickle boat story more believable or just more interesting, there's something genuinely fitting about it. Pickleball was never designed to be a serious sport. It was improvised on a summer afternoon, using whatever was around. Table tennis paddles. A plastic wiffle-type ball. A badminton court. A net dropped 24 inches from where it started.
The game that came out of those leftover pieces turned into one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. That arc — from backyard improvisation to a sport with millions of players — is part of why so many people connect with it quickly. It doesn't take years to learn. It doesn't require expensive equipment or a specific body type. Anyone can show up and play.
Joan Pritchard saw something in those first sessions that she recognized from the rowing world. Scraps, combined with purpose, can make something that lasts.
The First Equipment and How It Evolved
The original paddles were borrowed table tennis paddles — which broke quickly. Joel and his father fashioned replacements in the garage workshop. Barney McCallum, a skilled builder who lived down the road, started making more reliable versions. Those improvised paddles eventually led to the first composite paddle, developed by Arlen Paranto — a Boeing industrial engineer and father of early tournament player Steve Paranto.
Paranto built paddles using fiberglass and Nomex honeycomb panels — the same materials used in commercial aircraft flooring. He manufactured around 1,000 of them before selling the operation. That lineage from aerospace materials to the paddles on today's courts is a straight line.
Modern pickleball paddles have come a long way from those first garage builds — from wood to fiberglass, graphite, carbon fiber, and now engineered foam cores. If you're curious about how today's options stack up, the Wowlly paddle collection is organized by skill level and play style, which makes it easier to find a starting point without getting lost in specs.
Why People Keep Getting the Name Wrong
The dog story is more memorable. That's the honest answer. "Named after a dog who chased the ball" is an image anyone can hold onto. The pickle boat explanation requires knowing what a pickle boat is — and most people don't.
Joel Pritchard understood this when he offered the dog story to that reporter in 1969. He meant it as a throwaway detail. What he didn't account for was how quickly a good story spreads, especially when the truth requires more context to land.
For anyone curious about the deeper history of the sport, USA Pickleball's official site has published a thorough investigation into the name's origin — including the evidence for when Pickles the dog was actually born. It's worth reading if the history of the sport genuinely interests you. The gear review site Pickleheads also covers the sport's background alongside equipment coverage, for those who want both angles.
Either way: the name stuck. Sixty years later, people still laugh when they say it for the first time. That probably says something about how the game tends to land on people — unexpected, slightly odd, and hard to put down once you've tried it.
FAQ
How did pickleball get its name?
Joan Pritchard, wife of co-founder Joel Pritchard, named it in 1965 after the "pickle boat" — a crew racing term for a boat crewed by leftover non-starters from different teams. The mix of sports that made up pickleball reminded her of that thrown-together crew. A competing story says it was named after the family dog Pickles, but the dog wasn't born until 1968 — three years after the game was already named.
Was pickleball named after a dog?
Almost certainly not. Pickles the dog was born in 1968. The game was named in 1965. Joan Pritchard, who coined the name, stated clearly that the game was named after the pickle boat concept, and the dog was later named after the game — not the reverse. Joel Pritchard admitted he told the dog story as a more colorful version for a reporter, never thinking it would spread as widely as it did.
What is a pickle boat?
In collegiate crew racing, a pickle boat was an informal race run by leftover oarsmen — non-starters from various teams, thrown together for a casual competition. Joan Pritchard, who grew up near a strong crew program and followed the sport, saw the same spirit in pickleball: a game assembled from pieces of other sports, by people who just wanted to play.
Who invented pickleball?
Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum, in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington. The name was coined by Joel's wife, Joan Pritchard.
When was pickleball invented?
Summer of 1965. The first permanent court was built in 1967. By 1990, the sport was being played in all 50 U.S. states.
Is pickleball the fastest growing sport in the U.S.?
By most measures, yes. Millions of players, thousands of courts, and international reach — all from a game that started as a backyard improvisation with borrowed equipment on a summer afternoon.
Wowlly Academy · Sport & Culture · Updated May 2026
