“Lincoln’s Parks and Recreation are FOR EVERYONE and pickleball plays a fundamental role in bringing people together.”
Bill’s first encounter with Lincoln Parks and Recreation spaces was in 1965 when he played in the Class B State Tennis Tournament at Woods Park. Since then, he has made memories in almost every corner of the city. In 1969, Bill proposed to his wife in Sunken Gardens. Eleven years later, he and his family moved to Lincoln and he found himself attending summer band programs at Antelope Park, playing with his kids at the Roberts Park playground, and staying active at neighborhood tennis courts.
In 2009, Bill discovered the sport of Pickleball. What started as a fusion of tennis, badminton, and ping pong in Bainbridge Island, Washington in 1965, it gained significant popularity in the early 2000s: offering an accessible alternative to other racket-based sports. When Bill started Pickleball Lincoln in 2015, he only had a few members, but the club quickly swelled into a group of over 3,000 individuals who advocated for the installment of over 100 pickleball courts across the city in less than ten years.
Bill attributes much of the success to the cooperation between the city’s park staff and the ideas from an engaged public. He has seen the success of pickleball grow not just in geography, but in people. Bill has been able to witness the change in individuals who are making friends after retirement, using the court as an outlet for relief from stress and anxiety, and as a source of rejuvenation after a negative health diagnosis.
Bill believes that acts of kindness, and the willingness to listen to one’s neighbor, has the ability to change the world: one ripple at a time. He is living this sentiment out-loud by offering free lessons to those who want to learn pickleball, in support of Parkinson’s research and the Lincoln Community Foundation. You’ll often find Bill, racket in hand, greeting an old friend (or making a new one) as he welcomes them to join in a game. To Bill, parks are an integral part of our city because they create connection and establish community, much like his sport.
