Barney McCallum
Barney McCallum, alongside Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell, is recognized for inventing pickleball and setting its original rules.
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Barney McCallum was one of the three co-inventors of pickleball, devised in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington.[1][2] Along with Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell, he helped create the game and establish its original rules.[1][3]
Life and work
McCallum fabricated larger, more durable plywood paddles in a nearby shed to replace the table tennis paddles.[4] After returning from golf one Saturday in 1965, Pritchard and Bell discovered their families were bored because the badminton shuttlecock was missing.[5][3] In his father's Seattle basement workshop, McCallum kept trying out different paddle designs.[4]
What the cited sources add
The HistoryLink account by Kershner states that McCallum claimed the name "pickleball" came from him telling opponents, "I've got you in a pickle."[3] The same source notes that McCallum and Pritchard both specified July-August 1965 as the correct invention date.[3] A 2022 news article by Wixey reports that Governor Jay Inslee signed the bill making pickleball Washington's official state sport, crediting McCallum as a co-inventor.[2] The Rockstar Academy article describes McCallum as one of "three dads" who created the game to entertain bored children on a rainy day.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Pickleball" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lyons, "Pickle-ball: Founders of game say paddle sport simply is a barrel of fun", The Seattle Times, August 24, 1990, p. C7; Kershner, "Joel Pritchard and several friends incorporate Pickle Ball Inc., to promote the new sport they invented in 1965 at Pritchard's Bainbridge Island cabin, on February 13, 1968.", HistoryLink, November 11, 2016 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wixey, "Pickleball is now the official state sport of the U.S. state of Washington", KXLY, March 29, 2022. facts only, no text reused. kxly.com
- Kershner, "Joel Pritchard and several friends incorporate Pickle Ball Inc., to promote the new sport they invented in 1965 at Pritchard's Bainbridge Island cabin, on February 13, 1968.", HistoryLink, November 11, 2016. facts only, no text reused. historylink.org
- Wikipedia, "Pickleball" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lucore Youngren 2018, p. 65; Pritchard, "Origins of Pickleball", The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, July 27, 2008; "The History of Pickleball", PICKLE-BALL INC.; "The History of Pickleball", Hoffmann Estates Pickleball; Lucore Youngren 2018, p. 65; Kane, "Food for Thought: The Evolution and Growth of Pickleball", The Tennis Media Company, October 21, 2015 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Pickleball" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: O'Brien, "Pickleball: The racquet sport experiencing a pandemic boom", BBC News, March 15, 2021 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "What Is Pickleball? Definition, Benefits, Rules, and More", Rockstar Academy, January 18, 2024. facts only, no text reused. rockstaracademy.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Pickleball (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Sports inventors and innovators
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Pickleball (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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