History of Bowling

Though we have a tendency to think of bowling as a fairly modern sport, the truth is, the history of bowling is quite varied and it seems to have developed independently in places all around the world. The people playing didn't speak our modern language or wear our clothes, but when it came to the use of a ball being rolled to knock over upright pins, that is something that they would definitely have recognized.

One of the first places that bowling can be traced to is ancient Egypt. A very primitive version of a bowling ball and pins all sized for a child, were discovered with some artifacts that could be deliberately dated back to 3200 BC, something which makes them over five thousand years old. This is not the only suggestion that bowling is quite ancient though. Other people claimed that the pins and ball represented a different game altogether and stated that the game originated in Germany a mere two thousand years ago.

One of the first mentions of bowling that we see involves an English king outlawing it due to the fact that his troops were playing it and ignoring their archery practice. This places it in England during the 1300s, but we can tell due to its depictions in art and literature that it was popular and legal again just a short time afterwards. There were very variations on this very basic theme, and the from country to country, the size of the balls and the number of pins would vary.

When the first European settlers came to America, they brought bowling with them. The very first mention of bowling in America is related in the famous Washington Carver story, Rip Van Winkle, which was published in 1812. In this story, the main character meets strangely dressed men who are enjoying a game of ninepins. This differs from our own modern game, which uses ten pins,and the story of the addition of the tenth pin is an interesting one. The game of bowling suffered something of a shady reputation due to the fact that it was very popular with criminals and gamblers and laws were passed in several places which forbid the owning of bowling establishments. To get around this many establishments simply added another pin to the set and claimed they were playing a different game altogether!

The rules of the game that we play today were standardized in 1895, and that was also when national competitions began to be formed. In 1914, the first Mineralite bowling ball was created and in 1952, pin setting machines came into play. Bowling saw a huge surge in popularity when it was televised in the fifties, and as we can see, that popularity continues to this day!

Jay Villaverde is an avid league bowler and owner of http://www.DiscountBowlingBalls.net A site that offers the lowest prices on bowling balls from manufacturers such as Columbia, Storm, Hammer, Track, Ebonite and many more. Along with bowling ball bag, shoes and accessories, DiscountBowlingBalls.net has what you need to get in the game.

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