170 Fun Facts About Bowling

What is the maximum score in a single game of ten-pin bowling?

It takes twelve consecutive strikes: one in each of the first nine frames and three in the tenth.

In bowling slang, what is a 'turkey'?

Four in a row is a 'hambone', a term credited to announcer Rob Stone in the mid-2000s.

How long is a ten-pin bowling lane from the foul line to the centre of the head pin?

The lane is 41.5 inches wide and made up of 39 boards, with the guide arrows about 15 feet from the foul line.

What is the maximum weight of a regulation ten-pin bowling ball?

The limit was set by the American Bowling Congress in 1895, along with the 300-point scoring system.

A regulation ten-pin weighs roughly how much?

Pins stand 15 inches tall and 4.75 inches wide, and are usually maple coated in plastic.

Which civilisation left the earliest bowling evidence, miniature pins and balls in a child's grave, around 3200 BCE?

Herodotus later credited the Lydians of Asia Minor with inventing bowling games.

Which religious reformer is credited with fixing the number of bowling pins at nine?

Before that the pin count varied anywhere from three to seventeen.

Which English king banned bowling for the lower classes in 1511 while remaining an avid bowler himself?

Edward III had earlier banned bowling because it distracted men from archery practice.

Which English captain reportedly finished his game of bowls at Plymouth Hoe as the Armada was sighted in 1588?

'We have time enough to finish the game and beat the Spaniards too,' he is supposed to have said.

Which 1819 Washington Irving story gave American literature its first mention of ninepin bowling?

The thunder in the Catskills is the sound of Henry Hudson's ghostly crew at their ninepins.

The ten-pin game is said to have been invented in America to get around what?

Several US cities banned nine-pins in the 1830s over gambling and organized crime, though a painting shows ten pins in a triangle in Ipswich, England, around 1810.

Which organization set modern ten-pin rules in 1895, raising the top score from 200 to 300?

It merged with the Women's International Bowling Congress in 2005 to form the United States Bowling Congress.

Before rubber balls arrived in 1905, bowling balls were made of which dense hardwood?

Polyester 'plastic' balls came in 1959, urethane in the 1980s and reactive resin in the early 1990s.

Which company began marketing automatic pinsetter machines in 1952, putting most 'pin boys' out of work?

The first mechanical pinsetter was invented by Gottfried 'Fred' Schmidt, who sold the patent to AMF in 1941.

Two bowling lanes were installed in the West Wing in 1948 as a birthday gift for which president?

Their old spot became the Situation Room in 1961; friends of Richard Nixon later built him a one-lane alley under the North Portico.

The Professional Bowlers Association was founded in 1958 in which Ohio city?

Sports agent Eddie Elias persuaded 33 bowlers, including Don Carter and Dick Weber, to sign up.

Which bowler, 'Mr. Bowling', was the first athlete to sign a $1,000,000 endorsement deal, in 1964?

The deal was with Ebonite; he had learned the game as a childhood pinsetter in St. Louis.

Which crew-cut left-hander, the first bowler to earn $1 million, has the PBA World Championship trophy named for him?

He won 43 titles in just 15 seasons on tour.

Who holds the record for most PBA Tour titles, with 47, and is also a champion horseshoes pitcher?

He won at least one title in a record 17 straight seasons and is the only player to be Player of the Year in four different decades.

Which bowler's outburst "Who do you think you are? I am!" went viral after his fifth U.S. Open win in 2012?

The record he broke belonged to his father Dick Weber, who had won the event four times.

Australia's Jason Belmonte, PBA major titles record holder, is famous for delivering the ball how?

He is one of only two bowlers, with Mike Aulby, to complete the Super Slam of all five majors.

Norm Duke became the youngest PBA Tour winner in 1983 at what age?

He was 18 years and 345 days old, and finished with 40 titles.

Who was the first bowler to convert the 7-10 split on television, in January 1980?

Only a handful of pros have ever done it on air; the split is nicknamed 'goal posts', 'bedposts' or 'snake eyes'.

Which five-pin split including the 4, 6, 7 and 10 is the least-converted in professional bowling?

Only Doug Kent and Alan Bishop have ever converted it on television.

A 'Brooklyn' is a ball that does what?

In New York it is called a Jersey and in Detroit a Windsor, each named for the place across the water.

A game of alternating strikes and spares always ends with what score, giving it a national nickname?

A game with a strike or spare in every frame is called a 'clean game'.

'Sandbagging' in league play means doing what?

'Scratch' scores are the opposite: what you actually rolled with no handicap added.

A pin hiding directly behind another pin, such as the 8 behind the 2, is called what?

The pair together is called 'double wood', or, less formally, a 'ninja pin'.

Oil is applied to roughly how much of a lane's length so the ball skids before it hooks?

'Sport' patterns used by the pros spread the oil flat from side to side, so the lane gives no help steering the ball to the pocket.

According to a 2008 USBC study, a ball ideally strikes the head pin centred where for maximum pin carry?

That is 2.5 boards off the centre of the head pin, into the famous 'pocket'.

Who was the first person to bowl a perfect 300 on live television, in 1953?

Steve Nagy rolled the first 300 on film the following year.

Who bowled the first USBC-certified 900 series, in 1997?

Glenn Allison's 1982 series and five others were rejected over lane conditions; only Robert Mushtare has been certified for more than one.

Which bowling variant, played in New England and the Maritimes, uses tall thin pins and a ball no heavier than a pin?

Players get three rolls a frame, fallen pins are not cleared, and the highest sanctioned score ever is 245.

The candle-shaped-pin game was first played in 1880 in which Massachusetts city?

Billiard-hall owner Justin White is thought to have developed it.

Five-pin bowling was devised around 1909 in which Canadian city?

Thomas F. Ryan cut five pins down to about three-quarters size; a perfect game is 450 because a strike is worth 15.

What is a perfect score in five-pin bowling?

The Canadian association sanctions only around 15 to 30 perfect games a year.

Duckpin bowling was invented in the early 1890s in which city, before spreading to Baltimore?

Like its close cousin, its small ball and squat pins make strikes so hard that players get three rolls per frame.

Nine-pin bowling, or kegeln, remains popular in Europe. Which US state still plays a modified version?

In Australia it survives in the Barossa Valley, settled by Germans in the 19th century.

The oldest surviving bowling green for target bowling, built in 1299 and still in use, is in which English city?

Berlin and Cologne were already capping lawn-bowling bets at five shillings by 1325.

Which cricketer founded the English Bowling Association in 1903?

It merged with the women's association in 2008 to become Bowls England.

In The Big Lebowski, what do the enforcers who mistake the Dude for a millionaire do to his rug?

The Coen brothers' 1998 film was added to the National Film Registry in 2014, and Lebowski Fest has held a night of unlimited bowling since 2002.

In The Big Lebowski, why does Walter Sobchak refuse to bowl on Saturdays?

Rival bowler Jesus Quintana, played by John Turturro, openly doubts the excuse.

In Kingpin (1996), Woody Harrelson's washed-up bowler manages a talented member of which community?

Roy Munson bowls with a prosthetic rubber hand after losing his real one to a hustle gone wrong; Bill Murray plays his nemesis Ernie McCracken.

Nintendo's Wii Sports, whose bowling mini-game became a living-room staple, sold roughly how many copies?

That makes it the best-selling Nintendo game ever and the top-selling single-console exclusive.

Which billiard-table maker, founded in Chicago in 1845, began making bowling balls, pins and lanes in the 1880s?

Its 'Mineralite' rubber ball of 1905 replaced hardwood balls.

Roughly how many people bowl worldwide, according to the sport's governing estimates?

About 70 million of them are in the United States.

The oldest surviving US ten-pin alley opened in 1908 in the Holler House tavern in which city?

The oldest lanes of any kind date from 1846 at Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, Connecticut.

In which year did Floretta 'Doty' McCutcheon beat reigning ABC champion Jimmy Smith in a bowling exhibition?

Women were not admitted to the American Bowling Congress itself until 1993.

Prohibition had what lasting effect on American bowling alleys?

The change encouraged women to take up the sport in large numbers.

ABC's Pro Bowlers Tour, which put the PBA on Saturday TV, ran from 1962 until which year?

The first broadcast was the Empire State Open at Redwood Lanes in Albany, New York.

How wide is a regulation ten-pin lane?

The lane has 39 boards, or 39 simulated boards on synthetic surfaces.

How long is the approach area a bowler uses before the foul line?

Two sets of dots at 12 and 15 feet behind the foul line help with foot placement.

How many boards make up a wooden ten-pin lane?

Synthetic lanes simulate the boards with marking lines.

Roughly how far from the foul line are the guide arrows on a lane?

Many bowlers aim at the arrows rather than the pins 60 feet away.

Lane conditioner is roughly 98 percent what?

Additives are blended in to slow breakdown and carry-down during play.

What is a THS in bowling jargon?

A house pattern is drier outside and oilier in the middle, steering balls toward the pocket.

On a sport oil pattern, the centre-to-side oil ratio is limited to what?

House shots can exceed 10-to-1, which is why league scores often outrun pro scores.

In what year did polyester ('plastic') bowling balls arrive?

Urethane followed in the 1980s and reactive resin in the early 1990s.

Which decade brought reactive resin coverstocks that dramatically increased hook?

Their tacky surfaces raised strike percentages and league averages almost overnight.

What is the maximum regulation diameter of a ten-pin bowling ball?

The USBC sets no minimum weight but caps it at 16 pounds.

In an ideal strike, a right-hander's ball touches only which pins?

Everything else falls to pin scatter, since the ball is too small to touch all ten.

How far apart are neighbouring pin centres on the pin deck?

That leaves a 7.234-inch gap, narrower than the 8.5-inch ball.

What is a bowler with a smooth, square-shouldered classic delivery called?

Crankers open the shoulders and use a high backswing for more revs; tweeners fall in between.

Which release style, popular in parts of Asia, makes the ball spin like a top down the lane?

It usually uses a light 10-12 pound ball and relies on deflection to walk down the pins.

Which pro is known for a one-handed, no-thumb delivery?

He balances the ball on his wrist and forearm through the swing.

A fingertip grip inserts the fingers only to which knuckle?

Conventional house-ball grips go to the second knuckle and produce fewer revolutions.

Under World Bowling's 'current frame' scoring, how many pins is a strike worth?

A perfect 300 needs ten strikes in that system instead of twelve.

What is the German nine-pin game from which ten-pin bowling mainly derives?

German peasants played it while lawn bowls stayed with the upper classes.

Which state's 1841 law banning ninepins is often cited as the reason a tenth pin was added?

Baltimore in 1838 and Charles Dickens on New York in 1842 recount the same dodge.

Which English town appears in a circa-1810 painting of outdoor ten-pin bowling?

An outdoor ten-pin game was advertised there as early as 1828.

What was the name of Brunswick's revolutionary hard-rubber ball introduced in 1905?

It was still being shown off at the 1934 Century of Progress Exposition.

Who, opening alleys from 1886, became known as the 'father of bowling'?

He spent decades trying to make bowling as respectable as theatre and opera.

Which sporting-goods figure wrote Standard Rules for Bowling in the United States in 1887?

The National Bowling Association of 1875 had failed to agree on standardised rules.

What did the 1933 repeal of Prohibition let breweries do for bowling?

It cemented the sport's working-class, beer-league image.

Where did Gottfried Schmidt invent the first mechanical pinsetter in 1936?

AMF bought the patent in 1941 and put a production model into service in 1952.

In what year did the American Bowling Congress drop its whites-only membership clause?

The National Negro Bowling Association, formed in 1939, had served minority bowlers until then.

ABC membership peaked at nearly how many male bowlers in the 1960s?

The number of sanctioned alleys also peaked at about 12,000 in the mid-1960s.

Which sports agent founded the PBA in 1958 with 33 members?

The first PBA tournaments were held in 1959.

In which country were Europe's first ten-pin lanes installed in 1909?

The sport did not firmly take root in Europe until Britain's boom after 1960.

In which London district did Britain's modern ten-pin era begin in January 1960?

By the 1970s many British alleys had been converted into bingo halls.

What was the prize fund of the Firestone Tournament of Champions when it launched in 1965?

In that era top pros earned twice as much as NFL stars.

At which Summer Olympics was ten-pin bowling an exhibition sport?

It has been a medal sport at the Pan American Games since Havana 1991.

Which political scientist's book Bowling Alone used league decline as a symbol of lost community?

It was published in 2000, as league participation fell by two-thirds over two decades.

Which company bought AMF Bowling, Brunswick's centers, Lucky Strike Lanes and the PBA itself?

It later renamed itself Lucky Strike Entertainment Corporation.

What was the first computer-driven oiling machine, released by DBA Products in 1991?

It could be programmed to clean up to 50 lanes.

How does a maximum-weight ten-pin ball compare with the weight of a single ten-pin?

Candlepin balls, by contrast, weigh almost exactly the same as a candlepin.

What is unusual about the lane surface in candlepin bowling?

The ball rolls the whole way rather than skidding.

What is the highest sanctioned candlepin score ever recorded?

Ralph Semb set it in 1984 and Chris Sargent matched it in 2011; no perfect game has ever been bowled.

Fallen pins left on a candlepin lane during a frame are known as what?

They stay in play as long as they lie behind the dead-wood line 24 inches ahead of the head pin spot.

Which Boston TV show, from 1973, paid a jackpot for rolling a candlepin strike?

WHDH-TV had aired candlepin's first televised show since 1958.

Who invented the first automatic candlepin pinsetter, the Bowl-Mor, in 1947?

Howard Dowd and Lionel Barrow received their patent in 1956.

How many rolls per frame do duckpin and candlepin bowlers get?

The smaller balls and pins make strikes far harder than in ten-pin.

What do duckpin balls lack that ten-pin balls have?

They are 4.75 to 5 inches across and weigh under four pounds.

Who devised five-pin bowling at his Toronto Bowling Club around 1909?

Customers had complained the ten-pin game was too strenuous, so he cut pins down to 75 percent size.

What is wrapped around the widest part of a Canadian five-pin?

The inch-wide band increases pin action when struck.

Roughly how many nine-pin bowlers are there in Europe, per Wikipedia?

European championships are held every year in the game also called kegeln.

Which South Australian wine region, settled by Germans, still plays nine-pin bowling?

In Australia the nine-pin game actually predates ten-pin.

In skittles, the nine pins are usually arranged in what shape?

The British lawn game is considered a forerunner of ten-pin bowling.

What is the small target ball in lawn bowls called?

It is sometimes called a kitty; the bowls themselves are biased to curve.

Lawn bowls is a compulsory 'core sport' at which multi-sport event?

The game itself dates to the 13th century.

Which medieval English king banned bowling as a distraction from archery?

Statutes against it were also passed under Richard II and later monarchs.

Which Provençal town codified pétanque in 1907 or 1910?

It began as an offshoot of jeu provençal at what is now the Jules Lenoir Boulodrome.

What is the official French name for the target ball in pétanque?

Players must throw with both feet on the ground inside a circle.

Bocce, bowls and pétanque share ancestry from games played where?

Bocce took its present form in Italy and spread with Italian emigrants to Argentina and southern Brazil.

Which New York park, built in 1733 on a Dutch cattle market, is the city's oldest public park?

Henry Hudson's men reportedly brought a form of pin bowling to New Amsterdam.

What is the perfect score in five-pin bowling's system where a strike is worth 15?

The Canadian Five Pin Bowlers Association approves only 10 to 40 perfect games a year.

How many strikes in the tenth frame complete a traditional 300 game?

That makes twelve in a row across the ten frames.

Which pin must fall on the first ball for a leave to count as a split?

At least two non-adjacent groups of pins must remain standing.

Where is the PBA headquartered?

Its membership tops 3,000 across regional, national and senior tours.

Which company's former executives bought the PBA in March 2000 and moved it to Seattle?

Chris Peters, Rob Glaser and Mike Slade turned the non-profit into a for-profit league.

The PWBA ceased operations in 2003 and was relaunched in what year?

The USBC and BPAA revived the women's tour with a three-year funding commitment.

The USBC was formed in 2005 by merging how many organizations?

They were the ABC, WIBC, Young American Bowling Alliance and USA Bowling.

Where is the USBC headquartered since its 2008 move from Wisconsin?

The move let it share operations with the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America.

Who won the inaugural PBA Tournament of Champions in 1962?

All 25 PBA title-holders to date competed; Joseph had qualified only four events earlier.

Which woman was the first to compete in the PBA Tournament of Champions, in 2010?

She earned the spot by winning the inaugural PBA Women's World Championship in 2009, then won the whole thing.

How many games can a bowler roll at the U.S. Open from qualifying through match play?

It rises to 64 for anyone who comes through the pre-tournament qualifier.

The Weber Cup pits the United States against which side?

It is called bowling's answer to golf's Ryder Cup and was first held in Warsaw in 2000.

Where was the inaugural Weber Cup held in 2000?

Teams of five bowl singles, doubles and Baker-format team matches over three days.

Which nation's bowler, Kwon Jongryul, won the men's exhibition gold in 1988?

Arianne Cerdena of the Philippines took the women's event.

Which Filipina won the women's bowling exhibition at the 1988 Seoul Olympics?

Twenty-four bowlers from 21 nations competed at the Royal Bowling Center.

Who was the first bowler to reach 30 PBA Tour titles?

Only seven others have matched the mark since.

How many PBA Player of the Year awards did Walter Ray Williams Jr. win?

He is the only bowler to win the award in four different decades, and the oldest at 50.

For how many consecutive seasons did Walter Ray Williams Jr. win at least one PBA title?

The streak ran from 1993 through the 2009-10 season.

How many PBA major titles does Jason Belmonte hold, a record?

He and Mike Aulby are the only bowlers to complete the Super Slam of all five majors.

Which two events has Jason Belmonte won a record four times each?

He is the only 30-time winner not yet in the PBA Hall of Fame, being eligible in 2028.

Earl Anthony was the first bowler to earn over $100,000 in a season. In which year?

His title count was raised from 41 to 43 in 2008 when ABC Masters wins were counted retroactively.

How many PBA Player of the Year awards did Earl Anthony collect?

His 43 titles stood as the record until Walter Ray Williams Jr. passed him.

What childhood job taught Don Carter the game?

He and fellow St. Louis native Dick Weber were the sport's first superstars.

Marion Ladewig was named Female Bowler of the Year a record how many times?

She also holds the record of eight U.S. Women's Open titles, two more than Liz Johnson.

How many U.S. Women's Open titles did Marion Ladewig win?

The Grand Rapids native also won the inaugural PWBA Championship in 1960.

In 2010 a woman made PBA history at the Tournament of Champions by doing what?

Her win came at the Tournament of Champions, still the only PBA major won by a woman.

How many U.S. Women's Open titles has Liz Johnson won?

Her first came in 1996, before the PWBA's 2003 shutdown.

Which left-hander ranks fifth all-time with 35 PBA Tour titles?

He is only the fourth PBA player to pass $3 million in earnings.

How many perfect 300 games has Norm Duke bowled in PBA competition?

One was the 16th televised 300 in tour history, on January 5, 2003.

Who was the first bowler to complete the career Super Slam of all five PBA majors?

He is also one of five bowlers to win both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year.

Which nickname is Carmen Salvino known by?

He beat Don Carter for the 1962 PBA National Championship and was an original Hall of Fame inductee in 1975.

At what age did Anthony Simonsen become the youngest PBA major winner, in 2016?

He took the USBC Masters on Valentine's Day, aged 19 years and 39 days.

Which two-hander set the PBA single-season earnings record of $469,200 in 2021?

His father Guppy Troup is a PBA Hall of Famer.

EJ Tackett won which PBA major four years running from 2023 to 2026?

It is the first four-peat in any PBA Tour event.

What is it called when a bowler wins the World, Tournament of Champions and U.S. Open majors?

Nine bowlers, including EJ Tackett, have done it.

What is Wes Malott's nickname?

He defended the non-title PBA King of Bowling crown eight straight times through 2018.

How many televised finals did Mark Roth reach between 1975 and 1987?

In that stretch he took 33 titles and four Player of the Year awards.

Which documentary features Pete Weber's maverick tour personality?

He is known for a high backswing and heavy side rotation that handle many oil conditions.

Which sibling directors made Kingpin?

Bill Murray plays the villainous pro Ernie McCracken.

Which city stood in for Scranton, Amish country and Reno during Kingpin's filming?

The film grossed $32.2 million against a $25 million budget.

Which crime writer's work loosely inspired The Big Lebowski?

Joel Coen wanted a story with 'a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant'.

Who plays the flamboyant rival bowler Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski?

The Coens wrote the part after seeing his 1988 stage turn in Mi Puta Vida.

In what year was The Big Lebowski added to the National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress deemed it culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Who created the Bowling for Dollars franchise, having also created Romper Room?

Detroit's WADL revived the local-station format in 2013.

Which five sports are in the original Wii Sports?

It was bundled with the console everywhere except Japan and Korea.

Which Flintstone won championships with a ballet-inspired bowling delivery?

He took ballet lessons in one episode to improve his game, earning the nickname Twinkletoes.

What is the difference between a pinsetter and a pinspotter?

A 'pinchaser' still stands by to clear jams in many centers.

Which company bought Gottfried Schmidt's pinsetter patent in 1941?

It was US patent 2,208,605.

Which wood are bowling pins usually made of?

They are coated in plastic and painted white with red neck stripes.

How tall is a regulation ten-pin?

It measures 4.75 inches at its widest point.

What is distinctive about how a candlepin can be set?

They are vertically symmetrical and clack like billiard balls when struck.

How many lanes does Reno's National Bowling Stadium have?

Its 80-foot aluminum geodesic dome is built to look like a giant bowling ball.

What nickname does the National Bowling Stadium in Reno carry?

It is a frequent filming location for movie bowling scenes.

Where did the International Bowling Museum open in 2010 after leaving St. Louis?

It shares the International Bowling Campus with the USBC and BPAA.

The world's largest bowling center operator averages how many lanes per center?

The US industry average is 21 lanes; Lucky Strike Entertainment runs over 365 centers.

Which bowling games use small palm-sized balls without holes?

Ten-pin and American nine-pin balls traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb.

What is Brunswick's headquarters suburb, north of Chicago?

Founded in 1845, the company now sells over $5 billion a year, largely through Mercury Marine.

Which 2002 Michael Moore documentary won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature?

It explored the causes of the 1999 Columbine massacre and gun violence in America.

The pop-punk band Bowling for Soup, known for '1985', formed in 1994 in which Texas city?

The band also performs the theme song for the Disney Channel series Phineas and Ferb.

In The Simpsons episode 'Team Homer', what name does Homer's bowling team adopt?

Homer gets an anesthetised Mr. Burns to sign the $500 league fee, and Burns later insists on joining the team.

In the NBC series Ed, the lawyer hero buys a bowling alley in which fictional Ohio town?

Tom Cavanagh's Ed Stevens earns the nickname 'The Bowling Alley Lawyer' after moving home from New York.

How many PBA Tour titles did Pete Weber win, ranking fourth all-time?

He added ten majors on the regular tour and 14 more titles on the PBA50 Tour.

Johnny Petraglia remains the only PBA bowler to do what, in 1971?

His run ended with the Firestone Tournament of Champions; he had left the tour in 1966 to serve in the Army in Vietnam.

What was Dick Weber's day job when he first made bowling headlines in early-1950s Indianapolis?

He moved to Missouri in 1955 to join the Budweisers team, which set a long-standing five-man ABC league series record.

Where did the PBA rank Dick Weber on its 2008 list of the 50 greatest players of the last 50 years?

Only all-time titles leaders Earl Anthony and Walter Ray Williams Jr. ranked above him.