America’s pastime: no, not baseball, but bowling. With 2,597 bowling alleys in America as of 2025, bowling has reached a peak of athletes compared to when it first started.
Bowling was first present in ancient Egypt in 3200 B.C. Archeologists discovered a tomb with artifacts that resembled modern-day bowling equipment. Bowling wouldn’t be brought up again in history until 50 C.E. in Rome where accounts said soldiers rolled stone balls and hit smaller stones. Also, at the same time in Germany, records show the fall of the pins represented the destruction of a person’s sins.
Then, it made its way into Middle Age Europe with King Edward III of England allegedly banning the sport to keep his military troops focused on archery practices. Martin Luther also theorized the game would best operate with nine-pins instead of the modern-day 10.
English, German and Dutch immigrants brought the sport to America in the 17th and 18th centuries, leading to bowling becoming more popular in the early 19th century. With the establishment of bowling in America, the game banned nine-pin games and welcomed 10-pin games in its place.
In 1895, the American Bowling Congress (ABC) was established. The ABC was meant to standardize rules, equipment usage and gaining permits to hold championships. All these standardizations began the era of more structure for the sport.
The first society for youth bowlers was formed in Chicago, Ill.in 1936. The program would spread city-wide, recruiting over 8,000 boys and girls. The popularity through the years would later fall onto the ears of the National Bowling Council, leading to them providing financial backing to expand nationwide. The far-spread reach of the program led to the configuration of the American Junior Bowling Congress (AJBC) to promote youth bowling, host tournaments throughout the United States and regulate youth bowling rules. The AJBC exceeded over 400,000 members in 1961 through promotional campaigns, the creation of bowling schools for new athletes and the formalization of training protocols.
All these foundations led to a wide-spread appreciation from the American people and adolescents. But these coalitions didn’t make their way into Kentucky high schools until the 2011-2012 season when KHSAA sanctioned the activity and sponsored the “first” state championship.
While programs did exist before then, bowlers weren’t awarded for high school efforts. For instance, scoring a 300 during a match wouldn’t grant the student the same award the accomplishment would in a sanctioned tournament, and there was no state championship that was recognized by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). The lack of a sanctioned tournament meant less rewards and less college scouts for high school bowlers. However, Kentucky did have a presiding body before KHSAA stepped in, the Kentucky High School Bowling league. The league organized and oversaw all events surrounding high school bowling such as state tournaments, match play and smaller scale tournaments.
Even with the growth and backing high school bowling has seen in Kentucky, the sport overall has seen a recent decline. Many leagues are seeing a decrease in participation due to changing lifestyles that can no longer handle the long-term commitment of a league. Also, the rising prices of leagues as well as access to equipment and transportation make it difficult to afford.
This decline is even present in youth bowling. Financial barriers keep kids and teens from accessing competitive tournaments and leagues. Junior Gold tournament spots can range from $100 to $200 depending on age division, while smaller tournaments can range from $50 to $150 depending on age group or whether the tournament offers a Junior Gold spot or not.
Youth bowlers are required to have a USBC card to bowl in these tournaments. They can acquire this card by bowling in a league. The only issue with these leagues is they also require a weekly payment. The average youth league costs around $21 weekly, coming out to an estimated total cost of $2,360 per season.
The most cost-effective way for a teenager to bowl would be through their high school. Most high schools either completely cover or at least partially cover the cost of tournaments and matches. Teams can also run fundraisers to help pay for extra costs such as uniforms and equipment. There are still issues that arise from high school bowling, such as how many high schools actually have bowling teams. In Kentucky, there are only 54 high school bowling teams out of 538 high schools. That also doesn’t take into account the amount of unfinished bowling teams that are unable to compete in anything other than matchplay.
Another glaring problem is that high school bowling teams can’t afford everything that is needed for athletes to be successful. The main three parts of equipment that an athlete will need are a bowling ball, bowling shoes and a bowling bag. A drilled bowling ball can cost $50 to $300. Bowling shoes can cost between $30 to $230. Lastly, bowling bags that carry one bowling ball can cost $10 to $50, while bags that carry three bowling balls can cost over $100. If one bowling team were to have 20 bowlers that came in with no previous equipment and only the bare minimum equipment was bought, the total cost would come out to about $2,200. That isn’t including items like uniforms, lanes for practice and other amenities the team may need.
Even with the financial challenges that limit youth bowling, there are plenty of organizations trying to help those afflicted. Programs such as All Kids Play provide financial support for families that can’t afford it while also providing funding for sports equipment to areas that can’t afford it. The USBC offers Students Equipped To Strike (SETS) grants, funding for bowling equipment, for high school programs to help student athletes not be at a disadvantage because of faulty or subpar equipment.
The USBC also helps youth bowlers continue their passion into college through the implementation of Scholarship Management and Account Reporting for Tenpins (SMART) money. This is scholarship money that is earned through competition and kept in a SMART account until after the athlete graduates high school.
As for high school bowling teams, the USBC’s goal is to have sanctioned bowling available in every state. To accomplish this goal, the USBC offers guidance on their website of how to keep up with a high school bowling initiative through rules, instructions, awards, memberships and industry resources.
For Manual, Head Girls Bowling Coach Ken Rowan has found a way to prevent financial issues falling onto the athletes.
“When I first joined the program, we did bowling ball raffles. We would make about $400 to $500 from the few we did throughout the year. Then, I went to Desales soccer trivia nights and heard about how much money they made, so I thought maybe we should do that,” Rowan said.
The trivia nights were instated two years later and were met with success.
“Now, we’ve done them for 10 years now and we make about $4,000 each year. That goes towards paying for our practices and tournaments. That’s how we do so much stuff,” Rowan said.
In light of these efforts to grow bowling as a sport, the USBC reports that high school programs are some of the fastest growing in the country with more than 5,000 boys and girls programs offered in over 48 states with 55,000 bowlers included.
