HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress—the original codifier of all tenpin bowling standards, rules and regulations from 1895 onwards; the Women's International Bowling Congress—founded in 1916, as the female bowlers' counterpart to the then all-male ABC; the Young American Bowling Alliance, and USA Bowling. The USBC's headquarters are located in
Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...
, after having moved from the Milwaukee suburb of
Greendale, Wisconsin Greendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,854 at the 2020 census. Greendale is located southwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. A planned community, it ...
, in November 2008. The move enabled the USBC to combine its operations with the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA).


Purpose

The USBC is the national governing body for ten-pin bowling in the United States. It has approximately 3,000 local associations across the US serving over 2 million members. Among its duties and responsibilities to these members are:United States Bowling Congress "About USBC" page
/ref> * Maintain specifications, conduct research testing for, and certify: bowling lanes, lane dressings, pin setting and ball return equipment, bowling pins, bowling balls and other bowling-related products. * Establish and publish playing rules, and provide counselors to help interpret them. * Certify leagues and tournaments. * Protect the financial investment of certified leagues through its league bonding program. * Manage Team USA as it competes in international tournaments. * Conduct championship tournaments:
USBC Masters The USBC Masters is a championship ten-pin bowling event conducted by the United States Bowling Congress. The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) began recognizing it as a title event in 1998, and it was designated one of the four majors in 20 ...
, USBC Queens, USBC Open Championships, USBC Women's Championships, USBC Youth Open, USBC Junior Gold Championships, USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships, USBC Intercollegiate Singles Championships, USBC Senior Masters, USBC Senior Queens, Team USA Trials, USBC Senior Championships and Pepsi USBC Youth Championships. * Provides 'Lifetime Achievement' awards, one award only for achievements ( 300 games and 800 series for three games, among others) accomplished in USBC-sanctioned leagues or tournaments. * Maintain historical records of bowler averages for use in USBC-sanctioned leagues and tournaments. * Certify coaches for both youth and adult bowlers. * Regulate and promote high school and collegiate bowling. * Manage SMART (Scholarship Management and Accounting Report for Tenpins), the only youth scholarship fund recognized by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), through a separate corporation.


History

Moses Bensinger Moses Bensinger (August 17, 1839 – October 14, 1904) was an American merchant and manufacturer. He was president of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company from 1890 until his death in 1904. He was the instigator and organizer of the conglomera ...
was influential in setting up the American Bowling Congress (A.B.C.) in 1895. On September 9, 1895, the A.B.C. was officially formed as a permanent organization at Beethoven Hall on east Fifth Street in New York City. The A.B.C. had their first formal annual meeting four days later on September 13 at the Elephant club on Fulton Street in Brooklyn and adopted the proposed constitution and by-laws. The new organization took effect officially on October 15, 1895. It is a legislative body that enforces uniform bowlers' rules and regulations, through a set of by-laws and a constitution of Articles, for all in the United States to follow as the official standard for ten-pin bowling. Before the USBC's existence, the A.B.C. standardized and governed all tenpin bowling equipment as well for the modern sport, through to the time of consolidation under the USBC. It is much like the baseball
National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
and the Bicycle law in the United States. This was a codification of the preexisting rules and regulations through the by-laws of the American Bowling Congress. It eliminated gambling on contests, as prize money could now be earned honestly in tournaments. This was done by a uniform method of scoring that was enforceable by the A.B.C. bowling laws that then made it fair for all bowlers throughout the United States. Bowling equipment made by the Brunswick Company, like the alleys, pins and balls, were uniform based on certain measurements and requirements set in place by the American Bowling Congress. All the large national bowling centers with regulation Brunswick equipment—and much later, in the era of the automatic pinspotter, the AMF firm—were under the constitution and by-laws of the A.B.C. organization by 1905. Historically, the membership of the ABC was all male (white males only in 1916–1950), but beginning in 1993 women were permitted to join. In 1916 the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was formed by a group of 40 women, and up until 2004 served as a partner organization of the ABC. The Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) was established in 1982, after previously existing as the American Junior Bowling Congress founded in 1958, to serve youth bowlers from pre-school through collegiate level. Prior to the formation of the USBC, the national governing body for bowling was USA Bowling, which oversaw the participation of Team USA in international events. These four organizations merged to form USBC on January 1, 2005.


USBC Hall of Fame

The USBC Hall of Fame was formed in 2005 by the merger of the ABC Hall of Fame (established 1941) and WIBC Hall of Fame (established 1953). As of 2016, there are 417 Hall of Fame members in five categories: * Superior Performance (217) * Meritorious Service (117) * Veterans (50) * Pioneer (20) * Outstanding USBC Performance (13)* ''* Category introduced in 2011, with
Jeff Richgels Jeff Richgels, of Oregon, Wisconsin, is a former member of the Professional Bowlers Association who competes on the PBA50 Tour and PBA Regional Tour. He has won 30 PBA Regional titles. Jeff also is a member of the United States Bowling Congress T ...
as the inaugural member. Recognizes those who have had noteworthy performances in one of the USBC national tournaments.'' The USBC Hall of Fame has its home at the
International Bowling Museum The International Bowling Museum is located inside the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas. It reopened there on January 26, 2010, after having been located in St. Louis, Missouri, until November 2008. The design and fabrication of th ...
on the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas (along with the
International Bowling Hall of Fame The World Bowling Writers (WBW) International Bowling Hall of Fame was established in 1993 and is located in the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, on the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas. History The International Bo ...
). The induction ceremony is held annually in the spring.


USBC in the media

The USBC Masters, one of four major tournaments the PBA holds each season, is conducted by the USBC as a part of the PBA Tour. The 2013, 2014 and 2015 events were all won by Australian Jason Belmonte, who became the only player in history to win this tournament in three consecutive years. Belmonte's streak was broken in
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh c ...
by American 19-year-old Anthony Simonsen, who made history as the youngest-ever winner of a PBA major tournament. Belmonte won the 2017 event for an unprecedented fourth Masters title. The most recent champion, crowned on April 1, 2019, is American
Jakob Butturff Jakob Butturff (born April 28, 1994) is a left-handed American ten-pin bowler from Chandler, Arizona and a member of the Professional Bowlers Association. He competes in events on the PBA Tour and in global events as a member of Team US ...
of
Chandler, Arizona Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and a suburb in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). It is bordered to the north and west by Tempe, to the north by Mesa, to the west by Phoenix, to the ...
. The USBC Queens, one of four major tournaments on the
Professional Women's Bowling Association The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) organizes and oversees a series of annual tournaments for the top competitive women ten-pin bowlers. The series is often referred to as the "women's tour" of bowling. The PWBA was formed in 1960 ...
(PWBA) Tour, is conducted by the USBC. The 2019 event was won by
Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...
-born Dasha Kovalova, who bowled collegiately at Wichita State University. The USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships (ITC), the national championship of collegiate bowling, is conducted by USBC and has been televised on a tape-delay basis since 2002. For the first time, in 2012, USBC also televised the Intercollegiate Singles Championships as part of a four-week series on CBS Sports Network. Both events were televised in high definition for the first time in 2012. USBC was the presenting sponsor of the
PBA Women's Series The PBA Women's Series was a mini-tour for female professional bowlers. It was started in 2007 as a way to bring women's bowling back to television after the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) disbanded in 2003. Sponsored by the United ...
for three seasons, beginning with the 2007-08 season. In the 2009–10 season, USBC changed the name of its presenting sponsorship to BOWL.com, the organization's website, which was re-launched on August 3, 2009. USBC did not renew its sponsorship for the 2010–11 season.USBC press release
/ref> In 2007, USBC acquired the rights to the
U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, ...
from the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA). The event, which had been on a three-year hiatus following the disbanding of the PWBA in 2003, was telecast for five weeks on
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...
in September–October 2007. ESPN again held multi-week broadcasts of the event in 2008, while ESPN2 did the same in 2009. In 2010, USBC reverted to a more traditional format and a one-day stepladder-style TV finals, airing live on ESPN2. That event was held in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, with
Kelly Kulick Kelly Kulick (born March 16, 1977) is an American professional bowler and sportscaster. She has won ten professional women's bowling titles (six of them majors), one PBA Tour title (a major) and a professional mixed doubles title. Kulick is the ...
winning. Kulick became the first bowler ever to win the USBC Queens and US Women's Open in the same year. USBC announced in May 2010 that it would not conduct the US Women's Open in 2011, as the BPAA had agreed to resume its association with the tournament. The TV finals took place June 30, 2011, at
Cowboys Stadium AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, is a retractable roof, retractable-roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. I ...
in Arlington, Texas, where Leanne Hulsenberg was crowned champion. In May 2008, USBC conducted a special made-for-TV event called "Bowling's Clash of the Champions". The taped telecast was broadcast May 10 and 11 on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
, marking the first time bowling had been broadcast on regular network television since June 26, 1999. The event featured eight male and eight female bowlers representing youth, college, senior, amateur and professional bowlers who had won recent USBC titles. It was won by
Lynda Barnes Lynda Barnes (née Norry, born October 7, 1967) is one of the world's leading females tenpin bowlers. She is a former member of the PWBA ( Professional Women's Bowling Association). Bowling as an amateur, Lynda won the 1998 USBC Queens championshi ...
. The event returned to CBS in 2009, when it was won by Chris Barnes, Lynda's husband. In 2009, USBC began showing championship competition live free on its website, BOWL.com. In 2011, USBC moved this coverage to its YouTube channel, YouTube.com/BowlTV. BowlTV's coverage was primarily anchored by Lucas Wiseman before he left the organization in December 2015.Lucas Wiseman, the main voice of BowlTV, leaves USBC after 13 successful years
/ref> In 2018 controversy emerged over Executive Director Chad Murphy for bullying employees and committee members and manipulating the board nominating committee.


USBC rule changes

USBC rule changes occur at the national convention, and take effect for leagues starting after August 1 of each year. Rule changes are published in a new printed guide every two years. Updated rulebooks are available online a
bowl.com


SMART program

The SMART program (Scholarship Management and Accounting Report for Tenpins) was established in 1994 in order to manage and store bowling scholarships until the youth bowler requests the use of the scholarships for college. The bowling scholarships can be from winning tournaments to filling out scholarship application forms. Recently the validity of the term "scholarship" for the SMART program has been questioned by the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association). The association questions where the education requirements are in earning the "scholarships". Most bowling scholarships earned are from winning a tournament, and are awarded as a cash prize in the form of a scholarship with no GPA or formal scholarly work necessary to claim the money once in college. This in turn has caused the MHSAA to rule high school athletes "ineligible" due to "accepting cash, checks, or any other form of award over $25 in value." This rule is highly debated and has questionable means of enforcement. To receive such scholarships, the athlete must simply sign into their SMART account and fill out the necessary information whereupon the money is sent directly to the schools, not given to the athlete themselves. There are special circumstances which allow money be sent directly to the athlete.


See also

*
List of recreational organizations This is a list of recreational organizations. International * Royal Family Kids' Camps * Toastmasters International * YMCA * YWCA United States * American Bowling Congress * American Camp Association * Sierra Club The Sierra Club is ...


References


Notes


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* * {{Sports governing bodies of the United States Bowling organizations
Bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thoug ...
Organizations based in Texas Sports in Arlington, Texas Sports organizations established in 2005