Wisconsin Stories is a partnership of the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Public Television.

Boy, am I rusty! Oh, man! Well, we should do this open anyway. Hi, I'm Debbie Kmetz with the Wisconsin Historical Society. And I'm Tracy Will with Wisconsin Public Television. We're here in Fond du Lac at the Elk's Lodge Number 57 home of the oldest certified bowling alleys in continuous operation in the United States. In fact, of the five oldest sanctioned lanes in the United States four of those are right here in Wisconsin. That's something that probably doesn't surprise too many people. Historically, bowling has been such a big part of Wisconsin life that sometimes we take our knowledge of it for granted. I bet we have a few surprises for you in this show. Starting with people who've excelled at the game. A few Wisconsin Hall of Famers and the first woman who ever officially bowled a perfect game. We'll look at some of the many ethnic and community ties to bowling. How and why people here really made bowling a part of their social lives. And how, at one time, bowling leagues were divided along racial and sometimes ethnic lines. And how the game of bowling actually became part of the fight against discrimination in sports. All of that on this striking edition of Wisconsin Stories. All right, start bowling! I'm going to get a strike.

Funding for Wisconsin Stories is provided in part by an advised fund of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin; the Estate and family of Lois Backus; the Halbert and Alice Kadish Foundation; and Philip J. and Elizabeth B. Hendrickson encouraging you to support history on Wisconsin Public Television and to visit Wisconsin's treasured historic sites.

Newsreel: Here they go again. This time, they get the range... Kmetz: Bowling has been an important expression of Wisconsin culture and community for well over a century.

Newsreel: And here's Dave's approach and delivery in slow motion... Kmetz: As bowling created a sense of community in Wisconsin through social and recreational activities it also spawned church, union and industrial leagues.

The Heil Products Company of Milwaukee sponsored a bowling team in the 1930s. Al Matzelle: And the Heil team was one of those teams that was very well dressed very well sponsored. And it included Hank Marino, Ned Day, Charlie Daw. Kmetz: The Heil team is one of the greatest bowling teams of all time. The team was a consistent winner from 1935 to 1939 and participated in a bowling exhibition during the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. Matzelle: They made the trip to Berlin in connection with the 1936 Olympics. Bowling was not an official part of the Olympic games at that time. Still isn't, by the way. Kmetz: Five members of the Heil Company team were elected to the Bowling Hall of Fame Billy Sixty Gilbert Zunker Charlie Daw Ned Day and Hank Marino who was named one of the 20 Best Bowlers of the 20th Century by Bowling Magazine. Matzelle: Hank Marino had an unusual style that nobody else bowled. The last part of his delivery, the thumb came up. With other bowlers, the last thing that comes out of the bowling ball are their fingers. Oh, okay. So, he would spin the ball off of his thumb. It was an unusual delivery, but very capable. Kmetz: Another member of the Heil team was Ned Day. Day was also voted one of the top 20 Bowlers of the 20th Century. Newsreel: Ned Day goes to the line. He prefers the two-finger grip the grip which brought him four straight national individual titles. Most experts call him the greatest bowler of all time. Matzelle: Ned Day, on the other hand was a very stylish competitor. He's credited with bringing style to the game. He was always immaculately dressed when he appeared to bowl. Ned was very articulate, a good teacher. And he made a lot of money. He was in demand. He did exhibitions around the country. He traveled extensively. And probably was the number one bowler for at least ten or 12 years in the United States. Kmetz: Ned Day was one of the first high-profile bowlers. He became a media celebrity and starred in bowling films made in Hollywood. Ned Day, Hank Marino and Harold Lloyd. You probably don't even know Harold Lloyd. Harold Lloyd was a famous comedian and he was a bowler. And the three of them operated a bowling center in Los Angeles. It was called Lodamar-- Lloyd-Day-Marino. Newsreel: Ned Day, one of the game's top-notcher's is giving a few hints to youngsters at Santa Monica's Lodamar Alley. Kmetz: These bowlers put Wisconsin on the map individually, and as a team. They were some of the first elected to the National Bowling Hall of Fame. Al Matzelle is also in the Bowling Hall of Fame for his 50 years of work with the American Bowling Congress in Greendale. Well, I'm there for what they call "Meritorious Service." That means I did some things, not with a bowling ball but for people with a bowling ball. Kmetz: Dick Ritger is another Hall of Famer from Wisconsin Ritger learned to bowl at his father's Hartford bowling center where the family lived above the lanes. I had actually bowled, live, with Ned Day. My dad owned the bowling center. And I can't tell you the year but I might have been 12 or 13. And some of those bowlers that lived in Milwaukee would come out and bowl match game against some of the better bowlers in Hartford where we lived. Ned Day, three or four times, was out there so I did get to compete against him. So, that's awesome when you're a young person and here's this Hall of Famer. Kmetz: Ritger was voted into the Professional Bowling Association Hall of Fame in 1978 the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame in 1984 and also was part of the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse Wall of Fame. Ritger: On the Pro tour, I had won 20 tournaments and was in the top money many years the top averages many years and on TV, I think, 36 times. And of those 36 times I won 69 percent of my matches which is still the highest percentage in the PBA. Kmetz: So, what skills are needed to be a Hall of Fame bowler? TV Commentator: Ritger, who is nice and loose is trying to be the fourth man to win 20 PBA titles... Ritger: One, you have to have physical skills. Those skills have to be positive and conducive to the sport of bowling. And they have to be very repetitive. You have to do that without thinking. You build that skill. TV Commentator: This is the crucial shot of the whole tournament for Dick Ritger. If he doesn't strike here he leaves the door wide open for Neal. Ninth frame, leading by three... Kmetz: Bowling gained a wider audience when tournaments began to be broadcast on television. There were national broadcasts as well as local televised bowling in Milwaukee. TV Commentator: Going for seven in a row. There they go! Seven strikes for Rich Wonders! Kmetz: Rich Wonders, of Racine was elected to the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame in 1990. How important is concentration in bowling? How much of it is a mental game? Rich Wonders: I get myself into kind of like a trance. You repeat the same motion over and over. Nothing else around you makes any difference. And it's short-term, when you do that. You can't do that for a whole tournament. You'll get little stretches when things start going good. When you're bowling good that focus keeps getting narrower and narrower. How do you learn to have that kind of focus? I don't know if you learn it. Part of it is will-- competitiveness. I was always one that never liked being beat. You've had a long career in bowling and you're in the Hall of Fame. What do you think some of your notable accomplishments have been? Well, obviously, things I cherish most probably my ABC titles and winning a title at the national tournament. To me, the most memorable is this. At the pro level, for 16 years every day, I woke up, was healthy and could compete with and against the best bowlers in the world. Kmetz: Today, Dick Ritger teaches the art of bowling with training videos and bowling camps. Rich Wonders has owned and operated the Hillside Lanes in Racine for almost 30 years. His youngest daughter will compete in the American Bowling Congress tournament this year for the first time. Do you ever bowl with her on a team? Sure. We bowl city tournament. I bowled doubles with her. Did you teach her what she knows? Yeah, a lot of it. It must be fun, though, to bowl with your daughter. Oh, yeah. As long as she doesn't beat me! Which happens occasionally, too.

Will: I'm in front of the Plaza Tavern in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. There used to be a bowling alley upstairs. It was there that 29-year-old Jennie Hoverson of Madison bowled a 300 game. That was 1930. Fifty years later, Jennie's perfect game was finally recognized as the first-ever bowled by a woman. Now, how the heck did that Happen? In 1930, Jennie Hoverson had been bowling for less than three years. She worked the early shift at Mayer's Drugstore off the Capitol Square and would practice in the afternoons. With Madison local bowling legend Tony Schwoegler's help Jennie rapidly improved her game.

The payoff for Jennie came the night of February 12, 1930 when suddenly she found herself one strike from history. She described the moment this way: "After the first 11 strikes, I was terribly frightened. "Those pins looked miles away and as small as toothpicks. "Then, I remembered "Tony Schwoegler told me to always keep cool "and that one strike was no more difficult than another." Will: And then it happened.

"The most surprised person in the place was myself when I saw the last pin fall and heard my friends shouting." Will: The next day, Jennie Hoverson's perfect game captured the headlines. Her prizes included $2.00 from the Fauerbach Brewing Company and a case of Coca-Cola. Now, growing up did you know about this event in her life? Not really. Not really. I mean, she bowled. But I didn't know until I got older that she had done this. Well, they made a big deal out of this in Madison. Yeah, they did. It was once-in-a-lifetime. Will: Jennie's once-in-a-lifetime achievement was almost forgotten. It took the efforts of two sports writers, Joe Dommershausen and Marc Onigman to secure her place in history. Dommershausen a Wisconsin State Journal reporter provided the Women's International Bowling Congress the "WIBC" a copy of the original score sheet. After a thorough review the WIBC finally entered the game into its records. But it took Marc Onigman a sports researcher based in Boston three years to determine that Jennie was indeed the first woman to bowl a perfect game in sanctioned competition. In my heart, I just knew that she was the one who did it. My mother did. Your heart was right. Yes, it was. Will: Jennie passed away in 1982 just three years after finally taking her place in bowling history.

Kmetz: This Wisconsin Historical Museum exhibit features a Packer tailgate feast as well as the original foam cheesehead. It's "Icon Wisconsin" a display of symbols commonly associated with the state. And bowling is here, too. I asked curator Paul Bourcier why. I think bowling tells us a lot about how people interact about our social heritage and about our cultural heritage. I think the way that people socialize the way that people recreate is as integral a part of our culture as the economic and political aspects of what goes on in the state. Kmetz: Germans had bowled for centuries and brought the game with them to America. One immigrant wrote in 1850: "Milwaukee is the only place "German ways are bold enough to take a foothold. "You will find Inns "beer cellars, and billiard and bowling alleys as well as German beer." And beer and bowling went hand-in-hand. You see, it's all about "Gemutlichkeit." Gemutlichkeit basically means good fellowship an environment in which people come together usually structured around some kind of social recreational activity involving food and drink. And that was a very central aspect to German and central European immigrant cultures coming to Wisconsin. Kmetz: Immigrants seeking that good fellowship went to taverns which would often have one or two narrow lanes in the basement. Something you can still find today at Milwaukee's Holler House.

These lanes have been here since 1908. And since that time the pins have been set only one way. By hand. Is there kind of one impression that stands out that people have that have never been here before. What do they think when they come here? "It's charming." I hear this so often, we all laugh. They walk in here and look around "Is this charming, oh, boy." "Charming." The thing is, most places are so modern. We don't even dust in here! We don't clean, we just hang more pictures! 
( both laugh )
 Kmetz: The pictures speak of generations of good fellowship on the lanes while other signs say it wasn't only Germans who loved the sport. Tell me what the sign in Polish says up there. It says, "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer." Kmetz: Polish immigrants, who came later also relish the social recreation bowling offered.

Tell me about where we are. You are at the Polish Falcons, Nest 725, of Milwaukee which is a national organization. The Polish Falcons. The Polish Falcons, yes. It's a fraternal organization. And we sponsor physical fitness. They do gymnastics, track, field, swimming. Then, there is the bowling. Yay! for the bowling! Kmetz: The bowling happens in the basement on Falcon Lanes as it has since 1915. Tonight, the youth leagues are getting together. What do you like about bowling here? It's small. It's not so big. I mean, you know everybody. Everybody's from the neighborhood and you get to meet everybody. Kmetz: For these teen-agers bowling is considered a healthy outlet. But a hundred years ago there were those who looked askance at the sport because of its association with saloons, pool and gambling. Bourcier: It helped to foster this notion of bowling as an activity as somewhat seedy. You have a central European emphasis on good fellowship including the consumption of alcoholic beverages. And then, you have this sort of Yankee view of what proper recreation should be. Kmetz: The American Bowling Congress founded largely by German Americans sought to popularize bowling and improve its reputation. But it was prohibition that broke the link between saloons and the sport. All of a sudden, you see in a lot of the business directories of the 1920s where what once was a "saloon" is now a "recreational arcade." Kmetz: Bowling, in a sense, came out of the basement and actually became more popular. The good times and good fellowship Germans and Poles had seen in the sport appealed to any group that sought to build a sense of community. Businesses and unions churches and schools as well as other ethnic groups, all formed teams. John and Mary Ann Gudlin bowled for decades with the Croatian Fraternal Union. We always enjoyed seeing our friends and bowling with them. And of course, competing. Do you have a competitive spirit? Oh, yes! 
( all laugh )
 
Everybody enjoys winning. What has it meant to you to have bowled with the Croatian Fraternal Union? Well, it was a great part of my life. I enjoyed it very much I made a lot of great friends. A lot of good memories. We played a lot of years. Yes, it kept us in shape. Kmetz: And for most of those years the bowling industry was also in great shape as the post-World War II economic boom brought an expansion of lanes. Milwaukee's Serbian community saw an opportunity when they built American Serb Hall as a war memorial and banquet hall. Bowling was a very big part of Milwaukee society, really. And the forefathers there decided they would like a bowling alley and that bowling alley would bring in revenue. Serb Hall was a strong union house. All the unions would come here and have their events. They'd come and they would do bowling. They would have weddings here. Take a look here-- Just like I did, they grew up here. That's a landmark in the city of Milwaukee and around the country. Kmetz: But around the country, as in Milwaukee bowling has declined in recent years. Atta boy! Saltzberg: The base is gone in the City of Milwaukee. We hold our own but it's down throughout the industry. Every year, it seems like two bowling alleys go down or close down. And it has for the last five or six years. We're not going to close. We're going to stay in business. We've been here 50 years. I hope we'll be here another 50. Kmetz: While interest in bowling has waned somewhat since its boom years groups like these retired Teamsters show it's still a way to promote good fellowship. And places like Serb Hall Holler House and Polish Falcon Lanes remain a cultural link to bowling's ethnic past.

Will: Bowling is a social sport a social sport that once excluded many racial groups.

Like white Wisconsinites minorities have enjoyed the social and competitive aspects of bowling. But they were formerly barred from league and tournament play by the membership rules of the American Bowling Congress which at one time stated membership was open to "the white male sex" only. Kmetz: Excluded anyone who wasn't white and male. Excluded anybody but white male bowlers. It was just very exclusive. Will: The American Bowling Congress or "ABC" was founded in New York in 1895. The headquarters moved to Milwaukee in 1908 and has been here ever since. What does the American Bowling Congress do? What's its purpose? It's primary purpose is standardization of rules and equipment specifications. Will: As a result of the ABC's position on membership some of the barred groups started their own organizations and leagues. In 1939, several dozen African-American bowlers founded the National Negro Bowling Association. The organization, now called the National Bowling Association was founded to promote friendship sportsmanship and fellowship among its members. He was a social animal. Will: Beverly Pyant Guy remembers how important bowling was to her father, Isaiah Pyant. He bowled for the Bronzeville Bombers bowling team in the late 1940s. Pyant Guy: He loved his bowling. As you can see, bowling was very central to his social life, his family life his church life. Will: African Americans enjoy bowling for the same reasons that other bowlers do. To relax, have fun and strengthen neighborhood and community ties. It was something the whole family could do. But there were always children there when we went. And we were running all over the place and no one told us we had to sit down. And of course, all the bowling partners would buy us soda and chips. And I also know that he went and mom did, too, to tournaments. I remember them talking about Ohio-- Cleveland, Toledo-- going on these bowling tournaments. My dad had trophies-- I remember when I was little-- that were taller than me. And we had them on the floor because we didn't have any place to display them in the house. I remember them being lined up against the wall really big trophies. Will: In 1947, Ebony Magazine declared bowling was "the most popular sport" with African Americans. Most of all, people that we see in this pictures are the same. And of course, they really celebrated their bowling achievements. You can see they've got on tuxedos. This picture just amazes me, how the women dressed. And there's my mom with this big gardenia in her head like Billie Holiday. So, I know it must have been a special occasion for them to celebrate. Will: After World War II opposition to the whites-only rule grew more widespread. Labor organizations, like the UAW and CIO had adopted a philosophy of racial cooperation and anti-discrimination at work. And they applied this philosophy to the recreational lives of its workers.

In the late 1940s, the UAW and CIO began to challenge the rules of discrimination in bowling. Starting in 1946, and early '47 you could feel this momentum growing for a change. Walter Reuther... Kmetz: From the UAW. He addressed our board and said, "We are going to fight you "if you continue to hold your position because we think it's wrong." Will: In 1947, the National Committee for Fair Play in Bowling was founded with Hubert Humphrey then Mayor of Minneapolis, as chairman. They sought ways to persuade the American Bowling Congress to open their membership to all bowlers. Meanwhile, Veteran's groups also began to challenge discrimination in bowling partly as a result of integration in the military during World War II. Me, and several others in the organization who had been in World War II, came back out of the service and came back into our positions with the Congress and said, "We've got to change that." Will: Bowling was just one of many aspects of American life where discrimination was challenged during this time period. My dad didn't talk a lot about racial issues to us. He was like, you know, you treat people the way you want to be treated. Will: Minority exclusion in ABC bowling events was not limited to African Americans. In 1950, Kenneth Koji, of Sparta bowled in the Friday events of the Wisconsin State Bowling Tournament in Fond du Lac. The next day, Koji, who was a Japanese American and a World War II veteran was forbidden to bowl because of his race. The story drew statewide attention in the press. By 1950, the membership rules of the American Bowling Congress were facing legal challenges in court. Lawsuits were filed in Illinois New York and Wisconsin all in an effort to change the ABC membership clause. And our attorney at that time, a man named Michael J. Dunn he was the attorney for the American Bowling Congress. And he got up before the board, and he said "Gentlemen, I must tell you this. "We may be able to win all of these cases in court but we will lose our fight in public opinion." Will: The American Bowling Congress rejected rule changes for several years. But with continued legal pressure the ABC voted to change its bylaws in 1950. They changed it from-- It said, members must be "white male sex." And in Columbus, Ohio, we dropped that and just said you had to be "male sex." And to me, that was probably a real major time in the history of the organization. Will: With the rule change, Wisconsin dropped its lawsuit. In 1951, any qualified bowler was eligible for American Bowling Congress events. The first integrated ABC tournament was held in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1951 a tournament in which Ken Koji and other minority bowlers participated. Today, there are still separate ethnic and social leagues but any restrictions on membership are gone.

Pyant Guy: I don't ever remember a time in my life when my dad was alive that we weren't involved in bowling. We were always either league bowling-- We were either family bowling once a week-- But I don't ever remember a time when we weren't involved in bowling. And we still are today.

- Tracy. 
- Yes? 
- Listen to the expert! 
- All right. Here, let me put this back. How do you grab the ball? 
- First, you take the ball in one hand, put your two fingers in first, then your thumb and you turn it over. 
- Okay. 
- Then, when you go to bowl, you'll hold the other hand under to give it support...
( laughing )
 
- All right! 
- All right! 
- Now, he's got another chance, Tracy. 
- Yeah, let's clean that off.

- They're both the same, now. All right, here we go, for a spare. 
- He's got it. 
- Whoa! 
- Great! All right! 
- Oh!

[Captioning services provided by Wisconsin Public Television.]
 www.wpt.org

Funding for Wisconsin Stories is provided in part by an advised fund of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin; the Estate and family of Lois Backus; the Halbert and Alice Kadish Foundation; and Philip J. and Elizabeth B. Hendrickson encouraging you to support history on Wisconsin Public Television and to visit Wisconsin's treasured historic sites.