Bowling: A Growing Sport

Bowling: A Growing Sport

Statistically speaking, bowling is the most popular sport played among Americans each year. On average, within the last four years there have been eighty-two million Americans per year participating. For a relatively small cost friends and families can go roll balls for sport and fun.

The sport itself dates back several centuries. Rolling a ball to knock down various targets has been the object of many games in different countries and continents throughout history. Evidence of this was found in ancient tombs in Egypt and even on some Polynesian Islands. The game discovered on the Polynesian Islands appeared to be about a century older than the game in Egypt (History-Bowling).

Modern bowling, however, most likely grew out of a German religious ceremony. In the third century A.D. every German peasant carried around a kegel, a club for protection. Eventually it became a customary test of faith in churches for a parishioner to set up his kegel as a target. The kegel represented the heathen and the object was to roll a stone in attempt to knock it down. If successful the peasant was free of sin (History-Bowling).

Eventually bowling moved out of the church and became a popular secular sport, with a wooden ball replacing the stone and multiple pins, with numbers ranging from three to seventeen, replacing the single kegel. From here evidence of bowling could be found in many places around the world. In 1650, the Dutch in Amsterdam were bowling ninepins. The pins were arranged in a diamond pattern of one-two-three-two-one. The "alley" was a plank about one and a half feet wide and ninety feet long. Once ninepins hit America it took off and developed into ten pins and the game that it is today (History-Bowling).

Currently, bowling is one of the oldest and most popular indoor sports in the world. More and more Americans compete in bowling, with it's widespread popularity over the past ten years especially. Now it is the most popular sports in the United States, Canada, Japan and most of the Latin American Nations. Other forms of bowling that exist in these countries are boccie, candle pins, duck pins, five pins, lawn bowling and nine pins. There exist many bowling organizations in the world today for bowlers young and old (May).

The ABC, or the American Bowling Congress, founded in 1895 is a chief organization of the game today. It was the first founded organization in America, and was developed with the purpose of keeping the sport organized. In 1901 the ABC hosted forty-one teams in their first ever National Bowling Championship a.k.a. the NBC. As soon as the sport developed and was cleaned up a bit, popularity spread to women as well. As a result of the spread to women in 1916 the WNBA or Women's National Bowling Association was formed (History-Bowling).

The goal is to lead to the development of more bowling teams, especially in high school, and in other countries in the world as well. The business is looking to expand the game by involving teenage bowlers from middle school and up (May). According to Parker Bohn III

"Two generations have gone by without playing this game. But kids are really enjoying it, with the animation and video. It's a classic game made modern."

The Federation Internationale des Quilleurs or F.I.Q. was founded in 1952 and has now more than seventy member nations. Located in Helsinki, Finland the F.I.Q. has world championship tournaments every four years since 1967. A steady stream of young bowlers has been a major reason for the sport's continuing popularity throughout the 1900's. Bowlers of the high school age and younger originally came under the jurisdiction of the American Junior Bowling Congress, and A.B.C. affiliate. In 1982 that organization would be replaced by the autonomous Young American Bowling Alliance a.k.a. YABA. YABA sanctions league and tournament play of bowlers all the way through the college age (History-Bowling).

Although collegiate bowling is rarely mentioned in the media, many conferences offer team competition and championship tournaments. National Championships have been conducted since 1959 by the Association of College Unions or ACU and since 1962, by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes (NAIA). At the collegiate level younger bowlers may also be offered scholarship money if their performances are at a certain level and the need is there. From the collegiate level a bowler may remain in a regular league in their home bowling alley or they may chose to move on to the professional level if they have the skill needed (History-Bowling).

There was not always a distinction between amateur and pro bowlers,

especially since amateurs are allowed to collect prize money. Most acknowledged professionals were instructors, but there were a few who toured the country, giving exhibitions or playing matches for money. The Professional Women's Bowling Association, PWBA was founded in 1960 to establish a similar tour. It wasn't extremely successful so a few ladies left to form the Ladies Professional Bowlers Association. Today, league bowlers are looking to slightly rebuild the sport with such tactics as shorter league seasons and reformatting their leagues (i.e. mixed leagues, adult youth leagues and 2-4 person teams). Today, for leisure bowlers modern centers lure young kids with such things as video game centers, billiards, high-tech computer scoring machines, food bars and activities such as birthday parties, glow-in-the-dark bowling, and rock-and-bowl (May).

The best feature of bowling is that when you go to an alley, equipment such as shoes and a ball are supplied for you. Therefore, it is not necessary to buy any equipment in order to get a taste for the game and decide if it's something you would like to do (Martin 87). For more serious bowlers there are a number of places to purchase different kinds of shoes and balls. Especially to fit a person's hand, size and grip. These places include K-Mart, Wal-Mart or any sports store or from bowling alleys who will order for you. "House"