Bowling sport

Bowling is a broad phrase that refers to a variety of sports in which participants throw or roll bowling balls at a target. It is one of the most basic types of throwing games, and players receive points by knocking over the pins set at the lane's end (Lemmer, 2002). Bowling has a lengthy history and is now one of the world's most popular sports. Sir Flinders Petrie, a British anthropologist, uncovered a collection of artifacts in an Egyptian child's grave in the 1930s that appeared to be used for primitive bowling.The bowling sports, therefore, traces its ancestry to the age of such objects, 3200 BC, if Petrie was right (Smith, 1996).

William Pehle, one of the German historians, claimed that the sports of bowling started about 300AD in his country (Smith, 1996). There also exists substantial evidence indicating that a type of bowling existed Vogue, England, in the year 1366 when King Edward III supposedly outlawed it as a mean of focusing his troops on archery practice (Smith, 1996). However, history has it that the popularity of bowling increased during the era of King Henry VIII when there also existed a broad range of “pin” games and other related games (Smith, 1996). That indicates that the pin games had evolved and there were several ninepins vibrations in Western Europe. Other sports related to bowling at that time were the British lawn bowling, the French petanque, and the Italian bocce (Lemmer, 2002).

Certainly, the German, Dutch, and English settlers all introduced different forms of bowling in the United States and the first serious mentioning of bowling in American literature was by Washington Irving when he related the awakening of Rip Van Winkle to the "crashing ninepins” sound (Davies, 2008). The first permanent location for bowling in America was in the Battery area in New York and was meant for lawn bowling. The New Yorkers still refer to the small plot as Bowling Green, and it is today at the center of the state's financial district (Davies, 2008). The game had its share of improvements and challenges in the United States. A Connecticut law of 1841 made it illegal for individuals to maintain any ninepin lanes possibly because bowling was a game characterized by much gambling (Smith, 1996). However, its challenges also enhanced its popularity, with most industrial leaders choosing to install at least a lane in their mansions (Smith, 1996).

Although the tenpin's point of evolution is unclear, it was a typical game during the late 1800s in various American states such as Ohio, New York, and Illinois (Davies, 2008). Various details such as pin dimensions and ball weights, however, varied by the state until the representatives of different regional bowling clubs pulled together to set standards for the game on the 9th of September 1895 in New York City (Davies, 2008). The establishment of standardization was followed by major national competitions for men under the umbrella of the American Bowling Congress (Davies, 2008). In the year 1917, the Women's International Bowling Congress got established in St. Louis and the women leaders who took part in the tournament alter formed Women's National Bowling Association (Davies, 2008).

The balling technology underwent a breakthrough in 1905 following the introduction of the first rubber ball, also referred to as the "Evertrue” (Pattengili, 2017). The Brunswick Corporation later, in 1914, improved the Mineralite ball by touting its "enigmatic rubber compound, " and the sport's popularity increased due to such agreed-upon standards (Pattengili, 2017). Another technological breakthrough in the game came in 1951, setting the stage for great development. AMF (American Machine and Foundry Company) secured the patents to automatic pin-spotter of Gottfried Schmidt, which led to the introduction of production model pin-spotters in late 1952, and proprietors no longer depended on "pin-boys" (Lemmer, 2002).

The popularity of the bowling game grew exponentially in the 1950s when it was embraced by television, with the first bowling’s network coverage being the NBC's "Championship Bowling" broadcast. In the year 1961, ABC became the first television network to broadcast Pro Bowlers Association (PBA)'s competition (Pattengill, 2017). The broadcasts of the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour later came up, and millions of Americans developed the interest in the game (Pattengill, 2017). Today, the bowling sport attracts a combined population of about 95 million players and fans from over 90 countries across the world. Besides, bowling forms part of the games in today’s global Olympic competitions (Pattengili, 2017).

References

Davies, P. (2008). Bowling Maidens Over 1931 and the Beginnings of Women's Cricket in a Yorkshire Town. Sport in History, 28(2), 280-298. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460260802090750

Lemmer, H. (2002). The combined bowling rate as a measure of bowling performance in cricket. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation, 24(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajrs.v24i2.25839

Pettengill, R. (2017). “Fair Play in Bowling”: Sport, Civil Rights, and the UAW Culture of Inclusion, 1936–1950. Journal of Social History. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shw137

Smith, D. (1996). The Kid on the Sandlot: Congress and Professional Sports, 1910–1992By Lowe Stephen R., Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1995. (176 pp.). Sports History Review, 27(1), 90-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/shr.27.1.90