Editing Racquetball (section)

== History ==

Joe Sobek is credited with inventing the sport of racquetball in the [[Greenwich, Connecticut]], [[YMCA]], though not with naming it.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/31/sports/joseph-sobek-the-inventor-of-racquetball-dies-at-79.html|title=Joseph Sobek, the Inventor Of Racquetball, Dies at 79|first=Frank|last=Litsky|work=The New York Times |date=31 March 1998|access-date=9 May 2018|via=NYTimes.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207142713/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/31/sports/joseph-sobek-the-inventor-of-racquetball-dies-at-79.html|archive-date=7 December 2017}}</ref> A professional [[tennis]] and American handball player, Sobek sought a fast-paced sport that was easy to learn and play. He designed the first strung paddle, devised a set of rules, based on those of [[Squash (sport)|squash]], handball, and paddleball, and named his game ''paddle rackets''.

In February 1952, Sobek founded the [[National Paddle Rackets Association]] (NPRA), codified the rules, and had the rules printed as a booklet. The new sport was rapidly adopted and became popular through Sobek's continual promotion of it; he was aided by the existence of some 40,000 handball courts in the country's [[YMCA]]s and [[Jewish Community Center]]s, wherein racquetball could be played.

In 1969, aided by Robert W. Kendler, the president-founder of the U.S. Handball Association (USHA), the International Racquetball Association (IRA) was founded using the name coined by Bob McInerney,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://usaracquetball.info/racquetball/Racquetball_Fall_2011/index.html#/32/ |title=How Racquetball Got Its Name |author=Bud Muehleisen |date=Fall 2011 |work=Racquetball |publisher=USA Racquetball |access-date=13 January 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117073858/http://usaracquetball.info/racquetball/Racquetball_Fall_2011/index.html#/32/ |archive-date=17 January 2012 }}</ref> a professional tennis player. That same year, the IRA assumed the national championship from the NPRA. In 1973, after a dispute with the IRA board of directors, Kendler formed a competing organization called the National Racquetball Club (NRC), which eventually became the dominant professional tour in the 1970s.  For a period of time in the 1970s, the NRC and the IRA both offered competing "Amateur" and "Professional" tournaments, but by the late 1970s the NRC was focused on the professional game while the IRA became focused on the amateur side, and became recognized by the [[United States Olympic Committee]] as the official National Governing Body (NGB) of the sport.

The IRA was a founding member of the International Racquetball Federation (IRF). Eventually, the IRA became the American Amateur Racquetball Association (AARA); in late 1995, it renamed itself as the United States Racquetball Association (USRA). In 2003, the USRA again renamed itself to USA Racquetball (USAR), to mirror other [[Olympic Games|Olympic sports]] associations, even though Racquetball is not an Olympic sport.

Kendler used his publication ''ACE'' to promote both handball and racquetball. Starting in the 1970s, and aided by the [[physical fitness|fitness]] boom of that decade, the sport's popularity increased to an estimated 3.1 million players by 1974.  Consequent to increased demand, racquetball clubs and courts were founded and built, and sporting goods manufacturers began producing racquetball-specific equipment. This growth continued until the early 1980s, and declining in the decade's latter part when racquet clubs converted to physical fitness clubs, in service to a wider clientele, adding [[aerobics]] exercise classes and physical fitness and bodybuilding machines. Since then, the number of players has remained steady, an estimated 5.6 million.

The NRC and Kendler ruled over professional racquetball throughout its early stages of growth, but upon his death in 1982 the organization declared bankruptcy and the professional men's tours fell into disarray.  Several professional governing bodies ruled the Men's pro tour throughout the 1980s, and the Women broke away and self-organized their own professional tour in the same time period.  Eventually, after the tour collapsed in the fall of 1988, a new men's tour called the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) was created by Oregon State President and popular tournament promotor Hank Marcus, which remains the primary men's professional sanctioning body to this day.  The women's pro tour has gone by several names in the interim, but is currently known as the Ladies Professional Racquetball tour (LPRT) and has marketing partnerships with the USAR, IRT, and other sanctioning bodies to this day.