Turkey bowling is a

sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

which is based on ordinary

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), though ...

: a frozen

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

serves as a

bowling ball A bowling ball is a hard spherical ball used to knock down bowling pins in the sport of bowling. Balls used in ten-pin bowling and American nine-pin bowling traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb. Balls used in five-pin bowling, c ...

and 10 plastic bottles of

soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a su ...

s or water are the

bowling pin Bowling pins (historically also known as skittles or kegels) are the target of the bowling ball in various bowling games including tenpins, five-pins, duckpins and candlepins. Tenpins Pin specifications are set by the United States Bowling ...

s. The turkey is bowled down a smooth surface, for example, ice or a soap covered sheet of painters plastic (using a bar of soap)."Protestors cry foul at turkey bowling"
''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 201 ...

,'' 3/11/2003 It is commonly associated with

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

. Turkey bowling is popular in

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The original variant involves turkey bowling in an aisle of a

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

. A Derrick Johnson claims to have invented turkey bowling in 1988 when he worked as a grocery clerk at a

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

Lucky's Lucky Stores is an American supermarket chain founded in San Leandro, California, in 1935. Lucky is currently operated by Albertsons in Utah and Save Mart Supermarkets in Northern California. In 1998, Lucky's parent company, American Store ...

branch while observing a manager slide a frozen turkey across the floor and accidentally topple a soda bottle."Derrick Johnson's Unique Bowling Style Is Pure Poultry in Motion"
''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People ...

,'' October 01, 1990 Vol. 34 No. 13 Derrick became a self-appointed

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

of the "

Poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...

Bowlers Association" and codified the rules and terminology, such as "the

fowl Fowl are birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl (Galliformes) and the waterfowl (Anseriformes). Anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups are close evolutionary relatives; together ...

line" (cf. " foul line"), "the gobbler" (three strikes in a row; cf.

turkey (bowling) In bowling, a ''strike'' means that all of the pins have been knocked down on the first ball roll of a frame. On a bowling scoresheet, a strike is marked by an "X". In American nine-pin bowling, a ringer is an equivalent term for knocking down a ...

), "the

Butterball Butterball is a brand of turkey and other poultry products produced by Butterball LLC. The company manufactures food products in the United States and internationally — specializing in turkey, cured deli meats, raw roasts and specialty pr ...

" (a gutterball) and "the

wishbone Wishbone commonly refers to: * Furcula, a fork-shaped bone in birds and some dinosaurs Wishbone may also refer to: * Wish-Bone, an American salad dressing and condiment company * Wishbone formation, a type of offense in American football * Wish ...

" (a

7-10 split A split is a situation in ten pin bowling in which the first ball of a frame knocks down the headpin ("number 1 bowling pin") but leaves standing two or more non-adjacent groups of one or more pins. Scoring a spare in this situation is often refer ...

Notable occurrences

Turkey bowling was featured in the 1995 novel ''

Bloodsucking Fiends ''Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story'' is a novel by American writer Christopher Moore, published in 1995. It combines elements of the supernatural and of the romance novel. Plot summary Jody, a young, single, red-headed woman living in San Fran ...

: A Love Story'' by Christopher Moore, where it was the favorite sport of "The Animals", a wild group of night grocery stockers (continued in the sequels '' You Suck: A Love Story'' and '' Bite Me'').

Episode 14 Episode 14 may refer to: * "Episode 14" (''Primeval'') * "Episode 14" (''Twin Peaks'') * "Episode 14" (''Ugly Betty'' episode) {{disambiguation ...

of '' 10 Items or Less'' TV series was "Turkey Bowling". This idea for this episode was given to John Lehr by David Howell, an aspiring comedy writer. The ''

Guy's Grocery Games '' Guy's Grocery Games '' (often nicknamed ''Triple G'') is an American reality-based cooking television game show hosted by Guy Fieri on Food Network. Each episode features four chefs competing in a three-round elimination contest, cooking food ...

'' episode "Frozen Food Fight" featured a round where two contestants bowled a frozen turkey at nine soda bottles; the combined number knocked down was the number of non-frozen items each was allowed to use in their next dish. Every

morning,

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Fox affiliate

WJW-TV WJW (channel 8) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, WJW maintains studios on Dick Goddard Way (named for the station's late longtime weatherman—previously ...

does its annual Turkey Bowl. The WJW version of turkey bowling uses 15 cans of canned

cranberry sauce Cranberry sauce or cranberry jam is a sauce or relish made out of cranberries, commonly served as a condiment or a side dish with Thanksgiving dinner in North America and Christmas dinner in the United Kingdom and Canada. There are differences in ...

stacked ''Stacked'' is an American television sitcom that aired on Fox from April 13, 2005 to January 11, 2006. Premise ''Stacked'' was described as the opposite of ''Cheers'', instead of a smart person in a "dumb" place, it is based on the concept of a ...

in a pyramid shape, and uses a one-bowl-per-round

knockout tournament A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

format. In the 2010 edition, it was hosted by morning features and man about town reporter Kenny Crumpton and morning meteorologist Angelica Campos. In WJW-TV's version, people win prizes anything ranging from Giant Eagle Gift Cards to monetary prizes. The contest is broadcast on WJW live and streamed around the world on WJW's Web site, with the contests taking up the full closing segment (around 7 minutes) of each half-hour of WJW's morning newscast. The broadcast began in 1999. From then until 2019, the event was traditionally held at a

Giant Eagle Giant Eagle, Inc. (Western Pennsylvania English: ) and stylized as giant eagle) is an American supermarket chain with stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Maryland. The company was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...

somewhere in

Cuyahoga County Cuyahoga County ( or ) is a large urban County (United States), county located in the Northeast Ohio, northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the Canada–United States border, U.S.- ...

; the 2021 contest was held in a garage.

Controversy

Animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

proponents, who oppose the use of animals in sports, claim that turkey bowling is disrespectful to animals and sends mixed messages which may encourage violence to animals or people. Another objection is perceived disrespect to the central attribute of Thanksgiving. In 2003, an upcoming event for the title of UK Great Turkey Bowling Champion at

Manchester Evening News Arena Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. The arena has the ...

was protested against by animal rights campaigners; as a result, plastic turkeys were used instead of real frozen turkeys. In 2007 an animal sanctuary rescued a live turkey, which was in a cage, from a turkey bowling event in New York State.

References

{{Bowling Winter sports Sports entertainment Bowling Humour Thanksgiving television specials Meleagris