United States Bowling Congress

The United States Bowling Congress 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, Women's International Bowling Congress, Young American Bowling Alliance, and USA Bowling. The USBC's headquarters are located in Arlington, Texas, after having moved from the Milwaukee suburb of Greendale, Wisconsin in November, 2008. The move enabled the USBC to combine its operations with the Bowling Proprietors Association of America (BPAA).^[1]

Purpose

The USBC is the primary governing and sanctioning body for ten-pin bowling in the United States. It has 2.6 million members.^[2] Among its duties and responsibilities are:

• Maintain specifications, conduct research testing for, and certify: bowling lanes, lane dressings, pinsetting and ball return equipment, bowling pins, bowling balls and other bowling-related products.
• Establish and publish playing rules.
• Sanction bowling leagues for men, women, and mixed categories. Supports Team USA. Also serves as a sanctioning body for youth programs, including junior bowling leagues, and high school and collegiate bowling competitions.
• Sanction numerous local, regional and national bowling tournaments. National tournaments include, but are not limited to: USBC Masters, USBC Queens and the U.S. Women's Open.
• Provide recognition and award merchandise for sanctioned "honor scores" (299 and 300 games, 800 series, 100 pins over average game, 150 pins over average series, etc.).
• Maintain historical bowler average records for use in USBC sanctioned leagues and tournaments.
• Certify bowling coaches for both youth and adult bowlers.

History

The first official governing body of bowling was the American Bowling Congress (ABC), founded in 1895 in New York City, which set the basic specifications for the playing rules and equipment of the ten-pin sport, used to this day. The membership through the time of the merger in 2005 was primarily male, although women were permitted to join. In 1916, the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was formed by a group of 40 women, and through 2004 served as a partner organization of the ABC. The Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) was established in 1982, after previously existing for some two decades as the American Junior Bowling Congress, to serve youth bowlers from pre-school through collegiate level.

These three organizations, in addition to High School Bowling USA and College Bowling USA, came under the USBC umbrella 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).

Through 2008, there are 375 Hall of Fame members in three categories^[3]:

• Superior Performance (246)
• Meritorious Service (110)
• Pioneer (19)

In June, 2008, the USBC announced the formation of a new Bowling Coaches Hall of Fame. PBA and USBC Hall of Famer Dick Ritger was the inaugural inductee.^[4]

USBC in the Media

The USBC sponsors the PBA Women's Series, which ran for seven weeks on ESPN in the 2008-09 season.^[5]

In 2007, the USBC acquired the rights to the U.S. Women's Open. The event, which had been on a three-year hiatus since the disbanding of the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) in 2003, was telecast for five weeks on ESPN in September-October, 2007. The eventual winner was 11-time PWBA titleist Liz Johnson. ESPN again carried the event in September-October, 2008. This time, Kim Terrell-Kearney was crowned the champion. ESPN also regularly broadcasts the annual USBC Queens tournament.

In May 2008, USBC hosted a special event called "Bowling's Clash of the Champions." The made-for-television event was broadcast May 10 and 11 on CBS, marking the first time bowling had been broadcast on regular network television since June 26, 1999.^[6] 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 U.S. Amateur Champion Lynda Barnes, who defeated 2007 USBC Masters Champion Sean Rash 258-237 in the final. Barnes was awarded $50,000 for first place, while Rash took $25,000 for second.^[7]

The 2009 event took place April 30, and was broadcast on CBS television on May 9.^[8] Included in the 2009 field:

Men:

• Chris Barnes (professional) - 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year+
• Norm Duke (professional) - 2008 U.S. Open champion
• Jay Futrell (amateur) - 2008 USBC Tournament Regular All-Events Champion
• Kenny Parks (amateur) - 2008 USBC Senior Masters champion
• Derek Eoff (amateur) - 2008 USBC Team USA Trials winner
• Geoffrey Young (amateur) - 2008 USBC Junior Boys "Gold" Championships winner
• Dan Vick (amateur) - 2008 USBC Intercollegiate Singles champion
• Toby Sambueno (amateur) - 2008 USBC Youth Open Championships All-Events winner

Women:

• Shannon O'Keefe (professional) - 2008 USBC Team USA Trials winner
• Kim Terrell-Kearney (professional) - 2008 U.S. Women's Open champion
• Liz Johnson (professional) - 2008 USBC Women's Tournament Classic All-Events champion
• Sandy Postma (amateur) - 2008 USBC Senior Queens champion
• Lynda Barnes (amateur) - 2008 USBC Queens Champion and defending "Clash of the Champions" winner
• Jennifer Wright (amateur) - 2008 USBC Intercollegiate Singles champion
• Rebekah Diers (amateur) - 2008 USBC Youth Tournament Girls All-Events champion
• Kristie Petravich - 2008 USBC Junior Girls "Gold" Championships winner

+Due to a PBA schedule change, the USBC Masters was not held in 2008, so the Masters champion spot went to the PBA Player of the Year.

Chris Barnes won the final match of the 2009 event, 257-207, over Rebekah Diers. This kept the title in the Barnes family after Lynda won in 2008.^[9]

USBC rule change for the 09-10 season

Starting with the 2009-10 league season, USBC Youth membership will be available to bowlers who have not reached their 20th birthday on or before Aug. 1 of the current bowling season. ^[10]

External links

• United States Bowling Congress

References