BRIEF HISTORY

St. Lucie Lanes

Port St. Lucie Lanes was the vision of William E. Gould, a local builder. A site was acquired on the west side of US 1 approximately one mile north of Prima Vista Blvd. and 600 feet south of Kitterman Road. Construction of the North 24 lanes (lanes 25-48) began in the spring of 1978. The lanes were completed and opened to the public in late September, 1978. The public welcomed the new center by quickly filling openings in both the day and night leagues.

Almost immediately following the opening, plans were completed and construction began on the South 24 lanes (lanes 1-24). Construction was completed in late summer of 1979 and the center began the fall season with all 48 lanes open.

Since opening, the Center has been hosting a PBA Southern Regional stop over the Memorial day weekend. This Tournament is well received by local regional bowlers, National PBA members, and many bowling fans.

In the past few years, the center has also hosted several Senior PBA events.

This article was first published in the Port St. Lucie Bowling Association Yearbook 1996 - 1997.

The Yearbook was provided by Martha Dwyer.

Thank You, Martha!

Port St. Lucie Womens Bowling Association

Tournament Total

President Year Teams Doubles Singles

May Ann Woolley 1982-1983 52 65 130

Arlene Applebee 1983-1984 73 100 200

1984-1985 71 97 194

1985-1986 56 69 138

1986-1987 57 67 134

Louise Payne 1987-1988 48 72 144

1988-1989 47 65 130

1989-1990 33 53 106

1991-1992 29 44 88

1992-1993 23 40 80

1993-1994 24 41 82

1994-1995 15 27 54

Linda Flake 1995-1996 24 46 92

1996-1997 29 48 96

Mary Martin 1997-1998 26 44 88

1998-1999 32 47 94

Gloria Molos 1999-2000 Information not available at this time

This information was provided by Arlene Applebee

Thank you, Arlene!

Port St. Lucie Women's Bowling Association

Membership Total

1982 - 1983 975

1983 - 1984 1044

1984 - 1985 1046

1985 - 1986 1026

1986 - 1987 954

1987 - 1988 897

1988 - 1989 890

1989 - 1990 952

1990 - 1991 897

1991 - 1992 895

1992 - 1993 937

1993 - 1994 959

1994 - 1995 909

1995 - 1996 902

1996 - 1997 830

1997 - 1998 727

1998 - 1999 665

More Information not available at this time

This information was provided by Arlene Applebee

Thank you, Arlene!

Port St. Lucie Women's Bowling Association

Past Presidents

Mary Ann Woolley 1982-1983

Arlene Applebee 1983-1987

Louise Payne 1987-1995

Linda Flake 1995-1998

Mary Martin 1998-1999

Gloria Molos 1999-2006

History of Bowling

Fact. More than 70 million people in the United States bowl during a year. Fact. More than three million compete regularly in league play certified by the United States Bowling Congress. Staff at USBC Headquarters in suburban Milwaukee works closely with about 4,000 local associations to serve the three millions members.

Bowling has soared into the upper echelon of sports, setting a steady pace by blending strong organization with modern centers in which to participate. Although the sport now appeals to people from all walks of life, entering a bowling center today would give few clues to its origin.

Bowling has been traced to articles found in the tomb of an Egyptian child buried in 5200 B.C. The primitive implements included nine pieces of stone at which a stone "ball" was rolled, the ball having first to roll through an archway made of three pieces of marble.

Another ancient discovery was the Polynesian game of ula maika, also utilizing pins and balls of stone. The stones were to be rolled at targets 60 feet away, a distance which today still is one of the basic regulations of tenpins.

Bowling at pins probably originated in ancient Germany, not as a sport but as a religious ceremony. Martin Luther is credited with settling on nine as the ideal number of pins.

The game moved throughout Europe, the Scandinavian countries, and finally to the United States, with the earliest known reference to bowling at pins in America made by author Washington Irving about 1818 in "Rip Van Winkle."

The game was being played throughout the world and rules were different almost everywhere. Even basic equipment was not the same. In fact, why and when the extra pin was added from the European game of ninepins to the American game of tenpins still is a mystery.

Regardless of how the game came into being, it became so popular by mid-19th century indoor lanes were being built throughout Manhattan and the Bronx and on westward, in Syracuse, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities with large German populations.

In 1875, delegates from nine bowling clubs in New York and Brooklyn met in Germania Hall in the Bowery and organized the National Bowling Association. This was the first attempt to bring order out of chaos.

Disagreement raged between East and West, principally the alignment of New York State bowlers against everyone else to the west. On Sept. 9,1895, the American Bowling Congress was organized in Beethoven Hall in New York City.

A group of 40 women, encouraged by proprietor Dennis J. Sweeney of St. Louis, met at Sweeney's establishment in 1916 and formed what was known as the Women's International Bowling Congress.

There are many colorful stories about when women began bowling in the United States. Seniors reminisce about the turn of the century, when their mothers or grandmothers sneaked in with (or without) their husbands to try out the bowling game. Often they did so at the risk of their reputations.

Tales are told about women bowlers being screened off from view behind partitions or drapes or being allowed to bowl only when men were not using the alleys. Those were the days of high button shoes, skirts to the ankles, cumbersome apparel and tenpin accommodations that were hardly appealing.

Old photos document scenes of women bowling as early as the 1880s. The first recorded formalized bowling for women began in 1907 in St. Louis, when Dennis J. Sweeney, a bowling proprietor and sports writer, organized a women's league.

Inklings of national interest also were being shown. That same year (1907) many women accompanied their husbands to the American Bowling Congress Tournament in St. Louis, as they had been doing for several years. In St. Louis the women laid plans to hold their own tournament, the following year, on ABC Tournament lanes in Cincinnati after the annual men's event had concluded. A second women's tournament in 1909 followed the ABC event in Pittsburgh.

Records show little activity until 1915, when Ellen Kelly, an avid bowler, formed the St. Louis Women's Bowling Association. Buoyed by her success, she wrote to proprietors across the country asking for names of women who might be interested in a national organization of their own. She followed with letters to those women, urging the organization of local associations and offering advice on rules and establishing an organization.

By the Fall of 1916 in St. Louis, Sweeney was there to help Mrs. Kelly stage the first "national tournament." There were eight teams entered and champions were decided in team, doubles, singles and all events. The prize fund was $225.

Following the tournament those 40 women from 11 cities met at Sweeney's Washington Recreation Parlor and created the national organization that became after several name changes - the Women's International Bowling Congress. Fifty years later a charter member described the initial tournament as "frankly plain, there were eight alleys and four rows of benches for visitors a small counter square in back of the benches was used to sell soda pop, popcorn, peanuts, etc." She also recalled that the "meeting was more of a social gathering, and we gave little thought that it would develop into such a big organization."

The 40 pioneers elected their first national officers and adopted a constitution and bylaws that included the following purposes: To provide, adopt and enforce uniform rules and regulations governing the play of American tenpins; to provide and enforce uniform qualifications for tournaments and their participants; to hold a national tournament, and to encourage good feeling and create interest in the bowling game.

Those original precepts became the foundation of WIBC, which has developed into the largest sports organization in the world for women. The 40 pioneers set the pattern for today's 1.2 million WIBC members, who bowl in more than 60,000 sanctioned leagues in approximately 2,700 local associations in every state and several foreign countries.

That humble national tournament -- with its eight-team entry -- was the forerunner of what is now the largest women's sports event in the world. In tact, the 1997 WIBC Championship tournament held in Reno, Nev. attracted 14,872 five-woman teams, the largest entry for any team tournament in history. There were 88,279 individuals, a womens world record.

That first tentative gathering on the benches in Washington Recreation Parlor has evolved into a model of bowling democracy, the WIBC annual meeting. More than 3,000 delegates representing local and state associations attended the WIBC annual meeting to adopt rules and select national leaders. Similar annual meetings at local, state and provincial levels assure the self-government concept. Nationally, WIBC was governed by a board of directors elected by the delegates. Administrative policies and procedures were implemented by a staff at WIBC headquarters in suburban Milwaukee.

Along with growth and development came a multiplicity of services. Leagues received a wealth of rule books, record keeping materials and prepackaged kits to keep them functioning smoothly. Local, state and provincial associations benefited from a variety of materials to help them conduct their affairs more efficiently, ranging from handbooks, information sheets and forms to educational seminars, workshops and counseling from staff members and field representatives. A bonding and insurance program provided by WIBC covered association and league funds. A tournament sanctioning program was another important service.

A description of WIBC's awards for members would fill a chapter in itself. They recognized achievements within the realm of every bowler, from the beginner to the world champion.

From its humble beginnings, WIBC stood for tradition, friendship, fun, competition, leadership and success. It has meant this and more to the millions of women who proudly called WIBC my organization.

Women's International Bowling Congress

ABCs roots can be traced to many people. One was Thomas Curtis, who became ABC's first president and chaired several historic meetings that produced an organization that succeeded where others had failed.

The adoption of rules at the Sept. 9, 1895 meeting in New York's Beethoven Hall, and most important, the distribution of nearly 1,000 copies by mail to bowling groups in many parts of the United States, was the move which created interest and trust in the fledgling group. Within a few months, there were members in Buffalo, N.Y., Cincinnati, Lowell, Mass., Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Wheeling, W. Va., Kansas City and Quebec.

After that, representatives of local, state and provincial associations like these have annually met in convention to review rules and consider proposed changes. Also elected were officers and directors, all of whom serve voluntarily and without pay. The only exceptions were the executive director and assistant director, who oversaw the home office staff.

Service was ABC's aim since its early days. Service began when a league formed and applied for sanction. The sanction, with membership cards distributed to each bowler, gives ABC a record of its membership and entitled the league and its members to the following services:

Automatic bonding to protect bowler funds from theft, burglary and misuse.

Awards for every level of achievement from 300 games to 700 and 800 series to league champions, most improved league bowlers and those who bowl a game of 100 and a series of 150 or more pins above or more pins above average.

Essential tools for league officers including rulebooks, schedules, handicap charts, average calculators and other aids.

Rules advice and counseling.

Free tournament sanctioning.

Equally important in maintaining standard bowling conditions are the programs of lane certification and equipment testing and research. Every lane is checked and measured each season to assure it meets ABC/Womens International Bowling Congress specifications. Pins, automatic pinsetting machines, scoring devices and other allied equipment undergo thorough and lengthy testing before receiving approval for use in ABC sanctioned league or tournament competition.

Publicizing the inner workings of the Congress, as well as the feats of bowlers coast to coast, is the role of the Public Relations department. Bowlers were as well informed as any sports group in the world through ABC's membership publication, American Bowler and through news releases, pamphlets, brochures and other publications.

Although the service programs have been thorough, new groups created special attention. In 1963, ABC added a Seniors program and designed a complete set of services for the nation's senior citizens. The ABC National Seniors Tournament for men 55 and older was initiated in 1964 and expanded to reach every state in 1982.

In 1966, a Collegiate Division was initiated by the Congress to provide a program for the nation's college men while at the same time bridging the service gap between junior and adult competition.

With the formation of the Young American Bowling Alliance in 1982, the Collegiate Division became a part of that organization. It was returned to the ABC/WIBC in 1998 and renamed College Bowling USA.

The most spectacular of ABC's many services was the national championship tournament, the oldest bowling event in the nation. A fixture on the sports scene since 1901, it is unrivaled as a participant spectacle. Held in America's major cities, the ABC Tournament runs 12 to 16 hours daily for more than 100 consecutive days.

On lanes specially-installed in public arenas, as many as 17,000 teams and 92,000 individuals participate each year. The prize fund exceeds $4 million.

ABCs glamour event was the Masters, which matched the world's greatest bowlers in head-to-head double elimination competition following qualifying round play. Each match consists of three games throughout the competition unless the finals are televised. In that event, a stepladder format takes precedent.

ABC started a new tournament in 1992 aimed at bringing the sport back to its team roots. The World Team Challenge features a nationwide qualifying tour leading to a Grand Championship.

In conjunction with WIBC, ABC launched the Festival of Bowling in 1999. It provides a wide variety of formats for bowlers to enter as often as they like. It later became the National Mixed Championships.

Whether through leagues or tournaments, ABC provided its members options, all with the aim of having fun.

United States Bowling Congress

Treasure Coast USBC Association, Inc.

HISTORY

Treasure Coast USBC Association

Youth bowling did not come into being until the 1930s, with the first officially recorded competition coming in 1937 when American Bowling Congress Hall of Famer Milt Raymer organized a four-team boys league at Tilden Technical High School in Chicago. Prior to that, youth mainly stepped directly into adult competition.

The word of Raymers program quickly spread to other schools and soon the Chicago High School Bowling Club was developed to govern high school bowling activities. Other areas of the country became interested, and Raymer began operating the American High School Bowling Congress from the basement of his home.

The program was temporarily discontinued when Raymer entered the military service in 1942, but it was reinstated upon his discharge in 1946.

The National Bowling Council, which was organized in 1946, took over sponsorship of Raymers group later that year and renamed it the American Junior Bowling Congress in 1947. It had 8,767 members at that time. Raymer remained its Executive Secretary, keeping the office in Chicago.

When Raymer decided to retire in 1961, membership had reached 410,000. Chuck Hall, who had been an AJBC Field Representative, succeeded Raymer. With the growth came operational differences between the NBC organizations.

The Bowling Proprietors Association of America did not agree with the AJBC operations and in 1964 there was a split of youth programs. The AJBC continued under the auspices of the ABC and the Womens International Bowling Congress, and moved its office to Milwaukee. The BPAA created its own Youth Bowling Association.

After years of discussions between the groups, the Young American Bowling Alliance was created in 1982, combining AJBC and YBA. The proprietors and two membership organizations had equal representation on the 15-member Board of Directors, and Hall continued as Executive Secretary until his retirement in 1985.

The vitality of the youth program was at the local level where 35,000 volunteers served as coaches and leaders of more than 350,000 young people in league programs in almost all of the nearly 6,000 bowling centers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and military bases worldwide.

In concert with many organizations, including the mens and womens associations, youth bowlers have annually been awarded nearly $3 million in scholarships. The In-School Program brought local proprietors and membership organizations closer together. The program introduced bowling to pre-school through middle school students with educational classroom materials, simulated bowling equipment and instructional videotapes. The AJBC and YABA had only five leaders. Besides Raymer and Hall, Edward Clarkson served from 1986-92, Joseph Wilson from 1992-96 and Jim Zebehazy from 1996 - 2004.

Young American Bowling Alliance

USBC Collegiate

It is believed the first collegiate bowling competition was held at Yale University on April 8, 1916, nearly eight months before the Womens International Bowling Congress was formed. After the competition, leaders of the six Eastern schools entered formed the Intercollegiate Bowling Association.

Little is written about college bowling between then and the 1940s when many events were held in the East and Midwest. This led to the development of the American Bowling Congress and WIBC having their own college programs during the 1966-67 season. As the program grew, ABC and WIBC decided to combine their programs and efforts to become the ABC and WIBC Collegiate Division during the 1977-78 season.

In 1982, the Young American Bowling Alliance was formed and the industry decided collegiate bowling belonged to the youth division. Thus, during the 1982-83 season the program became the YABA Collegiate Division.

For various reasons, over the next several years college bowling began to deteriorate. To revitalize it, YABA implemented the Campus Program. This focused on the recreational verses the intercollegiate side of bowling to help create a greater awareness of bowling on college campuses from which more intercollegiate programs would result.

This theory proved true as intercollegiate membership peaked during the 1990-91 season with 209 colleges featuring more than 3,000 individuals. During the 1991-92 season campus programs peeked on their own with 71 colleges having programs and more than 26,000 individual members.

Due to lack of resources, however, the campus program was phased out during the 1994-95 season and the overall management of the college bowling was put under general YABA tournament and events. YABA then started looking at where college bowling really belonged since most members were ABC and WIBC not YABA.

In 1994 a major boost occurred for college bowling when the National Collegiate Athletic Association recognized womens bowling as an emerging sport to help settle federal gender equity issues in college sports. With this development the bowling industry did not want college bowling to end so it formed an industry joint oversight committee that operated college bowling using joint funding from ABC, WIBC and YABA. Thus, during the 1995-96 season the Intercollegiate Bowling Program was formed, later expanding to include representatives from organizations like the National Junior College Athletic Association and Association of College Unions International to help align bowling with other college sports and NCAA regulations.

During the 1997-98 season, the bowling industry came to realize that college bowling is a major link in the progression of people who bowl and that youth and college demographics are the largest growing and influential group in the current and future entertainment business. Thus, the Intercollegiate Bowing Program came out with a new look and name, College Bowling USA.

ABC and the WIBC adopted legislation to administer College Bowling USA and its championship tournaments, effective the 1998-99 season. The name changed to USBC Collegiate in 2005 with the formation of the United States Bowling Congress.

The USBC Collegiate program maintains the eligibility and integrity of intercollegiate bowling while providing certification and regulation of varsity bowling at the collegiate level. USBC Collegiate also provides assistance and leadership in implementing bowling programs, securing the opportunity for student-athletes to compete in the sport and achieve athletic and academic excellence.

USA Bowling

Founded as the United States Tenpin Bowling Federation in the summer of 1989 by the American Bowling Congress and Women's International Bowling Congress, USA Bowling was the worldwide representative of the United States in international competition until 2005.

Governed by a 12-member board which includes three athletes, USA Bowling was recognized as the sport's governing body in the United States by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Federation Internationale des Quilleurs.

USA Bowling coordinated all amateur international competition promoted by USOC or FIQ, and conducted the National Amateur Bowling Championships. In addition, it was the leader in providing instruction and coaching programs to help bowlers improve.

Prior to USTBF's founding, ABC and WIBC jointly held Group C status with the USOC as bowling's governing body since the sport's acceptance by the USOC in 1986. The USTBF was eventually established to comply with the USOC Constitution and the Amateur Sports Act adopted by Congress in 1978. The USOC granted Group A membership to the USTBF in 1989.

The Team USA bowling program was initiated by ABC and WIBC in 1986 with the first National Amateur Championships. Dan Dada of Las Vegas and Cora Fiebig of Madison Heights, Mich., were the first men's and women's national amateur champions.

The United States has been represented in international competition since the 1930s when the late Dr. Joe Thum, a New York City proprietor later elected to the ABC Hall of Fame, organized teams to travel to Europe. Prior to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, a large delegation of male bowlers participated in a special event.

The FIQ was formed in 1951 with nine countries but now boasts more than 80 member nations. It first applied for International Olympic Committee recognition in 1963, but was continually refused until being officially recognized in 1979. Bowling was an official exhibition sport in the 1988 Games.

The U.S. did not become a FIQ member until 1961, making its official international debut in the 1963 FIQ World Championships in Mexico, dominating the competition. Since that time other nations have improved tremendously, increasing the competition for the Americans.

High School Bowling

High School Bowling has been an operating entity for a very long time. Chicago's Milt Raymer, an American Bowling Congress Hall of Famer, initiated one of the nation's first high school bowling programs more than 60 years ago.

The first officially recorded competition was in 1937 when Raymer organized a four-team boys league at Tilden Technical High School in Chicago. Word of Raymer's program quickly spread to other schools and soon the Chicago High School Bowling Club was developed to govern high school bowling activities.

Other areas of the country became interested and Raymer began operating the American High School Bowling Congress from the basement of his home in 1941. The program was temporarily discontinued when Raymer entered the military service in 1942, but it was reinstated upon his discharge in 1946.

The National Bowling Council, which was organized in 1946, took over sponsorship of Raymer's group later that year and renamed it the American Junior Bowling Congress in 1947, with the focus changing to include youth of all ages rather than focusing just on high school students.

In 1964, the Bowling Proprietors Association of America and AJBC began running separate youth programs due to philosophical differences. BPAA created the Youth Bowling Association and began working with the National Federation of State High School Associations with aims set at bringing bowling to schools in the form of intramural programs and physical education classes.

The AJBC continued under the auspices of the ABC and the Women's International Bowling Congress, and moved its office to Milwaukee. After years of discussions between the groups, the Young American Bowling Alliance was created in 1982, combining AJBC and YBA.

Throughout out this time, high school varsity bowling began to grow in different parts of the country. Varsity bowling had been recognized throughout New York and New Jersey for quite some time, with New Jersey's statewide varsity bowling status dating back to the 1960s.

Miami's Dade County first recognized high school bowling as a varsity sport in 1963, when eight area schools fielded teams, though bowling was only recognized statewide in Florida in 2003.

Illinois began recognizing girls varsity bowling in 1973, with the participating schools mostly concentrated in the suburbs of Chicago.

Until recently only a handful of other states have offered bowling at varsity status over the years, yet high school club bowling has become wildly accepted in many states. The Northern Illinois Bowling Proprietors Association and the Bowling Centers Association of Michigan put the importance of high school bowling back into the spotlight, with their strong high school bowling efforts in the Rockford, Ill., area and statewide in Michigan.

The model was followed in southern Illinois, which initiated the first Illinois High School Boys Club Championship Tournament in 1998.

Many other states utilized the framework of Illinois' program to implement high school bowling programs in other states and areas while also making high school bowling an area aimed at growth throughout the bowling industry.

In 1998, the Billiard Bowling Institute of America partnered with the BPAA and YABA to produce two videos -- one for proprietors and one for athletic directors -- to be used for marketing purposes that were an integral part of the newly created "Give Me a B for Varsity Bowling" program.

In January 2001, BPAA appointed a task force to organize the effort to promote high school bowling throughout the United States. The group began rewriting the "Give Me a B" Varsity Bowling Manual and writing the recommendations for the duties of the national director of High School Bowling, a position that was created to oversee this program. A few months later, a proposal was presented to the executive directors of ABC, WIBC and YABA by the BPAA to create a national program.

The program was approved and funding from all the groups supported this industry-wide initiative. Support continues by the BPAA and the new United States Bowling Congress, an organization formed by the merger of ABC, WIBC, YABA and USA Bowling in 2005.

Bowling is now recognized throughout the majority of the U.S. as either a varsity or club sport in high schools. States that currently run varsity or club bowling programs.