Bowling History Captured on Video

I've been watching bowling since the late 1950's, and I started bowling not long after that. I've seen a lot of great bowling on TV and in person, and I've bowled a few decent games and series myself. And as I keep posting to this blog and working to take my own game to a higher level before it's too late, I find myself becoming more and more interested in the history of this wonderful sport.

So, I was delighted to find the six videos below on YouTube. They are from a program titled Bowling, the Perfect Game--Classic Moments in Bowling History hosted by Chris Schenkel and Nelson Burton Jr that aired in 1991. Somehow, I managed to miss it, but through the magic of YouTube, you and I are able to see it now. And it's definitely a case of better late than never. Or better again and again than only once.

The program covers the entire history of modern tenpin bowling in America going back to even before the founding of the American Bowling Congress in 1895 and features rare footage of early stars and styles. It covers the history of bowling lanes, surface coatings, pinsetters, and bowling balls. It shows highlights from televised bowling matches and tournaments. And it teaches things about the history of the sport that you probably didn't know unless you're a REAL old-timer or bowling history fanatic.

For instance, I never knew that long before Jack Biondolillo bowled the first 300 on the PBA telecasts on ABC in 1967, Ed Lubanski bowled two consecutive 300's on TV sometime in what appears to have been the 1950's. There's footage of that in the program (see video #2). I also didn't know that bowling balls had only two holes and that people bowled with just their thumb and middle finger until sometime around the late 40's or early 50's.

This program, via the six videos below, is a priceless treasure trove of information and viewing pleasure for the bowling fan, so take your shoes off, kick back, and enjoy.

Bowling's Tournament Twilight Zone

As I spend more time thinking and writing about bowling, the more serious I'm becoming about my game, and the more I want to start bowling in tournaments. When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I bowled in quite a few tournaments, mostly eight or ten gamers. I loved the long format, because I tend to do better the longer I bowl. I guess you could call me bowling's equivalent of a "marathon man."

But I don't see nearly as many tournament opportunities in the Sacramento area as I used to have in the Bay Area. Oh, there are a fair number of tournaments, but most of them are either high caliber scratch tournaments dominated by local pros and elite amateurs, or they're handicap tournaments, often only three games long, dominated by lower average bowlers, often sandbaggers, with huge handicaps.

Thus, so far as bowling in tournaments in which I can be competitive and have a chance to cash is concerned, I inhabit a kind of twilight zone. My average is too high to get appreciable or any handicap, and I'm not skilled enough to go head-to-head with the big and mostly much younger guns in this area. So, what's a poor old geezer like me to do?

Well, one possibility that's come to my attention is to join a local bowling club that tries to make things fair for all its members by invoking an elaborate and flexible handicapping system that takes as accurate a measure as possible of a bowler's ability to perform on its tournament conditions. And those conditions are said to be sport patterns.

Clearly, if I want to competitive on those conditions against people using averages to determine their handicap that come from their performance on those conditions, I can't use my highest regular league average as the basis for determining my handicap. I would have to come in with a 220 average obtained on an easy house shot and would have no chance against people with handicaps derived from 190 or 200 averages bowled on tournament sport conditions. This club's rules say that you have to use your highest league average for the first 21 games before your average is adjusted, but the director told me that the adjustment can happen much sooner.

I'm probably going to join this organization and see how it goes. They have tournaments almost every week from the looks of their schedule. But I wish there were more good tournaments around for people like myself--senior bowlers with high house averages but who are not able to compete with the best professional and amateur bowlers in the area.