We all love a good game of bowling. For Stars and Strikes, bowling is obviously our life and we can’t get enough of it. If you’re just as passionate as we are or just into learning new things, we’re here to share with you some of our favorite facts related to bowling. It’s not just knocking over pins, there’s lots of history and fun tied to the sport that we excited to share.
- While we use automatic equipment that helps you reset pins and return your ball back to you, back in the day there was a designated person for this role. The pinsetter or pinspotter was someone who manually set fallen pins upright and returned bowling balls back to players after each turn.
- This sport has been around for ages even if it wasn’t officially called bowling until much later. Anthropologists believe they have found all the materials needed for bowling in Egyptian tombs. Modern day bowling, however, started in New York City where the first indoor bowling lane was built.
- Before bowling became a sport for all, it was considered a gentleman’s sport and only allowed men to competitively play the game. This was classified by The American Bowling Congress and it wasn’t until 1917 when women got a chance to compete.
- If you’re looking to play at the largest bowling alley in the world, head to Japan. This country is home to a bowling alley with over 100 lanes. That’s a lot of bowling games going on at once!
- While we’re used to the bowling balls commonly seen in alleys today, bowling used to be played with wooden balls. In addition, balls did not use to have holes in them. Instead, people played fingerless bowling where they swung the ball between their legs and flops on their stomach in order to throw the ball down the lane.
- Popular has always been an extremely popular game so much so that it has been banned in the past for being too fun. King Edward III had to prohibit his soldiers from bowling so that they would focus instead on archery practice and winning battles.
- There’s a different term for the number of strikes you bowl in a row. For example, a “brat” is five consecutive strikes, an “octopus” is eight consecutive strikes, a “golden turkey” is nine consecutive strikes, and if you play a perfect game you get a “dinosaur”.
- Bowling used to be played with 9 pins rather than 10. However, this version of bowling became illegal after being linked to excessive gambling and drinking. These days, only Texas still plays this version of the game.
If you are looking for the perfect bowling alley, come check out the fun we offer at Stars & Strikes. We welcome bowlers of all levels. Get in touch with the location nearest you.