How Pickleball Came to Be Meet the Founders of the West Coast’s Favorite Sport
Do you know who created football? What about basketball? Or soccer? Or our local favorite, pickleball? For most fans, it feels like our favorite sports have always existed, but each one has an origin story, and some are younger than you think! While football, basketball, and soccer all date back to the 1800s, pickleball was born just a few decades ago in the year 1965. According to USA Pickleball, the game was the brainchild of Washington Congressman Joel Pritchard, businessman Bill Bell, and their friend, Barney McCallum. They used to vacation together on Bainbridge Island off the Washington coast. On one boring summer day, Pritchard and Bell invented pickleball as a way to keep their families occupied. It was a gradual process, pieced together from the equipment they had on hand.
“The property had an old badminton court, so
Pritchard and Bell looked for some badminton equipment and could not find a full set of rackets. They improvised and started playing with ping-pong paddles and a perforated plastic
group, Bob O’Brian, put up the very first permanent pickleball field in his backyard.
ball,” USA Pickelball reports. “At first, they placed the net at [the] badminton height of 60 inches and volleyed the ball over the net. As the weekend progressed, the players found that the ball bounced well on the asphalt surface, and soon, the net was lowered to 36 inches.” The whole family loved the game, and when McCallum came over the next weekend, he helped his friends perfect it! Two years later, another friend of the
The rest, as they say, is history. Today, USA Pickleball has more than 40,000 members worldwide and its very own Hall of Fame. Here in our area, you can find pickleball courts in Lake Forest, Rancho Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Irvine, and beyond. To find a place to play near you, visit GlobalPickleball.network and click “Pickleball Courts.”
HAVE A LAUGH
WATERMELON JICAMA SALAD WITH JALAPEÑO AND LIME This late-summer salad hits every flavor note and is a great way to get acquainted with jicama, a root vegetable native to Mexico. It’s easy to prepare (just peel and eat) and has the crispness of an apple and the satisfying starch of potato.
Inspired by BonAppetit.com
Ingredients
• • •
1/2 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• • • •
1 3-lb seedless watermelon
3 tbsp fresh lime juice Kosher salt, to taste
1 small jicama
1 jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
Directions
1. Prepare the watermelon by removing the rind and cutting the melon into 2 1/2-by-1/2- inch sticks. 2. Peel the jicama with a vegetable peeler, then cut it into sticks the same size as the watermelon. 3. In a large bowl, combine the watermelon and jicama with jalapeño, scallion, cilantro, and lime. Sprinkle with kosher salt, toss gently to combine, taste, and adjust seasoning.
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