Steeped in History, Bowling Keeps Rolling

Behind the neon-lit recreation, 2 million leaguers and the PBA Tour

Don Carter holding a ball is shown with his Budweiser Bowling Team (circa late 1950s). Carter was the first athlete of any sport to sign a $1 million contract with a corporate sponsor (Ebonite).

“Bowling has been a great American pastime for well over 100 years,” explains Tom Clark, Commissioner of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA).

Founded in 1958, PBA today is owned by Bowlero Corp., the world’s largest owner and operator of bowling centers with 350 locations in the U.S.

Though dating to the 19th century, 10-pin bowling took off in the 1950s when automatic pin-setting machines were introduced.

At its height in the 1960s, the popular indoor recreation saw as many as 12,000 bowling centers operate across the country.

Presidents Eisenhauer and Nixon built lanes in the White House and renowned athletes such as Johnny Unitas, Mickey Mantle, and Stan Musal even got into the business as alley owners.

For lovers of the game, no other sport brought them physically closer to the action and their favorite rollers, many of whom struck it rich and became celebrities.

In 1963, bowler Harry Smith took home more than the combined earnings of MLB’s Sandy Koufax and NFL’s Y.A. Tittle.

A year later, Don Carter became the first star in any sport to ink a $1 million endorsement deal when he signed with bowling ball maker, Ebonite International.

Local and regional champs became household names when their pin-knocking exploits were telecast to living room audiences.

“Bowling was one of the first televised sports,” adds Clark.

Bowling Headliners, which ran on ABC in the late 1940s, was the first nationally broadcast bowling show. NBC followed in the 1950s with Championship Bowling and Jackpot Bowling.

ABC Sports picked up the game in the 1960s with Make That Spare and the Professional Bowlers Tour, which became a staple of Saturday afternoon television for 35 years.

One of the sport’s iconic moments was at the 1970 PBA Firestone Tournament of Champions when Don Johnson bowled a 299, coming just short of a perfect game.

Johnson missed a single pin in the final frame and as a result, was denied a $10,000 cash bonus from Firestone and a new Mercury Cougar automobile from Ford.

20 million television viewers were tuned in that day, which still conjures nostalgia among old-timers and bowling enthusiasts.

19x PBA Tour winner Chris Barnes remembers those weekend afternoons in front of his family’s TV set.

“I followed Mark Roth and Marshall Holman. They were my heroes,” he tells Rmag.

The 58-year-old turned pro in 1998, won Rookie of the Year, and went on to a successful bowling career that earned him $2.4 million in prize money.

His most memorable competition was at the 2004-5 U.S. Open, one of the Tour’s 5 majors, when he defeated Patrick Allen by a single pin on a spare (213-212).

Barnes’ wife, Lynda, is a professional bowler as well and both were inducted into the International Bowling Hall of Fame in Arlington, Texas.

Their bowling DNA was passed on to their 22-year-old twin sons, one a righty and the other a lefty, both of whom are stepping into their parents’ bowling shoes.

Like in most sports, bowling’s new generation of professional competitors are stronger and faster than their predecessors.

“The game got more athletic. The equipment got better, the surface is more aggressive, and there’s 2-handed bowling now,” Barnes points out.

Amid the media saturation of mainstream sports and league upstarts such as pickleball, the battle for fan eyeballs and participation has never been fiercer.

Not surprisingly, professional bowling commands a fraction of the popularity it once enjoyed and just a sliver of the dollars that roll into today’s top tier sports properties.

Cash prizes at PBA majors are just $100,000 for winners, though the top 1/3 of the field are paid out and bonuses along with endorsements can be lucrative.

Nevertheless, the neon-lit lanes and flashy surroundings that greet visitors today at bowling alleys are more associated with parties and events than heady tournaments.

Only 2 million bowlers are registered in leagues compared to a peak of 10 million decades ago.

Still, according to Clark, the 70 million Americans who do bowl at least once a year represent a potential pool of serious rollers.

“The challenge is to try and get the 70 million casual bowlers to become regulars, buy their own balls, shoes, and equipment.”

To that end, Bowlero’s acquisition of PBA in 2019 infused new dynamics into the ownership of bowling centers, adding greater connectivity between sponsors, amateurs, and professionals.

One advantage that bowling has over other peripheral sports on cable and streaming is its tradition and decades of memories that were built over generations.

“We are way more entrenched. We have a history,” says Barnes.

Echoes Clark, “Through all the social changes and technical advancements, it’s still the same game at its core, and it will always endure.”

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