Elvis Presley was an avid sports enthusiast, and racquetball was one of the sports he enjoyed playing. Racquetball is a fast-paced racquet sport that is played in an enclosed court with walls that players use to bounce the ball. Elvis discovered racquetball in the early 1970s and quickly became a fan of the game. He installed a racquetball court at Graceland, his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, where he spent a considerable amount of time playing and enjoying the sport.

Elvis was introduced to racquetball in 1968 by his physician, Dr. Frederick Nichopolos, who told me, ‘I started playing racquetball in 1955 at the Nashville JCC by sawing off the handle of a tennis racquet. That is just five years after Joe Sobek is credited with inventing racquetball in Connecticut. I showed Paddle Rackets, as we called it, to young players with ambition and talent, and then in the mid-60s moved the game with my medical practice to Memphis, and was still looking for young talent to coach.’ Dr. Nick also taught his son Dean to play, who soon teamed with a young Marty Hogan in a Junior National Doubles. Dr. Nick began treating Presley in 1967 for ‘saddle pain’, and a year later prescribed racquetball. That blossomed into a lifelong friendship lasting thousands of racquetball games.

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In the 1970s, Elvis Presley became interested in play racquetball.

Racquetball was popular 1950s and  1969. 

Elvis Presley played his first racquetball in November 1973

Elvis was often stayed up late, watching movies or playing racquetball until the early morning hours.

In the summer of 1975, Elvis decided to bring his racquetball hobby closer to home. He began planning to build a racquetball court at Graceland, and construction of the building began in September 1975.

“Elvis walloped the ball around the court like he was strumming a guitar for the fun of it.”

“Elvis wore white tennis shoes, shorts, and his safety goggles, which were huge, because Dr. Nick didn’t want anything to happen to his eyes,” Keeley says. “He played daily, or nightly, before heading out into the darkened Memphis streets on motorcycles, with the bodyguards and the racquetball mafia in sidecars, to movies and nightclubs.”

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Elvis famously packed on the pounds later in his career, and When the King Held Court, a new ESPN “30 for 30” short produced by the team behind the Victory Journal, documents how, at the suggestion of his personal doctor, he turned to racquetball to get into shape 

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Elvis Presleys Racquetball Glove

After Elvis died, Graceland was soon closed and the court wasn’t used again. When Graceland reopened to the public, the court was filled with gold and platinum records, and a lone racquet under glass with an old, blue ball. It is an article of faith among some of the mafia that Elvis died on the court, not in the bathroom upstairs next door.

Elvis` racquetball court

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