Will Bowling Ever Be Cool Again?

There was a time when professional bowlers reigned supreme.

In the “golden era” of the 1960s and 70s, they made twice as much money as NFL stars, signed million dollar contracts, and were heralded as international celebrities. After each match, they’d be flanked by beautiful women who’d seen them bowl on television, or had read about them in Sports Illustrated.

Today, the glitz and glamour has faded. Pro bowlers supplement their careers with second jobs, like delivering sod, or working at a call center. They share Motel 6 rooms on tour to save on travel expenses, and thrive on the less-than-exciting dime of beef jerky sponsorships.

This Priceonomics piece on The Rise and Fall of Professional Bowling is really fun. It’s full of history, actual salary numbers, and best of all: stories about old New York bowler gambling, where Italian guys would bowl all night and make thousands of dollars and threaten to kill each other if they lost:

Indeed, these gambling events attracted more than the best bowlers — mobsters often got in on the bets and threw down “huge wads of cash” on their favorites for the evening, often placing local bowlers in hairy situations. In one such instance, bowler Iggy Russo fixed his match and bet a ton of money on his opponent to win. During his last frame, in which he was positioned to either win or lose the match with a spare, he learned that some “unsavory characters” were betting on him to win.

He was caught in a catch-22: if he won, his financial backer would kill him; if he missed the spare, the “unsavory characters” would. Instead, he avoided the entire predicament by faking a heart attack.

Someone make a movie about this!

Apparently in the ’60s, top pro-bowlers made twice as much as NFL stars, but nowadays, the average annual salary of the top 10 professional bowlers is $155,000.

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.