Bowling

Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to bowling are to pin bowling, specifically tenpin bowling (played in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries and elsewhere). Bowling can also refer to target bowling, such as lawn bowls. Bowling is played by 120 million people in more than 90 countries, including 70 million people in the United States.

Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to bowling are to pin bowling, specifically tenpin bowling (played in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries and elsewhere). Bowling can also refer to target bowling, such as lawn bowls. Bowling is played by 120 million people in more than 90 countries, including 70 million people in the United States. ===Pin bowling=== In pin bowling, players knock over pins at the end of a long, smooth surface known as a lane. Lanes have a wood or synthetic surface with a protective, lubricant applied in a variety of patterns that affect ball motion. A strike is scored when all the pins are knocked down on the first roll, and a spare is scored when all pins are knocked down on the second roll. The most common type of pin bowling is tenpin bowling; variants include candlepin, duckpin, nine-pin (kegel), and five-pin. The game of skittles is the forerunner of modern pin bowling. Tenpin bowling is the most popular type of bowling. It involves 10 pins arranged in a triangle at the end of a bowling lane. Tenpin balls have finger holes and possibly a thumb hole. When the term bowling is used, it usually refers to tenpin bowling. Nine-pin bowling (commonly called kegeln in Germany) is common in Europe. It uses nine pins arranged in a diamond formation. Candlepin bowling: Candlepins are thinnest and tallest ( ), and have matching top and bottom ends. Candlepin balls are the smallest and lightest ( ) of any bowling sport. Fallen candlepins not cleared during a frame. Duckpin bowling: Duckpin bowling is similar to tenpin, but with shorter pins and a smaller ball having no holes. Five-pin bowling: Five-pins are taller than duckpins but shorter than tenpins, are between duckpins and candlepins in diameter, and have a rubber girdle. Five-pin balls are small and without holes. The sport is practiced primarily in Canada. === Ancient world === . The archeologist speculated about the arrangement of the items. ]] The earliest known forms of bowling date back to ancient Egypt, with wall drawings depicting bowling found in a royal tomb dated to 3200 BCE and miniature pins and balls in a child's grave from the same time. Remnants of bowling balls were found among Egyptian artifacts dating back to the Egyptian protodynastic period in 3200 BCE. What is thought to be a child's game with porphyry (stone) balls, a miniature trilithon, and nine breccia-veined, alabaster vase-shaped figures thought to resemble the modern game of skittles, was found in Naqada in 1895. Balls were made with the husks of grains, covered in a material such as leather and bound with string. Balls made of porcelain have also been found, indicating by their size and weight that they were rolled on the ground rather than thrown. Some resemble the modern jack used in target-bowling games. Bowling games were cited by Herodotus as an invention of the Lydians in Asia Minor. A similar game evolved among Roman legionaries entailing the tossing of stone objects as close as possible to other stone objects, which eventually evolved into Italian bocce (outdoor bowling). In Germany in the third or fourth century AD, a religious ritual involved cleansing oneself of sin by rolling a rock into a club (kegel) representing the heathen. Later pin bowlers were sometimes called "keglers". === Middle Ages === players in an illuminated manuscript]] In 1299, the oldest-surviving known bowling green for target bowling was built: Master's Close, now the Old Bowling Green of the Southampton Bowling Club in Southampton, England. The green is still in use. Berlin and Cologne passed laws in 1325 limiting lawn-bowling bets to five shillings. King Edward III banned bowling as a distraction from archery practice. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, lawn bowling spread from Germany to Austria, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. Playing surfaces were cinders or baked clay. Lawn-bowling lanes in London were first roofed in 1455, making bowling an all-weather game. Known as kegelbahns in Germany, they were often attached to taverns and guest houses. A 1463 public feast was held in Frankfurt, with a venison dinner followed by lawn bowling. === Modern era === ==== Early 20th century ==== The English Bowling Association was founded in 1903¹ by cricketer W. G. Grace. On 1 January 2008, it merged with the English Women's Bowling Association to become Bowls England. In 1903, D. Peifer of Chicago developed a handicap method for bowling. Rubber duckpin bowling was invented two years later by Willam Wuerthele of Pittsburgh, and it caught on in Quebec. The ABC initially used bowling balls made of lignum vitae hardwood from the Caribbean. These were eventually supplanted by the "Evertrue" rubber ball, and by the Brunswick "Mineralite" rubber ball in 1905. Columbia Industries, founded in 1960¹, was the first manufacturer to produce polyester resin ("plastic") in bowling balls. In 1980, urethane-shell bowling balls were introduced by Ebonite. Rules for target bowling evolved separately in each country which adopted the predominantly-British game. In 1905, the International Bowling Board was formed. Its constitution adopted the rules of the Scottish Bowling Association, with variations allowed at the national level. The Victorian Ladies' Bowling Association, founded in Melbourne in September 1907¹, was the world's first women's lawn-bowling association. The oldest surviving tenpin bowling alley opened in 1908 in the basement of Milwaukee's Holler House tavern, with the country's oldest sanctioned lanes. Europe's first tenpin bowling alley was installed in Sweden the following year, but the game failed to catch on in the rest of the continent until after World War II. Tenpin bowling became popular in Great Britain after hundreds of bowling lanes were installed on U.S. military bases during World War II. The monthly Bowlers Journal was founded in Chicago in 1913¹, and is still in existence. In late 1916, The Women's International Bowling Congress (originally the Woman's National Bowling Association) was founded in St. Louis in late 1916, and merged with the United States Bowling Congress in 2005. Prohibition in the U.S. forced bowling alleys to disassociate from saloons, turning bowling into a family game and encouraging female bowlers. The annual Petersen Open Bowling Tournament (also known as the Pete), first held in Chicago on 2 October 1921, became bowling's richest tournament. In 1998, it was taken over by AMF. The International Bowling Association (IBA) was formed in 1926¹ by the United States, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, and held four world championships by 1936. The National Bowling Writers Association, founded in Peoria, Illinois, by four bowling journalists on 21 March 1934, changed its name to the Bowling Writers Association of America in 1953. In August 1939, the National Negro Bowling Association was founded in Detroit. Five years later it opened membership to all, and reached 30,000 members¹ in 2007. The Bowling Proprietors Association of America (BPAA) held the first BPAA All-Star tournament in 1942. In 1947, the Australian Women's Bowling Council was founded. It held the first Australian women's national lawn-bowling championship in Sydney in 1949, won by R. Cranley of Queensland. The Professional Women Bowling Writers (PWBW) was founded in Dallas on 18 April 1948, and began admitting men in 1975. On 1 January 2007, it merged with the Bowling Writers Association of America. ==== Mid-20th century ==== In 1950, after extensive lobbying by civil-rights groups in the wake of the 1947 integration of Major League Baseball, the American Bowling Congress opened its membership to African Americans and other minority groups. The WIBC followed suit the following year. Professional bowlers' salaries rivaled those of baseball, football, and hockey players until the late 1970s. The first ABC Masters tournament was held in 1951, becoming one of the four majors by 2000. In 1952, the International Bowling Federation was founded in Hamburg to coordinate international amateur competition in nine- and tenpin bowling. Two years later, the first World Bowling Championships were held in Helsinki. In 1979, the International Olympic Committee recognized the organization as the world governing body for bowling. American Machine and Foundry (AMF) of Brooklyn began marketing automatic pinsetter machines in 1952, eliminating the need for human pinsetters. On 4 October 1953, Grazio Castellano of Brooklyn was the first person to bowl a perfect game on television during an Eastern All-Star league session in Newark, New Jersey. In 1954, Steve Nagy was the first person to bowl a perfect 300 game on film. The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) was founded in Akron, Ohio in 1958¹ by 33 prominent bowlers (including Don Carter, Dick Weber, Dick Hoover, Buzz Fazio, Billy Welu, Carmen Salvino and Glenn Allison) after a presentation by sports agent Eddie Elias. The PBA eventually reached about 4,300 members¹ in 14 countries. On 28 November 1960, the first PBA Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, was won by Don Carter. It was renamed the PBA World Championship in 2002, and awards the Earl Anthony Trophy to the winner. Earl Anthony was the first PBA member to earn $100,000 in 1975, and the first to earn $1,000,000 by 1982. The PBA was purchased in 2000 by former Microsoft executives, who moved its headquarters to Seattle. The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) was founded in 1960, and ceased operations in 2003. The National Bowling League (NBL) was founded to compete with the PBA. It attracted players such as Billy Welu and Buzz Fazio, but was unable to sign Don Carter. The league's failure to get a TV contract caused it to fold after its first championship in 1962. The British Tenpin Bowling Association (BTBA) was formed on 26 May 1961. On 27 January 1962, ABC Television aired its first Saturday-afternoon broadcast of a PBA Tour event: the Empire State Open at Redwood Lanes in Albany, New York; the partnership between ABC and the PBA lasted through 1997. The first PBA Tournament of Champions was held that year; it became an annual event in 1965, and was sponsored by Firestone Tire from 1965 through 1993. The American Wheelchair Bowling Association (AWBA) was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, by Richard F. Carlson. On 28 June 1963, the first British-made tenpin was made by H. Massil and Sons, who received permit number 1 from the British Tenpin Bowling Association (BTBA). The fifth World Bowling Championships were held from 3 to 10 November 1963 in Mexico City, attended by 132 men and 45 women from 19 nations. Team USA debuted, winning seven of the eight gold medals. On 25 November 1963, a Sports Illustrated article entitled "A Guy Named Smith Is Striking It Rich" reported that PBA stars earned more money than other professional sports stars; "with more than $1 million in prizes to shoot for, the nation's top professional bowlers are rolling in money." The number of bowling alleys in the U.S. increased from 65,000 in 1957 to 160,000 in 1962, but the U.S. bowling boom ended in 1963. This was compensated for by a boom in Europe and Japan, making tenpin bowling an international sport. In 1964, Don Carter was the first athlete to sign a $1 million endorsement contract: a multi-year deal with Ebonite International. Marion Ladewig, a nine-time winner of the Bowling Writers Association of America's Female Bowler of the Year Award, became the first Superior Performance inductee into the WIBC Hall of Fame that year. The following year, the AMF Bowling World Cup was established. On 27 January 1967, the Japan Professional Bowling Association (JPBA) was founded in Tokyo. The BPAA All-Star tournament was renamed the BPAA U.S. Open in 1971, and became a major PBA tournament. In 1978, National Negro Bowling Association pioneer J. Elmer Reed was the first African American to be inducted into the ABC Hall of Fame. Willie Willis won the Brunswick National Resident Pro Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina on 16 December 1979, the first African-American bowling champion in the PBA in a non-touring event. He was the first African American in the Firestone Tournament of Champions the following year, placing 13th. == In popular culture == === U.S. presidents=== When Abraham Lincoln served a term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849, he lived near a bowling alley. "He was 'very fond of bowling' ... Though 'a very awkward bowler,' he nevertheless 'played the game with great zest and spirit, solely for exercise and amusement . "He took victory and defeat 'with like good nature and humor, and left the alley at the conclusion of the game without a sorrow or disappointment . In 1948, two bowling lanes were installed on the ground floor of the West Wing of the White House as a birthday gift for President Harry S. Truman. The lanes were moved to the Old Executive Office Building (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) in 1955 for the benefit of White House employees; its old location became a mimeograph room and, in 1961, the Situation Room. On 9 July 2014, the General Services Administration published and quickly withdrew a solicitation for bids to replace the Truman bowling lanes, which were deemed "irreparable" for not having had "any professional, industry standard maintenance, modifications, repairs or attention" for fifteen years. A $253,000 contract was awarded for "routine repairs" in 2026. Friends of President Richard Nixon, said to be an avid bowler, had a one-lane alley built in an underground space below the building's North Portico in 1969. The one-lane bowling alley underwent major renovations in 1994 and 2019. === Informal use === Children afraid of thunderstorms are told that thunder is God bowling. Grasso, John, and Eric R. Hartman. Historical dictionary of bowling (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014) online. Hurley, Andrew. Diners, Bowling Alleys, and Trailer Parks: Chasing the American Dream in Postwar Consumer Culture (Basic Books, 2001) Jackson, Emma. "Bowling together? Practices of belonging and becoming in a London ten-pin bowling league." Sociology 54.3 (2020): 518–533. Miller, Mark. Bowling (Bloomsbury, 2013) online. Perris, Jeff. All about Bowls: The History, Construction and Maintenance of Bowling Greens (STRI, 2008) online. Pritchard, Tony T., and Starla J. McCollum. "Bowling for a lifetime using sport education." Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 79.3 (2008): 17–23. Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon & Schuster, 2000) Randall, Carol. Spares & Strikes: History of Candlepin Bowling in New Brunswick (1996) in Canada Schmidt, Doug. They Came to Bowl: How Milwaukee Became America's Tenpin Capital (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2007) Thomas, Patrick R., Paul J. Schlinker, and Ray Over. "Psychological and psychomotor skills associated with prowess at ten-pin bowling." Journal of sports sciences 14.3 (1996): 255–268. Verfurth, Emily. Strikes, spares, and gutter balls: A history of Women's bowling in twentieth century American. (PhD dissertation, Texas Tech U. 2012) online

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