Hudef Sport

  Rif, aka “The Godfather of Pickleball” - He’s called “The Godfather of Pickleball” by many of the sport’s historians, acknowledged as one of the game’s most influential leaders in its 60-year history. Yet, at 73, after decades of accomplishments on and off the court, reaching his current goal would be the most significant. Seymour Rifkind is doing everything in his power to make pickleball an Olympic sport. “Rif,” the nickname he prefers and is better known as, believes it’s going to happen. “When I first made that statement to the top 20 players in the world in 2015, everyone thought I was crazy,” Rif told me. “Today they think it's a foregone conclusion. I have a number of friends that are members of the IOC [International Olympic Committee] and the US Olympic Committee who have been coaching me over the past couple of years on what needs to be done.  I believe pickleball is in a great position to get accepted by the IOC and be a participating sport at an upcoming Olympic...

  Joyce walks around at tournaments with a few of the 59 pickleball medals she’s won around her neck. - She was taught how to play  pickleball  by one of the sport’s inventors. She played it years before most people even heard of it. She’s been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as “The oldest competitive pickleball player on Earth.” At 94, Joyce Jones not only still plays  pickleball , when she plays in tournaments, it’s often in singles. “I never get to practice singles at all. I've always loved singles, and tournaments are the only time I get to play it,” Joyce told me. Joyce was in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” section 37 years ago. - She’s as sharp as a tack and her voice sounds like that of a much younger woman during a lengthy phone interview. She plays recreational doubles two or three times a week for up to three hours. She’s had 23 surgeries, including knee replacements, and has many aches and pains, but no plans to put down he...

In tennis, love means a score of zero. In the meetup group called Pickleball Singles Mingle!, love, sometimes, means love.  Pickleball Singles Mingle! is a group of singles who love pickleball. In less than three years   16,600 members have joined PSM. Some have fallen in love with each other. Some have gotten married.   Sue Tarkin and Peter Beckel got married six months after meeting through the group Pickleball Singles Mingle! - Sue Tarkin and Peter Beckel of Niceville, Florida, met through the group in January 2023 (Sue says Niceville, “Really is a nice place to live!”). Sue is a former court reporter who now volunteers for several organizations. The 73-year-old native of Hamilton, Ohio, had been widowed and says she decided to join Pickleball Singles Mingle! because, “It sounded fun to meet more single people who played pickleball. It is a way to meet active people in a healthy, safe environment.” Peter, 65, has been divorced for 25 years. The former Minneso...

  There is a pickleball hall of fame. Without one particular person in it, I can't take it seriously. The Pickleball Hall of Fame is not a place you can visit. There’s no building or museum. It’s an honor that’s been bestowed on 30 people since its inception in 2017. They hold a dinner annually and give the inductees a jacket and a ring. Photos and a plaque of each inductee are permanently displayed on the PHOF website. There are two categories: Competitor and Contributor. Here is the criteria for a contributor to be considered Hall of Fame worthy, from the PHOF’s website: “A candidate should have impacted the sport of pickleball on the national or international level for at least 5 years. Individuals who may have worked tirelessly in a local region to help grow the game or get new courts built, while invaluable to that area and our sport, are not considered Hall of Fame worthy contributors.”   A pickleball instructor named Richard Movsessian is not in the hall of fame, and th...