HOW PICKLEBALL WAS BORN

Three dads living on Bainbridge Island, Wash., in 1965, were sick of hearing their kids complain of boredom. So they created a mashup of Ping-Pong, tennis and badminton to squelch the bellyaching. It worked. But what’s with the name?

• Theory 1: Because it’s a mixture of other racket sports, the wife of one of the creators coined the term as a reference to the second-string leftovers manning the “pickle boat” in rowing.

• Theory 2: “Pickles” was a ball-chasing dog belonging to one of the creators, and it was named in her honor. Even pickleball’s originators (pictured below with their families) couldn’t agree on where the name came from, and now they’ve moved on to that big court in the sky. So feel free to spread your own theory.