History of Bowling

Bowling has been found to be an ancient sport, tracing its origins all the way back to about 5200 B.C. Archaeologists have found a set of nine pins made of stone in the tomb of an Egyptian child. But in its modern form, many people trace the origins of bowling to Germany in the 4th or 5th century AD.

This early form of the game was actually played inside a church, where the player would roll a ball down the aisle to hit a club, called the heathen. The term heathen refers to someone not of the same belief, or a pagan in other words. Hitting the heathen was supposedly a demonstration of the player's religious faith.

Through the Middle Ages, many other variants of bowling existed, with the number of pins ranging widely from three up to fifteen pins.

A game similar to nine pins was believed to have been in existence as early as 1200 AD among the Germans, Swiss, and the Dutch. This game was played outdoors, and the alley back then just consisted of a single plank measuring a foot to a foot and a half in width. The ball was rolled toward the far end of the alley, on which nine pins were arranged in a three by three square.

The game was brought to the New World (i.e., America) by European settlers. It is not clear when or where the first indoor alleys were built, and how exactly the rules were modified into the variants we know today.

What is known is that the sport gained so much popularity, that gambling arose around it. It is commonly said that the game of ten pin bowling today grew from the nine pin game back then in order to evade a legal ban on the game.

The American Bowling Congress (ABC) was founded in 1895 to regulate the sport by creating rules and standards for equipment. In addition, the ABC promoted the sport both recreationally and for competition. The first ABC tournament was held in 1901. The Women's International Bowling Congress was established soon after, in 1916, to become an important governing body for women's bowling.

The sport skyrocketed in popularity in the 1950s, with the help of television and such shows as “Championship Bowling”, “Make that Spare”, and “Celebrity Bowling”. These shows helped to embed bowling in American culture and consciousness, helping to make it into the American pastime that it is currently.