A 5,000-Year History of Bowling

Egypt, 3200 BC

In the 1930s, British anthropologist Sir Flinders Petrie discovered objects in the grave of an Egyptian boy that he identified as primitive bowling balls and pins. Carbon dating placed the artifacts at over 5,000 years old. If correct, bowling predates the wheel. The grave contained nine pieces of stone meant to be set up as pins, plus a small stone ball and a marble arch used as a starting line. Pharaohs may have bowled.

Greece and Rome

The Greeks called their version kerlinger, played with stones and sea shells. The Romans played bocce, a target game where the goal was to roll a ball as close as possible to a smaller target ball. Bocce survived almost unchanged and is still played today in parks and clubs around the world. Roman soldiers carried the game across Europe during the empire’s expansion.

Medieval Europe

Bowling took root in England by the early 1100s. Over the next three centuries the game splintered into local variations: half-bowls, skittles, kayles, lawn bowls, and ninepins. King Henry VIII was an enthusiastic bowler. So enthusiastic, in fact, that in 1541 he banned commoners from playing because so many soldiers were neglecting their archery practice.

Colonial Bowling

English, Dutch, and German immigrants brought their versions of bowling to America sometime before 1670. New York City still has Bowling Green, named for the lawn bowling field that operated there during the colonial era. Washington Irving’s 1819 story “Rip Van Winkle” features ninepins prominently, suggesting the game was already part of American folk culture by the early 1800s.

The Accidental Invention of Ten-Pin (1841)

By the 1830s, ninepin bowling had become so associated with gambling and crime that Connecticut banned the game outright in 1841. The law specifically prohibited “nine-pin bowling alleys.” Resourceful proprietors added a tenth pin and reopened, technically operating “ten-pin” lanes, which were not banned. The modern game was born from a regulatory loophole. Other states followed Connecticut’s lead, and ten-pin spread nationally as nine-pin disappeared.

Standardization (1895)

For most of the 19th century, every region had its own rules. Lane lengths varied. Pin sizes varied. Ball weights varied. In 1895, a group of bowling proprietors and players met in New York City to form the American Bowling Congress (ABC), the sport’s first national governing body. The ABC established the lane and pin specifications still in use today: 60 feet from foul line to head pin, 41-1/2 inches wide, ten pins set in a triangle 12 inches apart.

Eddie Elias and the Charter Class (1958)

Eddie Elias was an Akron sports agent and attorney who saw bowling’s potential as a professional sport. In 1958, at the American Bowling Congress tournament in Syracuse, New York, he convened 33 of the country’s best bowlers and formed the Professional Bowlers Association. The charter members included names that would define the sport’s first golden era: Don Carter, Billy Welu, Carmen Salvino, Buzz Fazio, and Dick Weber.

The First PBA Tour (1959)

The PBA’s inaugural season featured three events. Italian-born Lou Campi of Dumont, New Jersey won the Empire State Open, the very first PBA title in history. Dick Weber, who would become one of the sport’s all-time greats, won the other two: the Paramus Eastern Open and the Dayton Open. By the early 1960s, the tour had grown to dozens of stops.

Television Era (1962 to early 1990s)

In 1962, ABC began broadcasting the Pro Bowlers Tour on Saturday afternoons. The show became a cultural fixture. Chris Schenkel called the action. Earl Anthony, Mark Roth, and Marshall Holman became household names. At its peak, Saturday bowling drew bigger TV audiences than golf or tennis. The show ran continuously until 1997, an unbroken 35-year run.

Don Carter

Six-time Bowler of the Year. The face of bowling’s first golden era. First athlete in any sport to sign a million-dollar endorsement deal.

Dick Weber

26 PBA titles. Won the first two tournaments of the 1959 PBA season. Father of Pete Weber, the second-generation Hall of Famer.

Earl Anthony

43 PBA titles. The first bowler to surpass $1 million in career earnings. Left-handed precision personified.

Walter Ray Williams Jr.

All-time PBA wins leader with 47 titles. Seven-time PBA Player of the Year. Also a six-time world horseshoe champion.

Pete Weber

37 PBA titles. Ten majors. One of the most charismatic and outspoken players in the sport’s modern era.

Jason Belmonte

Australian. 15 majors and counting, the all-time leader. Popularized the two-handed delivery that has reshaped the modern game.

EJ Tackett

Multiple-time PBA Player of the Year. Sustained the modern PBA’s competitive depth alongside Belmonte and a new wave of two-handers.

Liz Johnson

PWBA Hall of Famer. 27 PWBA titles. The face of women’s professional bowling through the sport’s most recent generation.

Reactive Resin (1991)

For most of bowling’s history, balls were made from plastic or polyester. In 1991, Nu-Line Industries introduced a coverstock made of reactive urethane resin that grabbed the lane like nothing before it. Carry percentages jumped overnight. The number of sanctioned 300 games went from a few hundred per year to tens of thousands. Today’s high-end balls use asymmetric cores with reactive solid or pearl covers, generating motion shapes that would have been impossible to produce thirty years ago.

Two-Handed Bowling

Jason Belmonte arrived on the PBA Tour in 2008 throwing the ball with two hands and no thumb. Traditionalists were skeptical. Then he won, repeatedly, with rev rates that bordered on physics-defying. The two-handed approach is now the dominant style among the sport’s top players. EJ Tackett, Anthony Simonsen, and a new generation of teenagers have built their games around the technique. Equipment manufacturers responded with layout systems like Storm’s 2LS that are purpose-built for the no-thumb release.

PBA on Streaming and Cable

After ABC’s 35-year Saturday afternoon run ended in 1997, the PBA spent two decades on cable (ESPN, FOX) finding its modern television rhythm. The 2020s brought the sport into the streaming era, with most tour stops available on FOX Sports digital and PBA Bowling Channel. The audience is smaller than the 1970s peak, but the international reach is larger than ever.

Bowling Terms Glossary

A-Z reference of every bowling term, from approach to wood pin.

Open the glossary →

Petraglia Memoirs

Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia’s bowling memoirs, written exclusively for BowlersMart.

Read the memoirs →

Today’s Bowling News

What is happening in bowling right now: tournament results, equipment launches, industry updates.

Read the news →