Pickleball Pointers from Dr. PoP
Professor of Pickleball
What’s in a name? A lot! First of all, what self-respecting adult would name a game “Pickleball”, much less play it? There’s a certain humility in the game that starts with the name and continues through the close physical presence on the court and the intimate doubles nature of the game. But really, where did the name come from? A family in Washington State (Bainbridge Island) was on vacation and the kids were moaning that they were board. The dad would have none of it and he implored them to figure out something to play on the old badminton court in the back yard. The rummaged through the garage finding some old stuff from other sports (tennis net, paddleball paddles and a ball – a wiffleball). The false story perpetuated by the Dad, Mr. Pritchard, to the extent that he later bought a dog and named him “Pickles” was that they stole the ball from the dog – hence “Pickle’s Ball” was born. The real story was that the mom, Mrs. Pritchard, was reminded of the crew tradition of bringing extra rowers to dual meets and placing the leftovers in a boat – the pickle boat. Pickleball borrowed the ball from whiffleball, the paddles from paddleball, the net from tennis, the court from badminton and for good measure the scoring from volleyball. Now you know the rest of the story!
