In the moment before David Smith swings his arm back and sends his bowling ball gliding down the lane, the sounds of the bowling alley — voices and laughter, rumble of rolling balls, crash of wooden pins — all fade.

Smith, 25, runs through a mental checklist: Where will I stand? How should I hold my hand? What sort of hook does the lane put on the ball?

“It feels like a long time,” said Smith, who bowled as he grew up and started a team when he attended Sedro-Woolley High School. “It’s probably not even a couple of seconds.”

Then the magic happens: Smith swings his arm, the ball leaves his hand, rolls down the lane and knocks down all 10 pins.

Strike!

Those moments of internal quiet, followed by the rumble of the rolling ball and the anticipation of a possible strike, are among the reasons 2.6 million Americans and at least 54,320 Washington residents regularly bowl.

According to a survey conducted by the National Sporting Goods Association in 2006 (the latest survey results available), an all-time high of 45 million Americans said they bowl at least twice a year. Twenty states, including Washington, offer bowling as a varsity sport in high school, said Mark Miller, a spokesman with the United States Bowling Congress.

The game has spread to 90 countries, and about 95 million people worldwide report that they occasionally bowl.

“It’s fun. It’s indoors. You don’t have to worry about the weather,” Miller said. “It can be played at any age. Everyone thinks it’s cool again.”

Every-person sport
Part of the sport’s enduring appeal may be that almost anyone can do it, bowlers say. Even a team made up of people with hearing disabilities once competed in the Friday Nite Boozers league at Riverside Lanes in Mount Vernon.

Boozers secretary Gloria McDonald, 58, has bowled for 39 years. She said she learned to bowl when she was pregnant with her first son. McDonald continues to bowl even while she recovers from open-heart surgery, although she said her average score has gone down lately.

Physical ability or athleticism doesn’t make much difference, bowlers say. You may be a great baseball or basketball player and still be a lousy bowler, they added.

“You’re equal across the board here,” said Homer Dalgliesh, 44, who sponsors two teams in the Wednesday night Cosmo league at Riverside Lanes. “It doesn’t matter how much you may hit gutter balls or have the worst handicap. They are all equally respected across the league.”

In fact, the hallmark of “natural bowler” is not visible like a boxer’s battered face, a marathon runner’s whipcord legs or a pro basketball player’s height.
No, it’s about being able to score consistently, Dalgliesh said.

“It’s all about timing and repeatability,” said Mike O’Brien, a 35-year-old who has bowled for 18 years and competed in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey before moving to Skagit County in 2004.

“It’s knowing what it takes to make a strike.”

The “equal opportunity” aspects of bowling may be a big reason that it’s been around — and continues to be a popular sport — after possibly thousands of years.

5,200-year-old sport?
As it turns out, bowling may date back to the ancient Egyptians. In the 1930s, a British anthologist discovered toys in a 5,200-year-old ancient Egyptian child’s grave that may have been used for a crude form of bowling, according to The International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Mo.

Modern bowling developed from pin games, in which hardwood balls were thrown at wooden pins. European colonists imported ninepins, bocce, lawn bowling and other versions of the sport to the United States, according to the museum. Bowling with 10 pins started as a way around laws forbidding ninepins — then considered a form of gambling — and became standardized in the late 19th century after the American Bowling Congress was formed.

In addition to standardized regulation, technological developments changed the sport. In 1905, rubber balls were replaced by hardwood balls. Since then, balls have been made from polyester, polyurethane, reactive resins or combinations of some of these materials.

In 1951, the invention of the “automatic pinspotter” replaced “pinboys,” who set the bowling pins upright, according to the bowling museum.
As the technical aspects of bowling have changed, so has the kind of bowlers who compete, especially in leagues.

At the peak of league bowling in 1980, there were 9 million sanctioned bowlers. That number has dropped between 3 percent and 6 percent a year to about 2.6 million, according to the United States Bowling Congress.

The drop in league involvement can be attributed to lifestyle changes. When more women entered the workforce, the sport lost its daytime women’s leagues. Changes in alcohol laws, limiting how late beers and spirits can be served, gutted late-night leagues, Miller said. But mostly, people’s busy lives took their toll on bowling, he said.

“People don’t want to bowl every week,” Miller said.

A social game
One thing that hasn’t changed about bowling is the special culture that has formed around it.

Those who bowl regularly enjoy camaraderie and competition and — depending on the league and the team — the occasional prank. There are the jokes about drinking. Some bowlers call alcohol “aiming fluid,” and say a beer or two is an important step to prepare for a game.

“As long as you don’t have 20 pins, you’re OK,” bowler Christine Mastne joked.

In Oak Harbor on most Tuesday mornings after dropping their older children off at school, a number of Naval officers’ wives hit the bowling alley at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, said Kimberly Martin, a Navy spokeswoman.

“They bring their coffee and their (younger) kids in strollers and backpacks, and they have a blast,” Martin said.

To boost morale, the U.S. Navy gives each of its Whidbey squadrons one afternoon off a year to bowl for free at the base’s Whidbey Lanes.

Larry Nuzum, 34, who sponsors and bowls on the Outlaws team, said bowling in the Wednesday night Cosmo league at Riverside has been good for his company, which cleans and repairs rental property. He said he found that he can network and enjoy himself while bowling.

“It’s great advertising, great fun,” Nuzum said. “It’s a good place to come and unwind in the middle of the week.”

Wes Whiteaker, 30, of Mount Vernon started bowling when he was 4 and his mother took him to the bowling alley.

“It’s just bowling,” Whiteaker said. “We come down here to have a good time and have a few drinks. Bowling happens.”

Smith, who also is president of the Friday Nite Boozers league, and his fiancee Marsha Meeks met while on high school bowling teams. He attended Sedro-Woolley and she went to Oak Harbor. He has high hopes for the bowling potential of their child.

“He says our kid is going to be on the pro circuit by the time he’s 10,” Meeks said with a smile.

* Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or mmurvosh@skagitvalleyherald.com.