OGDEN — An Ogden man known to many as the “father of professional pickleball” is being inducted into the Pickleball Hall of Fame.
“It’s really unbelievable,” John Gullo said.
Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the country and Utah has its own fascination with the sport. The city of Orem even ranked No. 2 in the nation last year as a prime destination to play.
Fanatics of pickleball can thank Gullo for the popularity and accessibility of the sport in Utah.
Gullo said everything he has done to help develop pickleball as a sport was “strictly out of my heart. I funded everything in the beginning. It’s just absolutely amazing that this could happen to me.”
As the son of Sicilian immigrants, Gullo grew up in poverty. “I wish my mom and dad were alive to see what’s happened,” he said.
On Nov. 14 in Mesa, Arizona, Gullo will be officially inducted into the Pickleball Hall of Fame along with pro players Simone Jardim and Kyle Yates.
The Pickleball Hall of Fame said Gullo is the “the father of professional pickleball” who pioneered the development of the sport. Gullo “always has the player and player experience as his primary focus,” the organization said on its website.
Why pickleball?
In 2008, Gullo weighed 310 pounds and underwent five bypass surgeries. While going through cardiac rehab, Gullo was bored of using a treadmill and saw a sign that was advertising pickleball.
He went out and started to play and ended up losing “six bowling balls” of weight.
“It’s a great sport. You’re bending, you’re stretching. You’re working out. You’re having fun but you’re not running, so it’s not bad on your knees and joints,” he said.
Soon after, Gullo met with the Ogden mayor to discuss putting in pickleball courts for the city.
“That was the first four courts of northern Utah and now there’s over 360 public outdoor courts,” he said.
At 80 years old, Gullo has a fused ankle and a bad knee, but he still plays pickleball at least three times a week.
“What other sport do you know that a 70-year-old guy and a 30-year-old guy can play together in a tournament?” Gullo said. “It’s a skills game more than it is an athletics game. … It’s probably 85% table tennis and 15% tennis.”
Expanding the sport
“It was just my creative juices running at the time,” he said. “It all started in Ogden.”
Gullo formed the Ogden Pickleball Association to raise money to grow the sport. He decided he wanted to make a professional tournament where the victors would win a cash prize.
So he invited 36 players from across the country to compete and “the results were phenomenal. So the next year (2012), I created the Tournament of Champions,” he said.
Gullo wanted Ogden to become the Wimbledon of pickleball, but the city didn’t cozy up to that idea. The Tournament of Champions was moved to Brigham City and was the first tournament to pay and house officials and livestream the games.
Gullo established pickleball in almost a dozen cities in Utah, several cities outside of Utah, and even went to Spain to teach people how to play — which he said was difficult because the Spanish people he taught didn’t speak English.
“I’m kind of a ‘teach a man to fish’ person. I get it going and organized,” he said.
Gullo has formed multiple nonprofit associations to raise money and grow the sport in different areas. He also organized the Professional Pickleball Federation which brought more than 300 professionals together to create the first professional pickleball tour.
Gullo said in the beginning, pickleball was an “old person’s sport” but it has evolved to become more popular with the youth.
Gullo created the American Dream Foundation, which promotes pickleball for youth and donates $25,000 in scholarship funds for the junior play of the Tournament of Champions.
Gullo also funded paddles and nets for Ogden high schools, middle schools and several nonprofit youth organizations. He said he is also the reason many buildings owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now have pickleball lines painted in their gymnasiums.
Now, the sport of pickleball has dozens of well-paid pro players, multiple professional tours, sponsorships and games are shown on multiple TV channels.
“Who knows what’s next?” Gullo said.
He says anyone who wants to get involved in “the most social game ever invented” needs only to show up at a court.
“Find out where they have open play. You can just show up, you don’t even need a paddle. People will lend you a paddle and show you how to play the game,” he said.
Throughout all of his efforts in expanding pickleball, Gullo stuck to his mantra: “Play hard, work hard, and do something for your community.”
