An historical look at how racquetball came about

Sobek founded the Paddle Racquet Association in 1952 and printed out the set of rules to all YMCA’s in the United States to spread the popularity of the sport. In 1969, the game became so popular throughout the world that the International Racquetball Association was formed by Robert Kendler.

It was Kendler that changed the name of paddle rackets to racquetball. During the same year, the first Official Championship was held in St. Louis Missouri. It was also during this time that sporting goods stores began manufacturing official racquetball gear for the sport.

Since then, the game of racquetball had grown to be very popular. Athletes grew very fond of this sport due to its high intensity and found to get a great workout session and working up a sweat while playing racquetball.  Sports clubs and country clubs throughout the United States had picked up on the enthusiasm of the sport and started building racquetball courts in their clubs.  In 1968, Robert Kendler, who was the head of the United States Handball Association, found the new sport to be quite interesting and began the International Racquetball Association. In the 1970’s racquetball became one of the most popular sports in the United States by both men and women.