The United States Bowling Congress is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress — the original codifier of all tenpin bowling standards, rules and regulations from 1895 onwards; the Women's International Bowling Congress — founded in 1916, as the female bowlers' counterpart to the then all-male ABC; the Young American Bowling Alliance, and USA Bowling. The USBC's headquarters are located in Arlington, Texas, after having moved from the Milwaukee suburb of Greendale, Wisconsin in November, 2008. The move enabled the USBC to combine its operations with the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA).

History
The first nationally recognized organization for bowling was the American Bowling Congress (ABC), founded in 1895 in New York City, which set the basic specifications for the playing rules and equipment of the ten-pin sport, used to this day. Historically, the membership of the ABC was all male, but beginning in 1993, women were permitted to join. In 1916, the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was formed by a group of 40 women, and through 2004 served as a partner organization of the ABC. The Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) was established in 1982, after previously existing as the American Junior Bowling Congress founded in 1958, to serve youth bowlers from pre-school through collegiate level. Prior to the formation of the USBC, the national governing body for bowling was USA Bowling, which oversaw the participation of Team USA in international events. These four organizations merged to form USBC on January 1, 2005.

Bowling is a sport in which players attempt to score points by rolling a bowling ball along a flat surface called the lane into objects called pins. There are many forms of bowling, with the earliest dating back to ancient Egypt, while other instances where bowling was first seen can be traced to ancient Finland and Yemen, and much later in 300 A.D. in Germany.[Ten-pin bowling is a competitive sport in which a player (the "bowler") rolls a bowling ball down a wooden or "synthetic" (polyurethane) "lane" with the objective of scoring points by knocking down as many pins as possible.

The 41.5-inch (105 cm) wide, 60-foot (18 m) lane is bordered along its length by "gutters" - semicircular channels designed to collect errant balls which also pose an obstacle to advanced bowlers, because a straight ball cannot be rolled on a regulation lane at the angle required to consistently "carry" (knock down) all ten pins for a strike. Most skillful bowlers will roll a more difficult-to-control "hook" ball to overcome this. There is a "foul line" at the end of the lane nearest to the bowler: if any part of a bowler's body touches the lane side of this line after the ball is "delivered" (rolled), it is called a "foul" and no pins knocked over by that delivery are scored. (The bowler is allowed a shot at a new "rack" of ten pins if he fouled on the first roll of a frame.) Behind the foul line is an "approach" approximately 15 feet (5 m) long used to gain speed and leverage on the ball before delivering it. 60 feet (18 m) from the foul line, where the lane terminates, it is joined to a roughly 24-inch (61 cm), 41.5-inch (105 cm) wide surface of durable and impact-resistant material called the "pin deck" where each rack of pins is set.

The bowler is allowed ten frames in which to knock down pins, with each frame being composed of up to two rolls. The tenth frame may be composed of up to three rolls: the bonus roll(s) following a strike or spare in the tenth (sometimes referred to as the "eleventh" and "twelfth" frames) are "fill balls" used only to calculate the score of the mark rolled in the tenth. Bowling has a unique scoring system (see below) that is notoriously confusing to newcomers who attempt to score a game with multiple "marks" (strikes and spares). Bowling scores tend to be unintuitive: if a bowler was to knock down 9 pins with his first shot but miss his spare every frame, he would have a score of 90; if the same bowler were to make all of his spares and knock down 9 with the bonus ball, he would have a score of 190. If he were to carry all ten pins with each shot and strike with each of his bonus balls in the tenth frame, he would have shot a "perfect game" of 300.

Since being brought to the United States from Europe, ten-pin bowling (thought to be descended from the game of skittles) has risen in popularity as its technology has improved. The sport is most popular in the United Kingdom and the United States. Both nations maintain national regulatory organizations that govern the sport's rules and conduct and many of those countries' best players participate in tournaments on both the national and international stage. Because of the rise in popularity, many companies are now making bowling balls and apparel for professionals as well as for recreational bowlers. Bowling has also become more prevalent in the media in recent years, with the continued popularity of bowling publications and the appearance of films centred around the culture of the sport. However, the sport continues to face challenges in garnering mainstream coverage of the athletic aspects of the game.

History
Bowling is a game in which players attempt to score points by rolling a bowling ball along a flat surface called the lane in order to knock down objects called pins. There are many forms of bowling, with the earliest dating back to ancient Egypt; it is now known that the Egyptians had invented bowling. Origins can also be traced to ancient Finland and Yemen, and much later in 300 A.D. in Germany.

Origins
In 1930, British anthropologist Sir Flinders Petrie along with a team of archaeologists, discovered various primitive bowling balls, bowling pins and other materials in the grave of an Egyptian boy dating to 5200 BC. Their discovery represents the earliest known historical trace of bowling. However, some dismiss these findings, arguing that bowling originated in Germany in AD 300. The first written reference to bowling dates to 1366, when King Edward III of England banned his troops from playing the game so that they would not be distracted from their archery practice.[1] It is believed that King Henry VIII bowled using cannon balls. In Germany the game of Kegal (Kegelspiel) expanded. The Kegal game grew in Germany and around other parts of Europe with Keglars rolling balls at nine pins, or "skittles".