Trending
Pickleball has a Marietta connection most people are unaware of. Pickleball is a popular game with elements of tennis, ping-pong (table tennis), and badminton. It was invented on Bainbridge Island, Wash., in the mid 1960s.
The Marietta connection: The three guys credited with inventing pickleball were Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum. Pritchard's wife, Marietta native Joan Sutton Pritchard, is credited with naming the game. The Pritchards met while attending Marietta College in the late 1940s. They married in 1948 and moved to Seattle, Wash. Pickleball was invented in 1965 … or 1966, or 1963, depending on who is telling the story. The most cited version of the "Creation Story" is that the Pritchards' children were bored to death at the family weekend getaway place on Bainbridge Island. Joel and friend Bill Bell returned from golf one day. Thirteen-year-old Frank Pritchard whined, "There's nothing to do here," repeating a phrase uttered by kids everywhere at one time or other. His father Joel countered dismissively, "When we were kids, we'd make games up." Frank challenged his dad, "OK, then you can make up a game for us." Joel Pritchard and buddies went to work. They used an existing badminton court, found a plastic ball with holes in it, and used ping pong paddles to bat the ball back and forth. The kids, thankfully, were entertained. But so were the adults who soon found the game addicting. Barney McCallum says he couldn't wait to get out on the court and play the game himself. He fashioned larger paddles from plywood. Over the next few weeks, some basic rules emerged. Pickleball was born. What was a niche sport for decades has today become a craze. Millions play the game, which now resembles tennis played on a smaller court with ping pong-like paddles and a plastic ball. It's less intense and not as strenuous as tennis.
Now, about the game's unusual name, Pickleball. Joan Pritchard was an avid fan of Marietta College crew (competitive rowing) racing. The improvised paddle game reminded her of improvised crews on a "pickle boat," made up of a thrown-together group of rowers who had not rowed in other races. So, she called the game pickleball. The name stuck, sort of. There is another, more endearing, explanation for the pickleball name. The Pritchards' family dog, named Pickles, often chased after errant balls and ran off with them. So, they became Pickle's balls. That amusing name explanation became popular for decades.
Joan Pritchard debunked the dog story in a 2008 column in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She explained that the family did not have the dog until a few years after the game started. The dog was named after pickleball, not the reverse. Joel Pritchard in an oral history recording agreed that the dog came after the origin of the game. Both versions of the name origin still circulate in pickleball literature.
Joan Pritchard moved to Marietta in the 1970s after she and Joel divorced. She was a columnist for the Parkersburg News and Sentinel and The Marietta Times. Joan Pritchard passed away in 2012, but the game she named lives on big time.
This is an adaptation of an article from David Baker's local history blog, earlymarietta.
To learn more about the Washington County Historical Society, call 740-373-1788 or visit wchshistory.org.