Dorothy Elsie Wilkinson was an American softball player and bowler, who is a member of the halls of fame in both sports.
Richard Anthony Weber was an American professional ten-pin bowler and founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Along with Don Carter, Weber is widely regarded as professional bowling's first superstar. He is one of only eight players in history to accumulate at least 30 career PBA Tour titles, and was also the first player to reach that plateau.
The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) 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—the original codifier of all tenpin bowling standards, rules and regulations from 1895 onwards; the Women's International Bowling Congress—founded in 1916, as the female bowlers' counterpart to the then all-male ABC; the 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).
Lynda Barnes is one of the world's leading female tenpin bowlers. She is a former member of the PWBA. Bowling as an amateur, Lynda won the 1998 USBC Queens championship, then known as the WIBC Queens. In 1999, Lynda married Chris Barnes, a leading bowler on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour. The couple's twin sons, Troy and Ryan, were born in May 2002. Ryan currently bowls for his father's alma mater, Wichita State University. Lynda is a former member of Team USA.
The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) organizes and oversees a series of annual tournaments for the top competitive women ten-pin bowlers. The series is often referred to as the "women's tour" of bowling.
The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Regional professionals, a small percentage of the bowling membership competes at the national and international level, forming the PBA Tour. Founded in 1958, the PBA Tour has been in continuous operation since the inaugural 1959 season.
Marshall Holman is an American sports broadcaster and retired professional ten-pin bowler. He was known for his flamboyant, fiery demeanor and his success on the PBA Tour from the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s. He is one of only 17 players in history to reach at least 20 career PBA Tour titles. Holman was sponsored by Columbia 300 and Nike.
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard is one of the top female ten-pin bowlers in the world. She is a member of the Professional Women's Bowling Association and has bowled in PBA Tournaments as well. She was an exempt competitor in the 2008–09 and 2009-10 PBA Women's Series seasons, which were sponsored by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). Between the PWBA and the PBA Women's Series, she has won 22 professional titles. Carolyn was a 2008 inductee into the USBC Hall of Fame, and a 2020 inductee into the PWBA Hall of Fame.
Marion Ladewig was an American ten-pin bowler. She was named Female Bowler of the Year by the Bowling Writers Association of America a record nine times between 1950 and 1963. A Grand Rapids, MI native, Ladewig is the only woman to win WIBC City, State, and National All-Events titles in the same year (1951).
Donald James Carter was a right-handed American professional bowler. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he learned the game while working a childhood job as a pinsetter, and went on to become one of the legends of ten-pin bowling and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) in 1958.
Basil "Buzz" Fazio nicknamed the "Buzzer" was a pioneer and early American bowling star during the mid-20th century. Known equally for his fierce competitiveness and audience pleasing theatrics, Fazio's professional career spanned from the early 1940s to the late 1960s. The six-time ABC and two-time PBA champion began his career during bowling's golden era of "Team" play.
John Petraglia Sr. is an American professional bowler. He is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), where he won 14 PBA Tour titles. He has also won eight PBA Senior Tour titles. He is a member of both the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.
Patty Costello was an American left-handed professional ten-pin bowler and former member of the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA). She was one of the best female bowlers of the 1970s and 1980s. Costello is a member of the USBC and PWBA Halls of Fame.
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins or another target. The term bowling usually refers to pin bowling, though in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, bowling could also refer to target bowling, such as lawn bowls.
The United States Women's Open, a.k.a. U.S. Women's Open or Women's U.S. Open, is an annual tournament for women, dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. From its inception in 1949 until its cancellation in 2004, after the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) folded, the event was held every year except for 1953, 1997 and 2002. From 1949 through 1970, the tournament was known as the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA) Women's All-Star. From 1971 on, it became known as the U.S. Women's Open. Marion Ladewig won this tournament eight times when it was the BPAA Women's All-Star. Liz Johnson has the most modern era U.S. Women's Open victories with six.
Donna Adamek (born February 1, 1957 in Duarte, California is an American tenpin bowler who was named WIBC Bowler of the Year four times. She competed nationally on the Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour.
Sylvia Wene, also known as Sylvia Wene Martin, is an American former ten-pin bowler. Wene, who is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Shirley G. Spork was an American professional golfer and one of the founders of the LPGA Tour. Spork finished second at the 1962 LPGA Championship. She worked as a teaching professional for many years and was recognized as LPGA Teacher of the Year in 1959 and 1984. Spork also taught golf with the National Golf Foundation and was an educator at Bowling Green State University. As a player, she started in her early teens and continued to play golf into her nineties.
Dorothy Ann Fothergill is an American former left-handed ten-pin bowler who competed in the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA). In a brief career that was cut short by injury, she won 12 titles on the PWBA Tour, including six major championships. She was named the Woman Bowler of the Year in 1968 and 1969, and defeated many top men's competitors in exhibition play. She sued the Professional Bowlers Association in 1970 when her application to compete in men's tournaments was rejected. She was inducted into the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) Hall of Fame in 1980. She was also one of the charter inductees into the PWBA Hall of Fame in 1995.
Aleta Sill is a retired American professional ten-pin bowler and current bowling coach from Dearborn Heights, Michigan. She competed nationally on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour from 1980 through 2001. In her career, the left-handed Sill won 31 titles, including six major championships. She was the first female bowler to eclipse $1 million in career earnings. Aleta is a 1996 inductee into both the PWBA Hall of Fame and the USBC Hall of Fame.
