BEDFORD—On Saturday, October 12th, the Bedford Parks Department will be hosting its first Pickleball Tournament at Wilson Park. Each game will be played as a best-of-one series. Team space is limited, so sign up by calling 812-275-5692 or stopping by their office in the Thornton Park parking lot next to the pavilion. The entry fee is $30 per team or $45 to sign up for two brackets.
A little pickleball history:
When Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell returned from golf one Saturday afternoon in 1965, they found their families bored. They had attempted to set up badminton, but no one could find the shuttlecock. Pritchard and Bell challenged their kids to devise their own game. The adults and kids ended up at the badminton court and began experimenting with different balls and rackets, including table tennis paddles. The 5-foot (1.5-metre) badminton net was eventually lowered to hip level to accommodate driving the ball.
Initially, a Wiffle ball was considered ideal, but later, the Cosom Fun Ball was more durable and provided a better playing experience. The table tennis paddles were quickly replaced with larger, more durable plywood paddles fabricated in a nearby shed. McCallum continued experimenting with various paddle designs in his father’s Seattle basement workshop. One paddle, he called the “M2”, or McCallum 2, became the paddle of choice for most early players of the game.
In 1967, the first outdoor Pickleball court was constructed at the residence of Pritchard’s friend, Bob O’Brian. Soon after its creation, pickleball became popular with local neighbors and relatives of the inventors. In 1968, Pritchard and McCallum’s son David and two other friends formed Pickle Ball, Inc. The company filed its first annual report in 1972 when it trademarked the name Pickle-ball. The company manufactured wooden paddles and pickleball kits to satisfy the demand for the sport. Interest in pickleball grew and spread from the Pacific Northwest into warmer areas as “snowbirds” brought the sport south to Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Florida. In 2016, Pickle Ball, Inc. was purchased by PickleballCentral.com, which operates under the corporate name Olla, LLC.
