by Mary Stephens

Created on: July 26, 2009   Last Updated: July 28, 2009

Racquetball is a sport played with racquets, a rubber ball in an indoor court. It originated in 1800s in Fleet prison in England. Debt prisoners were using tennis rackets to hit a ball against the wall. They called it "rackets." The game became very popular and spread to several English schools, where it was further improved on and was renamed to "squash." Squash made its way to the British armed forces and, like with many such games, it eventually traveled with the British military to Canada in the early 1900s. I reached the U.S. in 1920s.

During that time, tennis was already well known in the U.S. Many professional tennis players liked squash and popularized it around the country. One of them was Joseph Sobek, a YMCA member in Greenwich, CT who played tennis, squash and handball at the professional level. Sobek, as one of the best tennis and squash players in the country, was not quite fulfilled with those games and wanted to create a new game that would suit his talent and energy level. He came up with "paddle rackets" game, which was a mix of tennis, squash and handball. He made a racquet that was strung like a tennis racquet, but slightly shorter. He made several of them and distributed them among other YMCA players. However, the game was not catching on. The problem was the ball, which was bouncing to fast and was hard to control. Sobek used another ball - a children's rubber ball that he bought at a dime store. The game of "paddle rackets" started to gain popularity. In 1852 Sobek created National Paddle Rackets Association. He created the official rules of the game and distributed them among YMCAs around the country. The Association was also giving lessons to all new players.

Sobek wanted "paddle rackets" to become an international sport. He met the head of the U.S. Handball Association, Robert Kendler, who helped Sobek to establish the International Racquetball Association, in 1969. Paddle rackets was first called racquetball by Bob McInerny, another tennis pro, who was impressed with the fast pace of the game.

During the 1970s, racquetball was very popular. There were many racquetball courts built and the racquetball equipment sales were at all time high. Sobek invested into a rubber ball company and started to make special balls by his own specifications. The ball was never reformulated and is used in racquetball to this day.

In the 1980s, racquetball suffered major setback. Aerobics and other exercise methods were created and also different types of fitness equipment appeared on the market. People started to work out at home, on their own treadmill or using aerobics VHS tapes that also were in circulation. Racquetball was somewhat revived during the 1990s. There were more courts built. Many fitness clubs were offering lessons. Today, there are millions of people playing racquetball around the world.

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