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]
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The USBC is the national governing body for ten-pin bowling in the United States. It has approximately 3,000 local associations across the USA serving over 2 million members. Among its duties and responsibilities to these members are:[2]
The first nationally recognized organization for 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. Historically, the membership of the ABC was all male, but beginning in 1993, 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 as the American Junior Bowling Congress, to serve youth bowlers from pre-school through collegiate level. Prior to the formation of the USBC, the national governing body for bowling was USA Bowling, which oversaw the participation of Team USA in international events. These four organizations merged to form USBC on January 1, 2005.[3]
The USBC Hall of Fame[4] was formed in 2005 by the merger of the ABC Hall of Fame (established 1941) and WIBC Hall of Fame (established 1953).
Through 2012, there are 396 Hall of Fame members[5] in four categories:
* Includes one inductee in the Outstanding USBC Performance category, which was introduced in 2011 with Jeff Richgels as the inaugural member).
The USBC Hall of Fame has its home at the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame on the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas. The induction ceremony is held annually in the spring. For the first time ever, the ceremony was held outdoors on the grounds of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, May 12, 2010.[6]
The USBC Masters, one of four major tournaments on the PBA Tour, is conducted by the USBC with the finals televised live on ESPN as a part of the PBA Tour. The 2011 event was held in Reno, Nevada, and won by Tom Hess[7]
The USBC Queens, one of two major women's professional tournaments, is conducted by the USBC with the finals televised live on ESPN2. The 2011 event was held in Syracuse, New York, and was won by Missy Parkin.[8]
The USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships, a.k.a. ITC, the national championship of collegiate bowling, is conducted by USBC and usually televised on a tape-delay basis. The 2010 event was on ESPN2, and was held in El Paso, Texas. The men's division champion was Wichita State University and the women's division champion was Webber International University.[9] USBC announced that it would not televise the 2011 event finals, but broadcast the entire event live on its website, BOWL.com.[10]
USBC was the presenting sponsor of the PBA Women's Series for three seasons, beginning with the 2007-08 season. In the 2009-10 season, USBC changed the name of its presenting sponsorship to BOWL.com, the organization's website, which was re-launched on August 3, 2009. USBC did not renew its sponsorship for the 2010-11 season.[11]
In 2007, USBC acquired the rights to the U.S. Women's Open from the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA). 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. ESPN again held multi-week broadcasts of the event in 2008, while ESPN2 did the same in 2009. In 2010, USBC reverted to a more traditional format and a one-day stepladder-style TV finals, airing live on ESPN2. That event was held in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, with Kelly Kulick winning. Kulick became the first bowler ever to win the USBC Queens and US Women's Open in the same year.[12] USBC announced in May, 2010 that it would not conduct the US Women's Open in 2011[13], as the BPAA had agreed to resume its association with the tournament. The TV finals took place June 30, 2011 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where Leanne Hulsenberg was crowned champion.[14]
In May 2008, USBC conducted a special, made-for-TV event called "Bowling's Clash of the Champions." The taped telecast was broadcast May 10 and 11 on CBS, marking the first time bowling had been broadcast on regular network television since June 26, 1999.[15] 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 Lynda Barnes[16]. The event returned to CBS in 2009, when it was won by Chris Barnes, Lynda's husband[17].
In 2009, USBC began showing championship competition live on its website, BOWL.com. This offering, which is free to all users, was designed to give viewers additional coverage of events that they wouldn't normal see.[18]
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. The old rule was they could not have reached their 22nd birthday on or before September 1st. [19]
The SMART program (Scholarship Management and Accounting Report for Tenpins) was established in 1994 in order to manage and store bowling scholarships until the youth bowler requests the use of the scholarships for college.[20] The bowling scholarships can be from winning tournaments to filling out scholarship application forms. Recently the validity of the term "scholarship" for the SMART program has been questioned by the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association). The association questions where the education requirements are in earning the "scholarships." Most bowling scholarships earned are from winning a tournament, and are awarded as a cash prize in the form of a scholarship with no GPA or formal scholarly work necessary to claim the money once in college. This in turn has caused the MHSAA to rule high school athletes "ineligible" due to "accepting cash, checks, or any other form of award over $25 in value." This rule is highly debated and has questionable means of enforcement. [21]
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