Seattle native and Beaufort resident, Rob Cahill is a part of pickleball history.

While enrolled at the University of Washington in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s Rob’s fraternity brother, Scott Stover, introduced him to this new game called “Pickleball.” Scott’s in-laws had a summer beach cabin on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle. It was there in 1965 when a group of vacationing families invented a new net game. Upon returning from a golf outing, the fathers of the Pritchard, McCullum, Bell and Weller families found their children lounging on the couch, complaining about being bored. Inspired to get them outside and active, they designed a game for them to play on Joel Pritchard’s back yard badminton court. It was there that Pickleball was born. Once the parents saw how much fun the children were having, they began playing too. Now hooked themselves, their enthusiasm took over and they began to refine the game. They defined the court dimensions, lowered the net, established a No Volley Zone now known as “The Kitchen” and wrote rules of the game. Two fundamental rules of the game which have held firm through the years are the underhand serve and the two-bounce rule. Ping pong paddles, badminton and tennis rackets proved inadequate so they designed and cut handmade paddles out of plywood. Games were initially played with WIFFLE balls and later Cosom Fun-Balls.

While accompanying Stover, Rob played hundreds of games on the courts and was introduced to Congressman Joel Pritchard, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell, who today are universally recognized as the founders of Pickleball. Rob recalls that while playing his first game there with Stover – he observed about thirty locals lined up in beach chairs along the perimeter of the court were eyeing him with a sly smile. Eager to impress the crowd by matching his opponent’s spin serve, Rob darted to the right and immediately ran into a tree that bordered the pickleball court. To his surprise the crowd cheered, laughed and said, “Welcome to Pickleball!” For the local enthusiasts that was part of a special initiation rite of passage to their new game.

By the mid-70s pickleball had become the rage on Bainbridge Island and Seattle. Many enthusiasts were playing in the streets and building their own backyard courts, including Rob; who relocated his garage and built the first Sport Court with lights in South Seattle. Pickleball became so popular that it was introduced to area Junior and Senior High Schools and Seattle Parks and Recreation included pickleball in their program offerings. The Governor even had a pickleball court built for his mansion.

In the spring of 1976, some young entrepreneurs seeking to promote this new game sponsored the “World’s First Pickleball Championship Tournament” at Southcenter Athletic Club in Tukwila, WA. It turned out to be a watershed moment for the relatively unknown sport outside of the Pacific Northwest. Rob’s claim to Pickleball fame and bragging rights to his seven grandchildren – is that he and Scott Stover won men’s doubles gold and were crowned World Champions! The win was credited largely to their ability to confound their opponents with soft shots now universally known as “dinks.” That same year, the game gained a measure of national recognition when Tennis magazine carried a story titled “America’s Newest Racquet Sport.”

Following an MBA at the University of Washington and working 10 years with Weyerhaeuser Company, Rob moved to Arlington, VA in 1983 to work for the Environmental Protection Agency. Pickleball didn’t exist in the DC area, so he begrudgingly endured a forced twenty-five-year sabbatical from the game. Years later, around 2010, the game became popular in Northern Virginia and Rob resumed playing in numerous area tournaments. While an adjunct professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA., Rob decided to task his students with a special project as part of their classwork to learn how to organize a pickleball tournament for 300 participants.

In 2016, on his return to Arlington from his son’s conference basketball championships in Florida, they stopped in Beaufort for lunch. They immediately fell in love with Beaufort, bought a piece of property and found a place to play pickleball at “The Shed” in Port Royal. Prior to building his Beaufort home, Rob spent much of 2018 exploring the south for a year in a new RV and kept his eyes open for places to play pickleball. While travelling, he learned about a recently published book by mother and daughter pickleball enthusiasts, Jennifer Lucore and Beverly Youngren, History of Pickleball, More Than 50 Years of Fun! Rob obtained a copy which documented his World Championship. It became his calling card as it mirrors his life experience with the game. Rob’s copy became filled with hundreds of signatures of people he met while playing as if it were another high school yearbook.

Today, living in City Walk and semi-competitive, Rob, 71 can be found almost daily on pickleball courts at the Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club and Coosaw Point. He has enjoyed becoming part of the growing pickleball community, playing and helping others learn to play the fun game with a silly name. Rob has seen it all from a humble neighborhood beginning in 1965 to now over 4.2 million people playing in the US and in 54 countries around the world. Rob believes that anyone with modest hand & eye coordination can learn the game well enough in 15-20 minutes to have lots of fun – and to get hooked for life!

Photo by Terry Rice

Rob with his first plywood paddle and his copy of “The History of Pickleball”.

The below video aired on September 24, 2021