Do You Know Where Your Bowling Trophies Are?
bowlingball.com 8/31/2015Bowling has been a sport rich in award giving and if you don't win an award it seems as though someone will give you a trophy for never having won a trophy.
Not quite.
But bowling trophies have intrigued bowlers and those involved in bowling for a long time longer than a century and draw great interest at national and local exhibition sites at halls of fame sites and tournament presentations.
Bowling trophies and awards show great imagination, fine and classic beauty at times, but also some blatant commercialism. They come in all sizes, shapes and materials and can cost for next to nothing to next to a fortune. They come as small as a thimble to as large as a bowler. They are constructed from materials as paper and cardboard to the most precious of metals and best of gems or stones.
I've seen totem poles carved from a single log and stone carvings, bronzed mufflers, silver replicas of products, the finest blown glass, and the least expensive plastics.
Every top bowler has or had a collection, not to mention a huge assortment of rings, pen sets, watch fobs and chains, belt buckles.
Few top bowlers have ever had to buy any rings or watches because their awards kept them fully supplied. They also have barometers, thermometers, bracelets, pins, and dozens of personal or household items. Medals have made a big comeback now that there are more and more major international events catering to both amateur and pro events.
The most beautiful and probably among the most expensive awards I recall were made of the finest see through material in the shape of a cylinder. Inside was suspended the replica of a tobacco leaf of gold. The gold leaf seemed suspended in the air, floating on its own and it took the work of master craftsmen with plenty of talent and patience to complete the artistic work.
These days, though trophies are not as numerous as they once were, there are no bounds, so trophy and award builders let their flair for a fantasy world go wild. Any junior bowler worth his salt has dozens of aw ards and all the major stars have hundreds, many exhibited in different bowling settings.
Some bowlers love their trophies. Others would just as soon leave them somewhere, anywhere, or in such modest tasks as paper weights or door stops.
One thing sure, bowling awards have been around for the better part of bowling history, and figure to be always a special piece of that tradition.
Do you know where your bow ling trophies are?
Article was posted with permission from Stars & Strikes, America's Bowling Newsmagazine. www.starsandstrikesbowling.com
