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The history of paintball is rather brief in comparison to other sports and it goes back only 20 years ago as in 1980, James Hale of Daisy Manufacturing invented and patented what would later on become the very first paintball gun in the world. Surprisingly to say, he did not create the first paintball gun with the idea of games and fun in mind. His goal was to use the gun for marking livestock and trees in the field. No sooner than that, the history of paintball took a very interesting turn that changed its course forever.

Only one year later, the history of paintball as a recreation sport began and in 1981 the very first paintball game was played in New Hampshire by twelve competitors. They used paintball pistols for their game that were usually used for marking trees by the foresting industry. The game was “capture the flag”. The creator of the very first type of paintball game was a sporting goods retailer by the name of Bob Gumsey, along with his friends, Hayes Noel who was a stockbroker and Charles Gaines, a writer at that time. The winner of the first capture the flag paintball game was a man by the name of Ritchie White who managed to do it without even firing a single shot from his paintball pistol.

The next major step in the development of the paintball business occurred when a man by the name of Caleb Strong opened the first outdoor paintball field in New York. Later on, he became the man in charge of PMI Northeast, along with Charles Gaines.

In 1982, Gaines marketed paintball as to be the National Survival Game and also in that year, the media started to offer some exposure to this game, especially in Sports Illustrated. One year later, the first paintball championship was organized. The winner team went home with the grand prize of $14,000, offered to the winner of the NSG National Championship. Also during the course of 1983, in Toronto, Canada an outdoor paintball field was opened to the delight of the people living there.

In 1984, Caleb Strong opened the first indoor paintball playing field, located in Buffalo, New York. During 1984 and 1986, it became a popular extreme sport as many national teams in England and Australia were born.

In 1988, IPPA – International Paintball Players Association was established as a non-profit association, dedicated to the safety, growth and education of the paintball sport.

In 1992 the National Professional Paintball League was born along with the NPPL Pro-Am Tournament Series, organized in Reno, Boston, New York as well as other major cities in the US and Canada.

One year later, the “DC Cup”, organized by NPPL was aired live on ESPN from Washington D.C. Ever since 1996; paintball became the third most popular extreme sport in the world with organized tournaments in more than 60 countries worldwide.

From a forestry and agricultural aid back in the 1980s, paintball has become a very interesting sport in the 21st century.