In the summer of 1965, on Bainbridge Island, WA, three friends—Barney McCallum, Joel Pritchard (a Seattle congressman and later Washington state senator and lieutenant governor), and Bill Bell—created a new game to give their children “something to do.”

On Pritchard’s property, they found a rundown badminton court and improvised using ping-pong paddles, badminton rackets, and a wiffle ball. The laughter quickly drew in the parents too. Their dog, Pickles, loved chasing after the ball and running off with it. Soon after, when it came time to name the new sport, they decided to name it after Pickles.