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The History of Bowling

Bowling is one of the oldest games in the world, with balls, pins and other gear discovered in a
5200-year-old childrens’ tomb in Egypt. This is how we know an early form of bowling existed
in Ancient Egypt.
A similar game was played at fairs and celebrations in 200 A.D. Germany. The game involved
throwing bones at nine wooden figures called “kegels”, whereas players were referred to as
“keglers”.
Bowling is thought to have existed in England and the Netherlands around 1100 A.D. In the early
1600s, as the Dutch colonized the Americas and established the city of New Amsterdam
(currently New York), they introduced the sport to the United States, where it was played using
nine pins assembled into a diamond shape. The game spread under the name “Dutch Pins”. The
emergence of large-scale gambling on bowling forced the government to prohibit the game by
law. Bowling eventually makes its comeback with the addition of a tenth pin, transforming into
the familiar modern game. 1985 sees the establishment of the American Bowling Congress
(A.B.C.) and the first ever official bowling rules.
Bowling has been around in America since before the revolution: Versions of the pastime were
brought across by Dutch settlers in the seventeenth century. But bowling really blossomed,
particularly among blue-collar types, in the 1950’s and 1960’s after the introduction of the
automatic pin setter. According to HighBeam Business research, the number of bowling alleys in
America nearly doubled from 6,600 in 1955 to 11,000 by 1963. Over the same period, the
number of people bowling in leagues increased from less than three million to seven million.
Today, bowling is played in specialized alleys consisting of lanes, at the ends of which the pins
are placed. The goal is to take as many pins down as possible with one throw.
The World Bowling association represents over 110 member nations and over 100 million
players worldwide. Bowling alleys around the world differ in size, layout and number of lanes
(from 2 to over 100).