History of Pickleball

In the mid through late 1960’s, former Washington US representative and Lt. Governor Joel Pritchard and some neighbors invented the game to play with their kids and family on some ununsed badminton courts where they lived on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry trip from Seattle in Puget Sound. While a popular fiction was the family dog named Pickles kept chasing the balls, it seems the truth was a wife of one of the game’s inventors commented one day they looked like the crew of the “pickle boat”, a collection of rowers thrown together from those not quite making the crews of other boats in a race. In the 70’s, the game slowly grew and found most players being folks who hung out in Washington state legislative circles;  there still are quite a few homes with courts put in during that time in the Olympia area (Washington’s capital). The sport grew very slowly through the 80’s and 90’s; much of that in Washington State where many schools and community centers had play. But something happened to propel it into national prominence in the last 20 years. That being retirement communities in Florida, Texas and Arizona discovered this is a sport for all ages and very suitable for older adults. Hundreds of courts were built at retirement complexes, and national news channels started carrying stories of it.

Pickleball now is  America’s fastest growing sport, with cities everywhere having made outside tennis courts multipurpose and purpose-built outdoor and indoor pickleball courts springing up like hotcakes everywhere. National championships are held for all age groups and in recent years, professional pickleball tournaments have emerged, with very high levels of competition among intense atheletes in their late teens through thirties. In 2020, well over 3 million Americans were playing pickleball. Find all sorts of other information about the game at Pickleball history.

History of Pickleball in New Zealand

Around June of 2015, pickleball started to be played in NZ for the first time in a Rotorua badminton facility. Two uniquely qualified Kiwis who also gained American citizenship made this happen. Claire Spackman was already well known as a leading NZ badminton player. Husband David McNamara, also a badminton player, had written an app for scoring badminton. Some pickleball player friends in N. Carolina asked if he could do the same for scoring pickleball. While doing so, David and Claire started playing the game. They brought equipment with them back to Rotorua and got the badminton hall going with the sport. David and Claire did such a bang up job, that the Rotorua center is still the most active site for pickleball in New Zealand, despite them having moved back to the states in 2017. Later in 2015 & early 2016, pickleball began spreading, at first to Whakatane, Kumeu, Browns Bay, and Nelson. Now pickleball is being played regularly at a number of venues in New Zealand: “Where to Play” or scroll around this map “Places to Play“

History of Play in Auckland

What is Auckland? It is where a third of New Zealand’s population live. Unlike something like LA or NYC or Seattle, Auckland is really a term (and political entity) meaning a much larger area than the central city. Nearly all of Auckland is subdivided into districts that call themselves suburbs, regardless of how close or far they may be to the central business district (CBD).  Places like Ponsonby, Remuera, Mt. Roskill, Mt. Eden, etc. are suburbs even though they are  neighbourhoods quite inseparably part of the central urban area of Auckland.  More distant areas like Kumeu or Waiheke Island truly resemble what many people think of as “the ‘burbs”.

Starting in 2016, regularly scheduled pickleball in Auckland was played in Kumeu and Browns Bay, both northern suburbs.

In central urban Auckland, pickleball play began April 2018 at Mt Albert community centre (YMCA).  This is PAC’s most popular location with 30+ players often showing up for Friday morning sessions.  As of 2021, pickleball venues in central Auckland have greatly expanded.  See our “Where to Play” page for central Auckland locations and schedule.