Columbia Industries is a company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls and ten-pin bowling-related accessories. Their most notable brand name is Columbia 300, which has produced some of the most well-known balls in the sport. Beginning in 1960 in Ephrata, Washington (near the Columbia River), Columbia Industries was the first manufacturer to successfully use polyester resin ("plastic") in bowling balls. Prior to this, nearly all bowling balls were made of a hard rubber material. The company later moved to San Antonio, Texas. [1]
Columbia 300 pro staff members include PBA Tour champions Josh Blanchard and Jakob Butturff, plus PWBA and international champions Clara Guerrero, Sandra Gongora and Missy Parkin. [2]
Columbia Industries purchased the Track and Dyno-Thane bowling ball brands in the early 2000s. In February 2007, Columbia announced that all of its brands had been acquired by Ebonite International. From February 2007 through November 2019, all Columbia Industries-related products were manufactured and owned by Ebonite International of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. [3] On November 15, 2019, Ebonite International and all of its brands were subsequently purchased by Brunswick Bowling Products, LLC. [4] Columbia 300-branded bowling balls are now manufactured in Brunswick plants run by BlueArc Capital Management. [5]
Since the 80s, Columbia have sponsored the John Jowdy scholarships for gifted college bowlers.
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll of the ball, or failing that, on the second roll.
Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Today, Brunswick has more than 13,000 employees operating in 24 countries. Brunswick owns major boating brands, including Sea Ray, Boston Whaler, Bayliner, Mercury Marine, Attwood, Lund, Crestliner, Mastervolt, MotorGuide, Harris Pontoons, Freedom Boat Club, Princecraft, Heyday, Lowe, Uttern, Quicksilver and CZone, among many others. In 2021, Brunswick reported sales of US$5.8 billion. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Mettawa, Illinois. On October 4, 2021, Brunswick Corporation announced that it has completed its acquisition of Navico, a global leader in marine electronics and sensors for $1.05 billion, adding to Brunswick the industry leading Navico brands of Lowrance, Simrad, B&G, and C-MAP.
AMF Bowling is a major operator of bowling centers and major manufacturer of bowling equipment.
American Machine and Foundry was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors, and yachts.
Paul Moor, of Kingston-upon-Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England is one of the world's leading ten-pin bowlers. He bowls on the European Bowling Tour (EBT) and has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) for several years.
Dominic Simon Barrett is one of England's leading ten-pin bowlers. He competes in world events and on the PBA Tour, where he has won ten titles. This total includes three PBA major titles: the PBA World Championship (2013), the U.S. Open (2018) and the Tournament of Champions (2022), which makes him one of nine triple crown winners in PBA history and the first European player to accomplish the feat. He has been the ranking winner on the European Bowling Tour (EBT) in three seasons and is also the only player to have been named as ‘World Bowling Writers’ bowler of the year three consecutive times. He is nicknamed "The Dominator".
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.
Osku Palermaa is a Finnish Ten-pin bowler now living in Partille, Sweden. He is a competitor on the European Bowling Tour, World Bowling Tour, and PBA Tour.
Ebonite International was a parent company that oversaw the manufacture of bowling balls and bowling equipment. Their headquarters and primary manufacturing facility was located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky before closing on November 15, 2019.
Hammer Bowling is a company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls and bowling-related accessories.
Track was a company involved in the manufacture and sales of bowling balls and ten-pin bowling related accessories. The company was purchased by Columbia Industries and subsequently transferred to Ebonite International of Hopkinsville, Kentucky when the latter acquired the former in February 2007. Track-branded products were then manufactured, under the ownership of Ebonite International, through November 2019. On November 15, 2019, Ebonite International and all of its brands were subsequently purchased by Brunswick Bowling Products, LLC.
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.
Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg, from Roseville, California and currently of North Ogden, Utah, was one of the top female professional bowlers on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour. In a career that spanned 17 years, she won 26 PWBA titles and was a three-time PWBA Player of the Year. In 2007, she was elected to the USBC Hall of Fame for Superior Performance, and was inducted with the 2008 class. She was inducted into the PWBA Hall of Fame in 2019, as a member of the first Hall of Fame class since that organization suspended operations in 2003.
Brunswick Bowling & Billiards was the business segment of Brunswick Corporation that historically encompassed the following three divisions:
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.
Bowlero Corporation is an American bowling center operator. It is the largest ten-pin bowling center operator in the world with over 325 centers, almost all of which are located in the United States. The centers have an average of 40 lanes compared to the U.S. bowling center average of 21 lanes.
Andrew Anderson of Holly, Michigan is a right-handed American professional ten-pin bowler known for winning the 2018 USBC Masters. He competes in events on the PBA Tour and in global events as a member of Team USA. In his second full season on the PBA Tour (2018), Anderson won the Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year Award.
Storm Products Inc. is an American company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls and bowling-related accessories. The company headquarters and main manufacturing facility are in Brigham City, Utah, with two smaller facilities in California and Texas. Storm has produced many bowling balls used in the sport by competitive players, and has numerous sponsorship agreements on both the PBA and PWBA Tours. Storm currently employs about 165 people. The company manufactures about 500,000 balls a year, and ships to 70 countries.
Maurice Louis Pinel Jr was an American mechanical engineer, product designer and bowler. He is known for changing the game of ten-pin bowling with his innovative bowling ball designs, notably using asymmetric core masses which allowed the ball to curve more aggressively in its path down the lane.
MOTIV Bowling is an American company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls. The company headquarters are in Spring Lake, Michigan, with the main manufacturing facility in nearby Muskegon Heights.