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History of Bowling (Tenpin)
How far back does it go?
Items that could be used for games resembling bowling have been found in Egyptian areas dating back to around 5200 BC. A game known as Bocci was played in about 50 BC in an area of southern Europe now part of northern Italy. The Polynesians had a game called Ula Maika which was also similar in theory to bowling. This game had elliptical balls and flat round stones. The distance of the alley was, coincidentally, the same as for bowling today.
The use of the bowling 'pins' was first introduced in Germany in the third or fourth century, when kegels, like pins, were set up in churches. If you hit a kegel you were free from sin, otherwise extra prayers were in order.
Priests started playing the game, and Martin Luther made it popular during the Reformation. Luther is believed to have drawn up the first set of rules, and standardised the number of pins at nine.
Nine or ten pins
It became popular in the US when Dutch migrants took the game of ninepin bowling to New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1626. By the mid-nineteenth century, the game was popular all over the United States, especially in New York, as alleys were set up on street corners.
There was a great deal of gambling and betting, and a criminal element became involved in the game. The state of Conneticut banned the game in 1841, and other states followed suit.
In 1803, in Suffolk, in England, bowling with ten pins had been played. This idea was brought some 50 years or more later to the United States, where the then banned ninepin bowling was replaced with tenpin bowling, which became the de facto standard in the US.
Official associations
The first attempt to form a national (for the United States) association to oversee the development of tenpin bowling was with the National Bowling League, in 1875. It did not work, and neither did the American Bowling Union in 1900.
However, after a meeting at the Beethoven Hall, New York, in September 1895, the American Bowling Congress (ABC) was formed, and it standardised the rules and organised the game in general.
In 1916, the Women's International Bowling Congress was formed in St. Louis, and in 1935, the American Junior Bowling Congress was formed. Some of the credit for the early development of the organised sport should go to Elmer H. Baumgarten, who was the president and the executive secretary of the ABC for many years.
There is an organisation for professional players in the United States, the PBA, Professional Bowlers Association, which was formed in 1958.
When the AMF International company introduced the automatic pinspotter in 1951, it led to an increase in the game. The game was speeded up as pin collectors were no longer needed to pick up and reset the pins.
The governing body of bowling is called the FIQ (Federation de Internationale des Quilleurs). It was formed in 1954, and the national associations of many countries are now affiliated with it, including the British Tenpin Bowling Association (BTBA), which was formed in May 1961.
Championships
World amateur championships have been held since 1923. They were originally run by the International Bowling Association. Since 1954, the FIQ has organised the championships. They are held every four years for both men and women.
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