Bowlers Journal Timeline TIMELINE


BY J.R. SCHMIDT { jrschmidt@bowlersjournal.com } 1980 The end of the Strohs.


After 47 years, the Stroh Brewery of Detroit drops its exhibition team. Though the brewery continues to sponsor the team in local leagues, the bowlers will no longer be paid a salary, and the last survivor of the Great Team Era is no more.


1981 1


Bowling


balls become high-tech.


AMF introduces the fi rst urethane bowling


ball, the Angle. It’s the fi rst step on a road that will see manufacturers experimenting with every aspect of ball construction — and for the serious bowler, leading to the demise of the single-ball bowling bag.


Earl passes a million. 2 Earl Anthony be- comes the PBA Tour’s


fi rst career “millionaire” by winning his fi fth PBA National Championship. His accomplishment is later commemorated in a LeRoy Neiman painting titled “The Million Dollar Strike.”


EVERYTHING BOWLING, ALL THE TIME


THE 1980s 1982


1982 3


Glenn


Allison shoots a 900 series.


Already enshrined in the American Bowling


Congress Hall of Fame, Glenn Allison rolls the fi rst-ever perfect series in sanctioned competition at La Habra “300” Bowl in La Habra, Calif. It’s the biggest bowling story in years... until the ABC refus- es to certify the score, on the basis of lane condi- tions. Three decades later, the ABC is dead, the 900 series has become almost commonplace, and Alli- son’s feat remains denied offi cial recognition.


1982


‘Megabuck’ tournaments boom.


The inaugural American Dream Classic is staged outside Chicago with a fi rst prize of $130,000, the largest payout in non- pro history. The stage is set for the High Roller, Bowl Hawaii, and all the other big-money “amateur” events that follow.


1983 4


Bowling


achieves gender balance.


The number of sanc- tioned female bowlers


has declined slightly from the previous season, and now stands at 3,947,229. But this fi gure is about 150,000 higher than the number of males. For the fi rst time, there are more women league bowlers than men. Add this to the fact that the 1983 WIBC Tournament draws twice the number of the teams that the ABC Tournament does, and bowling no lon- ger can be called simply a “man’s sport.”


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September 2013


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