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Bowling long has had a hold on the people of Wisconsin. "Let's Go Bowl!"
celebrates the game's good fellowship, profiles state bowlers who earned
national fame and shows how this most friendly of pastimes also has
been a barometer of social change.
Over the years, Wisconsin has seen stars rise on the national bowling
scene. The Heil Products Co. of Milwaukee had one of the best teams
of all time in the '30s, and five of its members are in the Hall of
Fame: Billy Sixty, Gilbert Zunker, Charlie Daw, Hank Marino and Ned
Day. Al Matzelle, interviewed in the program, has a place in the Hall
of Game for his 50 years of work with the American Bowling Congress
in Greendale.
Dick Ritger, a Hall of Famer who learned the game at his father's Hartford
lanes, recalls the old days. Rich Wonders of Racine remembers his Hall
of Fame induction and talks about the "trance" of concentration that
came over him during his best performances.
One landmark performance that wasn't authenticated for some time was
the 300 game bowled by Madison's Jennie Hoverson Kelleher on Feb. 12,
1930, at Plaza Alleys (now the Plaza Tavern). It was the first 300 game
for a woman in sanctioned competition, but it wasn't acknowledged as
such for decades. In a happy ending, Jennie's achievement was noted
before her death. Her game and its belated recognition are recalled
with daughter Beverly Fortune of Geneseo, Ill.
The camaraderie that bowling inspires is linked to the ethnic groups
that settled Wisconsin. Bowling first came to the fore in taverns like
Milwaukee's Holler House, which has had lanes since 1908.
The program also visits the Falcon Lanes, in the Milwaukee basement
of the Polish Falcons fraternal headquarters. Milwaukee's Serb Hall,
built in the post-World War II years, has been another stronghold for
central European community - and bowling.
While it has served as a source of togetherness, this most social sport
also excluded many racial groups from sanctioned competition. The American
Bowling Congress, which has had its headquarters in the Milwaukee area
since 1908, once was restricted to white males only. In 1939, a group
of African-American bowlers founded the National Negro Bowling Association
to counter the established organization. After World War II, labor organizations
started to challenge the American Bowling Congress' discriminatory rules.
The ban kept top competitors like Sparta's Kenneth
Koji, a Japanese-American, from tournaments. Wisconsin Stories details
how, in the face of popular opposition, the Bowling Congress dropped
its "whites-only" rule at its 1950 meeting.
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