December 8, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Matt Cannizzaro
USBC Communications
352-262-1372
matt.cannizzaro@bowl.com
On the Web: BOWL.com
ARLINGTON, Texas – The United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame will have at least three new members when the 2022 class is inducted April 27 during the USBC Convention in Las Vegas.
The USBC Hall of Fame Committee recently elected Bo Goergen of Midland, Michigan, in the Outstanding USBC Performance category, Bill Allen of Orlando, Florida, in the Veterans category and Roger Zeller of San Antonio in Meritorious Service.
In addition to the three electees, the USBC Hall of Fame Committee selected six bowlers – five men and one woman – for the Superior Performance ballot that will be distributed to a national panel of USBC Hall of Fame members, USBC Board members and veteran bowling writers.
Selected for the men’s national ballot are Dave Ferraro of Kingston, New York; Bryan Goebel of Shawnee, Kansas; Wes Malott of Fort Wayne, Indiana; Randy Pedersen of Orlando, Florida; and Mike Scroggins of Amarillo, Texas.
Named to the women’s national ballot was Tammy Turner of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Goergen, a 61-year-old right-hander and current USBC Board member, is a two-time champion at the USBC Open Championships.
He won the 2009 Regular Singles title with a record score of 862, which included games of 299, 299 and 264 and still is the highest series ever rolled in Open Championships competition.
Goergen returned to the tournament lanes in 2010 as a defending champion, and though he was not able to repeat in singles, he posted a 2,031 all-events total and helped Northern Lanes Pro Shop of Sanford, Michigan, to the Team All-Events title with a 10,284 total, the ninth-highest total since the category was added in 1947.
In 42 years on the tournament lanes, Goergen has maintained a 205 average and collected five additional top-10 finishes. He also earned a pair of titles at the 2015 Bowlers Journal Championships.
Allen and Zeller both will be inducted posthumously, as they died in 1992 and 1997, respectively.
Allen was a 13-time Professional Bowlers Association Tour champion, with all of those wins coming between 1963 and 1968. During the same time frame, he collected three top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open.
He was a regular on the USBC and Bowlers Journal All-America teams in the 1960s and claimed seven top-10 finishes at the Open Championships between 1966 and 1976.
Allen was inducted into the Florida State USBC Hall of Fame in 1970, the Orlando USBC Hall of Fame in 1982, the PBA Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Central Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.
Zeller helped leave his mark on the sport as the owner, president and chief executive officer of Columbia Industries, which he purchased in 1960. He initially focused on the creation and distribution of plastic and polyester bowling balls.
After selling the company in 1964, he bought it back in 1967, serving as the majority owner for approximately 30 years.
As the sport hit its highest participation points in the 1970s and 1980s, Columbia 300 produced more than 5,000 bowling balls a day, and the company sold more than 1 million bowling balls for the first time in 1976. Through the 1990s, Columbia was the largest manufacturer of bowling balls and even produced balls for AMF and Track.
Columbia 300 served as the title sponsor for many professional events on both the men’s and women’s tours over the years, and Zeller was elected to the PBA Hall of Fame for
meritorious service in 1995.
Zeller also spent time as a proprietor, served as a National Bowling Council board member and as trustee for the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame.
He was inducted into the San Antonio Bowling Council Hall of Fame in 1977 and received the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America Industry Service Award in 1988.
Zeller established the John Jowdy Scholarship Fund and created the Roger L. and Laura D. Zeller Charitable Foundation, which funded a wing of the Cancer Therapy & Research Center in San Antonio.
Along with the 2022 inductees, the six members of the 2020 class and the four members of the 2021 USBC Hall of Fame class also are awaiting their inductions.
The 2020 class will take the spotlight in Las Vegas on the night of April 26, and the inductees for 2021 and 2022 will celebrate with a separate ceremony April 27. Both will take place at The Orleans Hotel & Casino as part of the 2022 USBC Convention and Annual Meeting.
The 10 waiting bowlers were slated for induction in 2020 and 2021, before COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the 2020 Convention in Las Vegas, along with all supporting activities and events. The 2021 Convention was held virtually, and inductions were delayed to 2022.
The 2020 class includes Marianne DiRupo of Succasunna, New Jersey, and Patrick Allen of Garfield, New Jersey, in the Superior Performance category, Patrick Healey Jr. of Niagara Falls, New York (USBC Outstanding Performance), Bob Learn Jr. of Erie, Pennsylvania (Veterans), and Andrew Cain of Phoenix and Jim Zebehazy of Leesburg, Florida (both in Meritorious Service).
The 2021 class includes Sandra Jo Shiery of Coldwater, Michigan, and Mark Williams of Beaumont, Texas, in the Superior Performance category and the husband-and-wife duo of Bill and Barbara Chrisman of Pleasant View, Utah, the co-founders of Storm Products, Inc., who were elected by the committee in the Meritorious Service category. They will be the seventh husband and wife overall to be inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame.
Through 2019, there are 432 members of the USBC Hall of Fame – 223 in Superior Performance, 120 in Meritorious Service, 51 in Veterans, 22 in Pioneer and 16 in Outstanding USBC Performance.
The USBC Hall of Fame was created in 2005 by merging the former American Bowling Congress and Women’s International Bowling Congress Halls of Fame.
Visit BOWL.com/HallofFame for more information on the USBC Hall of Fame.
United States Bowling Congress
The United States Bowling Congress serves as the national governing body of bowling as recognized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC). USBC conducts championship events nationwide including the largest participation sporting events in the world – the USBC Open and Women’s Championships – and professional events such as the USBC Masters and USBC Queens.
Founded in 1895, today USBC and its 1,524 state and local associations proudly serve more than a million members. USBC is headquartered in Arlington, Texas, working toward a future for the sport. The online home for USBC is BOWL.com.
December 7, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Aaron Smith
USBC Communications
817-385-8388
aaron.smith@bowl.com
On the Web: BOWL.com
ARLINGTON, Texas – The United States Bowling Congress is sharing additional data and proposing preliminary specifications to the manufacturers of string pinsetters.
The USBC Equipment and Specifications team has been taking part in a comprehensive research study on string pinsetters, looking at the scoring and pinfall variables between string pinsetters and free-fall machines.
USBC is investigating the possibility of certifying string pinsetters and string pin bowling as an independent category of equipment and competition, separate from free-fall machines and standard American Tenpins bowling.
String pinsetters currently are non-approved equipment and may not be used in USBC-certified competition, including USBC-certified leagues and tournaments.
After the most recent report in September 2021, the USBC Equipment and Specifications team identified several factors affecting pinfall. These factors included the string length, pin curtain, ball stop cushion and kickback thickness.
Adjustments were made to the string length, pin curtain location and ball stop cushion until results approached those of free-fall machines, and a design of experiment was conducted to identify the best combination of these properties to reduce the rate of splits being converted due to interference from the strings.
Based on testing, the following settings reduced the number of split conversions and rebounding of pins to an acceptable limit:
- The string length has a minimum limit of 65 inches, measured from the ball cup to the point the string enters the pin.
- Placing the pin curtain between 12 to 16 inches from the end of the lane, measured from the back of the tail plank.
- Placing the ball stop cushion a minimum of 33 inches from the end of the lane, measured from the back of the tail plank.
- Assuring the kickback walls on both sides of the lane have a minimum thickness of 2 3/4 inches.
The preliminary specifications do not take into account variables that have not been submitted for testing to date, including the effects of different construction material or design elements related to string pinsetters.
USBC is encouraging manufacturers to design string pinsetters that meet the preliminary specifications to submit for additional testing, with USBC evaluating the data with a goal of establishing final specifications.
For more information on equipment specifications, visit BOWL.com/EquipAndSpecs.
United States Bowling Congress
The United States Bowling Congress serves as the national governing body of bowling as recognized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC). USBC conducts championship events nationwide including the largest participation sporting events in the world – the USBC Open and Women’s Championships – and professional events such as the USBC Masters and USBC Queens.
Founded in 1895, today USBC and its 1,524 state and local associations proudly serve more than a million members. USBC is headquartered in Arlington, Texas, working toward a future for the sport. The online home for USBC is BOWL.com.
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Sponsorship activation includes bowling-themed “balloonicles” in the parade and activation at 3,400+ bowling centers nationwide |
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ARLINGTON, Texas – GoBowling.com, the one-stop site where people of all ages can go to find bowling fun, and Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M), operators of the world-famous Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, announced a three-year extension of the organization’s parade sponsorship through 2023 as well as several promotional campaigns for this year. GoBowling – the consumer-facing brand of the International Bowling Campus (IBC) where the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA), United States Bowling Congress (USBC) and Strike Ten Entertainment are headquartered – has been a sponsor of the iconic holiday celebration since 2018.
The centerpiece of the parade sponsorship will continue to be the recognizable GoBowling “balloonicles,” including 16-foot-tall bowling pins, a pair of motorized size 151½ bowling shoes, and a 12-foot-diameter bowling ball. In 2018, because of their unique and creative design, they were among the first-ever balloonicles driven by a motorized power chair in lieu of the normal utility vehicle.
“The worldwide exposure the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade offers us is invaluable in reminding people during the holiday season that bowling is a fun, family activity to enjoy wherever you live,” said Jim Decker, President of the BPAA. “Beyond the visibility in New York and nationally on the broadcast, the sponsorship also offers us a platform to activate at the grassroots level and on social media.” |
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For this year’s parade, Shannon O’Keefe, the 2018 and 2019 PWBA Player of the Year, and Kyle Troup, winner of the 2021 PBA Players Championship and one of the most charismatic and popular players on the PBA Tour, will roll down Broadway in the GoBowling motorized bowling shoes and chronicle their trip to the hundreds of thousands of people who follow them and GoBowling on social media. |
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“As the marketing arm of the IBC and owners and operators of GoBowling.com we are excited to support the parade sponsorship with a turnkey promotional campaign to activate this partnership at more than 3,400-member bowling centers,” said John Harbuck, President of Strike Ten Entertainment. “Having Kyle and Shannon represent our great sport is fitting as the 67 million people who bowl annually return to the lanes to celebrate the holidays with family and friends.”
Every bowling center can receive the Official Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade poster to display and, also participate in the annual Macy’s Shopping Spree Sweepstakes that awards one lucky bowler and their favorite bowling center proprietor/member $1,000 each. GoBowling will also run contests throughout November across its social media platforms awarding followers limited-edition Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade bowling balls and pins.
The 95th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air nationwide on NBC-TV, Thursday, November 25, 2021, from 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m., in all time zones. To enter into GoBowling’s Thanksgiving fun, visit GoBowling.com and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. To follow and participate in the excitement, check out @macys on various social platforms and follow #MacysParade. For more information visit macys.com/parade. |
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About BPAA Founded in 1932, the mission of Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA) is to enhance the profitability of its members. Headquartered in Arlington, Texas at the International Bowling Campus, the BPAA provides it’s over 3,400 member centers with group purchasing programs, business and educational seminars, legislative representation and proactively promotes the association and bowling industry. For additional information please visit www.bpaa.com or call 1-800-343-1329.
About International Bowling Campus The International Bowling Campus (IBC) is the headquarters for the bowling industry and directly serves the more than 67 million bowlers in the United States. The IBC houses the resources of the United States Bowling Congress, the governing body and membership organization for the sport; the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America, representing the business interests of bowling centers; IBC Youth Development; Strike Ten Entertainment, the centralized sponsor-activation and casual bowling marketing arm for the industry; the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame; the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association; the International Bowling Media Association; the Bowling News Network; the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America; Bowlers Journal International and Bowling Center Management, the industry’s premier magazines; and the International Training and Research Center. For additional information about the sport of bowling, please visit www.BOWL.com or call 1-800.514.2695.
About Strike Ten Entertainment Headquartered in Arlington, Texas, Strike Ten Entertainment is the centralized sponsor-activation and casual bowling marketing arm of the International Bowling Campus (IBC) which includes USBC and BPAA. Strike Ten Entertainment serves the entire IBC by coordinating the sponsorship sales and casual bowling marketing efforts. Strike Ten Entertainment’s mission is to increase national awareness of bowling and to assist the bowling industry in developing new bowlers and increasing the frequency of existing bowlers each year through promotions, publicity and industry-wide marketing initiatives. For additional information, please visit www.stemarketing.com.
About GoBowling.com GoBowling.com is the destination for bowling fans and enthusiasts seeking news and information about one of America’s favorite pastimes and the nation’s number one participatory sport. With more than 67 million people taking to the lanes every year, GoBowling.com is a one-stop location where people of all ages can go to satisfy their love of bowling. Consumers turn to GoBowling.com every day to find bowling fun – discovering new bowling centers, tips, and tricks to use on the lanes, event news and great deals at more than 2,000 + family-friendly bowling centers across the country. |
During the summer of 2020, the United States Bowling Congress Equipment Specifications and Certifications team began a comprehensive research study on string pinsetters, specifically looking at the scoring and pinfall variables between non-approved string pinsetters and USBC-certified free-fall pinsetters.
USBC researchers have designed a series of tests to collect extensive data from various models of string pinsetters. The research project is planned to take more than a year, with the final results scheduled to be published in 2022.
All aspects of the pin area, including pinsetters, pins, pin deck and pit area, play a critical role in scoring.
In the United States, the overwhelming number of USBC-certified leagues and tournaments use average-based divisions or handicap systems. Therefore, equipment that impacts scoring variables must be standardized from center to center in order to compare certified averages for competition.
The goal of USBC’s string pinsetter research is to gather enough data about how the machines perform to determine if USBC certification is a reasonable path to consider. Additional issues to be considered could include development of equipment specifications and playing rules specifically related to string pinsetters.
As with all of our research, USBC intends to publish the data and share the analysis for the benefit of bowling. While a final report is more than a year away, USBC may share key preliminary findings, as we understand some industry stakeholders are interested in reviewing data as it becomes available.
Click HERE to read about the updates from USBC on research as part of a comprehensive scoring study on string pinsetters.
Click HERE for the second research report from USBC delivered in September 2021.
Click HERE to watch the video summary of USBC’s second research report on string pinsetters from September 2021.
Click HERE to read about preliminary USBC research showing string pinsetters yield a lower strike percentage and leave a higher percentage of multi-pin spare combinations, compared to traditional pinsetters.
Click HERE for the preliminary research report from USBC delivered in January 2021.
Click HERE to read about USBC affirming string pinsetters as non-approved equipment.