Who We Are

In the summer of 1965, Pickleball was created by three men, Joel Pritchard, Barney McCallum, and Bill Bell on Bainbridge Island, WA. 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 ball. "Pickles" who was the Pritchard's family dog was always chasing the ball around the court. So when it was time to name the new activity everyone was playing, Joan Pritchard said, "Why don't you call it Pickleball?"... and all agreed it was a great name.*

Mr. Pickle: The Face of Pickleball at Indian Wells

The name Mr. Pickle is fun...right ?? And for the sport, Pickleball its' perfect ...right? We think so, and so did the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, where the USA Pickleball National Championships were held in 2018 and an amusing darling metal sculpture called "MR PICKLE" was created for the Championships by International and local Coachella Valley Pop Artists, Karen and Tony Barone, whose colorful and vibrant paintings and sculptures are collected the world over. The Tennis Garden's "powers that be" fell in love with it and wanted Mr Pickle to reign over the IWTG and be its "Face of Pickleball". Since then, Mr. Pickle has become famous on his own.