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Every 5 Years, These 12 Friends Reunite to Relive Pickleball's Earliest Glory Days

by Alex E. Weaver on

"It takes about two minutes, and everybody starts acting like we're 12 again."

Every five years for the past four decades, a group of childhood friends has traveled from locales far and wide for a few days of food, drink, camaraderie, and some friendly competition on the bocce court or poker table.

They hail from Wisconsin and Utah. Oregon and Florida. One guy even makes the trip from Bangkok.

These 12 men, most well into their 70s by now, assemble to reminisce about growing up in Magnolia, a neighborhood situated on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, jutting out into the picturesque Puget Sound. To share stories about their time at Seattle's Queen Anne High School, which closed about a decade after many graduated in 1970.

But mostly, they gather to play pickleball.

A couple weeks ago, the guys held their latest meetup, convening for the first time in Idyllwild, CA, where one of their ranks, Mike Cole, has a cabin. Previously, they'd met closer to common ground, at Seattle's Fort Warden State Park.

We sat down with Mike to hear more about this special group of guys, and why their pickleball origins truly trace back to the sport's earliest days.

Growing Up with Pickleball Royalty

There's nothing exceptional about old high school buddies getting together to catch up over steaks and cigars. But this is not your average group of friends. And they didn't grow up in any average neighborhood.

Two of pickleball's founding fathers, Barney McCallum and Joel Pritchard, were from Magnolia. Joel's son, Frank, was in Mike's elementary school. They had play dates together as kids. McCallum’s kids went to the same schools and were a few years behind the guys at Queen Anne.

"Barney McCallum was a buddy of my dad and couple of the other guys’ dads," Mike told me. "They would have periodic poker games and go on fishing trips to Alaska together."

Mike even recalls a time hanging out at the McCallum's place on Bainbridge Island
around 1965, shortly before pickleball was reportedly invented.

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As the story goes, Barney convinced Burt Robbins, one of the guy's dads, to build a
pickleball court in his backyard when the gang was in early high school. It was either 1966 or 1967.

According to Mike, "it had to have been one of the first five courts in the world."

"He had a real small basketball court, and there was just enough room to put in posts, a net, and line it," Mike recalls. There was barely any room behind the baselines. Along one sideline was a three foot high brick retaining wall . Along the other, a fifteen foot cyclone fence bordering a steep hillside.

"There was no room for an ATP on either side. It was very tight," Mike adds, reminiscing about the basketball poles posing a major obstacle.

"We played nothing but singles, no dinks, no finesse of any kind. Wood paddles, wiffle balls with 'Pickleball' stamped on them. We’d try to run our opponent into one of the basketball posts."

'Every Five Years Until We're Dead'

What began as a fun way to get the gang back together in the 1980s has grown into a cherished tradition.

The group has never missed a reunion, save one during COVID.

"When they started putting it together about 40 years ago, it ended up there were only 12 spots," said Mike, "and whoever got in first got in, so people jumped on it immediately."

This year's event was the first in Idyllwild, which has a new facility at Tahquitz Pines with four lit pickleball courts, a swimming pool, bocce ball and basketball courts, and a nice restaurant and bar.

While pickleball is the glue that binds the guys together, all types of sports and activities are in the mix. This year’s events included darts, cornhole, free throw shooting, and a Swedish throwing game called Kubb.

The competitive juices still flow, even after all this time.

"It takes about two minutes, and everybody starts acting like we're 12 again," laughed Mike.

The prize for the all-around top competitor, aside from bragging rights, is the "QA Bone" (pictured above) – named after their high school, Queen Anne. The grizzly was the high school’s mascot.

This year the trophy passed from Mike Horton to Mark Backman, who was rumored to have been surreptitiously practicing some of the events over the last five years.

As for how much longer the group will come together, Mike didn't hesitate.

"Every five years until we're dead."

Although at the end of this year's meetup, the group was considering a more frequent rendezvous, of two or three years.

"It’s just too much fun."

Alex E. Weaver

Alex E. Weaver

Alex is The Dink's Digital Content Manager. (Have a tip? Hit him up.) His passions used to include hiking, traveling, and spending time with his family. Now all he does is play pickleball.

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