July 29, 2022 Best Friday Ever #BFE With John Landes. Pickleball, Monkeypox, Recession and The Happiest Kingdom on Earth

The Happiness Index Bhutan (The Happy Kingdom) Pickleball After playing golf one Saturday during the summer, Joel Pritchard, congressman from Washington State and Bill Bell, successful businessman, returned to Pritchard’s home on Bainbridge Island, WA (near Seattle) to find their families sitting around with nothing to do. 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. At first they placed the net at badminton height of 60 inches and volleyed the ball over the net.As the weekend progressed, the players found that the ball bounced well on the asphalt surface and soon the net was lowered to 36 inches. The following weekend, Barney McCallum was introduced to the game at Pritchard’s home. Soon, the three men created rules, relying heavily on badminton. They kept in mind the original purpose, which was to provide a game that the whole family could play together. Rep. Joel Pritchard 1967 The first permanent pickleball court was constructed in the backyard of Joel Pritchard’s friend and neighbor, Bob O’Brian. 1972 A corporation was formed to protect the creation of this new sport. Original Pickleball Court 1975 The National Observer published an article about pickleball followed by a 1976 article in Tennis magazine about “America’s newest racquet sport.” 1976 During the spring of 1976, the first known pickleball tournament in the world was held at South Center Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington. David Lester won Men’s Singles and Steve Paranto placed second. Many of the participants were college tennis players who knew very little about pickleball. In fact, they practiced with large wood paddles and a softball sized plastic ball. 1978 The book, The Other Raquet Sports, was published and included information about pickleball. 1982 Pickleball pioneer, Sid Williams began playing and organizing tournaments in Washington state. 1984 The United States Amateur Pickleball Association (U.S.A.P.A.) was organized to perpetuate the growth and advancement of pickleball on a national level. The first rulebook was published in March 1984. The first Executive Director and President of U.S.A.P.A. was Sid Williams who served from 1984 to 1998. He was followed by Frank Candelario who kept things going until 2004. The first composite paddle was made by Arlen Paranto, a Boeing Industrial Engineer. He used the fiberglass/nomex honeycomb panels that commercial airlines use for their floors and part of the airplane’s structural system. Arlen made about 1,000 paddles from fiberglass/honeycomb core and graphite/honeycomb core materials until he sold the company to Frank Candelario. 1990 Pickleball was being played in all 50 states. 1992 Pickle-Ball, Inc. manufactured pickleballs in-house with a custom drilling machine. 1997 Joel Pritchard passed away at age 72. Though he was Washington State’s Lieutenant governor from 1988 to 1996, he is probably better known for his connection to the birth of pickleball. 1999 The first pickleball internet website, Pickleball Stuff, launched and provided players with information, equipment, and products. 2001 The game of pickleball was introduced for the first time in the Arizona Senior Olympics through the efforts of Earl Hill.  The tournament was played at Happy Trails RV Resort in Surprise, AZ and drew 100 players. It was the largest event ever played to that point. Over the next few years the event grew to nearly 300 players. 2003 There are 39 known places to play in North America listed on the Pickleball Stuff website. This represents 10 States, 3 Canadian Provinces and about 150 individual courts. Pickleball was included for the first time in the Huntsman World Senior Games, held each year in St. George, Utah during October. 2005 A new corporation for the sport was established as USA Pickleball Association (USAPA).  Mark Friedenberg was named the first president of the new USAPA and the first Board of Directors included: Vice President – Steve WongSecretary – Fran MyerTreasurer – Lela ReedGeneral Counsel – Phil MortensonGrievance – Phil MortensonMarketing – Erne Perry followed by Pat Carroll in March, 2006Membership – Carole MyersNational/International Relations and the Ambassador Program – Earl HillNewsletter – Jettye LaniusRatings and Rankings – Mark FriedenbergRules – Dennis DueyTournaments – Barney MyerTraining – Norm DavisWebmaster – Steve Wong Steve Wong (former USAPA Webmaster) created the first USAPA website that went live in March. Website activity continued to increase as the popularity of pickleball grows and the features of the website increase. USAPA became a Non-Profit Corporation on July 1. USAPA cooperated with several web sites to have them discontinue their Places to Play links and consolidate all their entries into the USAPA database creating a single reliable source for players to find sites to play.  Today this website is: places2play.org 2006 One of the originating founders of the sport, Bill Bell passes away at 83. 2008 The USAPA Rules Committee, headed by Dennis Duey, published the (1) USA Pickleball Association Official Tournament Rulebook – Revision: May 1, 2008.  Pickleball was included for the first time at the National Senior Games Association (NSGA). There are now 420 places to play in North American as listed on the USAPA website. This represents 43 States and 4 Canadian Provinces and about 1500 individual courts. This does not account for those places that are adding courts at private homes. ABC’s Good Morning America aired live, in-studio segment on pickleball that included a brief demonstration.  This was the first mass media exposure for the sport. 2009 The first USAPA National Tournament for players of all ages was held in Buckeye, Arizona, November 2-8, 2009. The tournament drew almost 400 players from 26 states and several Canadian provinces. USAPA establishes the Grant Program to assist players in creating new sites for new players. By the end of 2013 the program has accounted for over 1,400 new sites. 2010 To help foster the growth of the sport on an international level, USAPA established the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) organization and corresponding website (ifpickleball.org). 2013 In January, Justin Maloof joined USAPA as its first full-time Executive Director. USAPA starts the year off with a record 4,071 members. USAPA re-brands with a new logo and red, white, and blue color scheme that is more consistent with other US national sports governing bodies. 2014 USAPA launched a new, more user-friendly website. Pickleball Channel launched making it the first professional media group for the sport 2015 USAPA surpasses 10,000 members for the first time. The first USAPA ambassador retreat was held in Tahoe City, CA. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), there are now just over 2 million pickleball players. USAPA and author Mary Littlewood collaborate with publisher, Human Kinetics to produce a new pickleball book for beginners titled (2) Pickleball Fundamentals, Master the Basics and Compete...