Bowling History

The roots of bowling penetrate so deeply into the past that finding a beginning seems unlikely. On the other hand, a person throwing an object in order to knock something down is so natural that many people believe bowling may have originated with cavemen. The oldest objects discovered that look like a set of pins and balls showed up in Egypt at an archeological dig in the early part of the 19th century. They were dated between 3500 to 3000 bc. The balls and pins were found in a child's tomb, so thinking they were a game makes sense. A replica of the objects sit in the International Bowling Museum in St. Louis.

A few bowling type games are mentioned in European Literature from the Middle Ages onward and supposedly the first American author that referred to bowling was Iving Washington. In his story, Rip Van Winkle gets involved with a bunch of Dutch bowlers. Rip ends up drinking something with them and falls into a years long sleep. The bowling scene ends when Rip Van Winkle wakes up in the same spot to the sound of crashing ninepins.

The game we know today evolved from the middle 1800s. It was played in many different forms in many states, but the rules were different for every area. Rules, ball weights and pin dimensions were not standardized until after the American Bowing Congress was established in 1895. The game grew because of the standards made by the ABC organization and the first ABC national tournament was held in 1901.

In the 1950's AMF also helped the growth of the sport with the automatic pin spotter. At about this same time, telecasts of bowling became popular. NBC's broadcast of "Championship Bowling" was the first bowling show on TV. Shows like "Make That Spare", "Celebrity Bowling", and "Bowling For Dollars" increased the sports popularity even more. Then in 1961, the PBA was aired on ABC. The ABC network broadcasts of the PBA ran up into the middle 1990's and now ESPN broadcasts the PBA shows.

Many millions of people participate in and watch bowling regularly these days. It looks like bowling is here to stay.