new bowling weekly on Nov. 8. The fi rst issue runs eight pages and sells for 5 cents. Luby writes that its purpose is “to boost the bowling
game, collect the news of the doings in leagues and tour- naments, and present it to the bowling world.” Though most of the copy is devoted to Chicago, there also are reports from Toledo and the Twin Cities. The fi rst BJ cover boy is American Bowling Congress President George “Judge” Howard.
1913 Jimmy Smith
rules bowling 2
A fi ve-time winner of the Greater New York
Individual Tournament, the Brooklyn-born Smith is generally recognized as the world’s best bowler. Now he is touring the country, giving instructions, staging exhibi- tions, and rolling matches against anyone foolish enough to challenge him. Years later,Bowlers Journal will retroactively name Smith Bowler of the Decade for the 1910s.
EVERYTHING BOWLING, ALL THE TIME
THE 1910s 1914
Organized
bowling comes to the West
Isolated by geography from bowling’s heartland, local associations in three Western states band together to form the Pacifi c Coast
Bowling Assn. The PCBA is largely the handiwork of Brunswick executive W.V. Thompson.
3
1914
Brunswick sends a bowling ball
around the world
The company is promot- ing its new Mineralite
ball. From a starting point in San Francisco, the ball is shipped eastward, via Wells Fargo, from one YMCA to another. After crossing the Atlantic, it moves through Europe, on to India, then Australia, and fi nally back to San Francisco in time for the 1915 Panama Pacifi c World’s Fair. Along the way, the ball is detained by German military offi cials as a suspect- ed bomb, then mistakenly reported sunk in the Indian Ocean.
1915 Death
of the dodo ball.
The ABC had banned the un- balanced ball from its nation- al tournament in 1913. Local associations still determined local ball regulations, howev- er, and some of them contin- ued to allow the dodo. But when Cleveland and Toledo fi nally decided to ban it, the dodo ball becomes as dead as... well, the dodo bird.
1915 Count
Gengler emerges
bowling cities about a mys- terious European count who was hustling the local talent. He poses as a beginner by bowling “palm ball”-style and using just one step. Finally identifi ed as John Gengler from Luxemburg, he then carves out a career as a legitimate match-game bowler and exhibition star.