ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

About

ACU is a hotbed for pickleball in Abilene. Both Robert and Fuqua first learned of the sport there. A former professor, Dr. Joyce M. Curtis, wrote a textbook for players and teachers, the university has a pickleball club and sponsors the tournament to benefit the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson's. And, Deonna Shake, an instructor in ACU's Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, teaches a very popular pickleball course as a physical education elective. For each class, 70 percent of the students are new to the game, Shake said. When Curtis first brought pickleball to the ACU campus in 1983, many people still thought of the game as silly, Shake said, but it eventually caught on. The Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, which opened on campus in 2011, has eight pickleball courts.