National Bowling Week, officially held Aug. 25-31, was sponsored by the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America, International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association, Professional Bowlers Association, Strike Ten Entertainment and USBC.

The biggest events came in the country's biggest venue, New York City. That's where King and Striker appeared in the audience of the CBS Early Show on Aug. 26, paraded down 5th Avenue later that morning and walked around Times Square the next day where they were photographed by numerous adoring fans.

Earlier in August, Striker accompanied the Bowling Pin Cart on its move from its previous home at BPAA headquarters in Arlington, Texas, to the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev. The tour stopped in El Paso, Texas, site of the 2010 USBC Women's Championships; Albuquerque, N.M., site of the 2008 USBC Open Championships; and Las Vegas, site of the 2009 USBC Open Championships before making its way to Reno, site of the 2007 U.S. Women's Open, a USBC event.

Baseball's role in National Bowling Week began Aug. 11 when the Missouri State USBC Association sponsored a bowling day in St. Louis at Busch Stadium. Before the St. Louis Cardinals/Los Angeles Dodgers matchup, the Mr. Kingpin mascot helped warm up the crowd from the field and later rolled out the ceremonial first pitch, a Storm baseball bowling ball. The stadium scoreboard recognized USBC as the national governing body and notified fans of National Bowling Week. Nearly 400 bowlers bought tickets to the ceremony.

On Aug. 19, King and Striker held the finish line tape for the famous Sausage Race at Milwaukee's Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. The mascots also were featured on the FSN Wisconsin game telecast and King appeared on that evening's ESPN Sports Center after having trouble making it up the grandstand stairs. Both mascots also spent time in the stadium's lobby having their pictures taken by kids attending the game.

On Aug. 30, USBC Hall of Famer and Houston bowling proprietor Bill Lillard of Houston threw out the first pitch at the Houston Astros/St. Louis Cardinals game at Minute Maid Field. The eight-time USBC Open Championships titlist admitted to being somewhat nervous for the occasion. I put it right over the plate – on the second bounce,” Lillard joked. “I haven’t been so nervous since I needed two strikes in the 10th frame to win the 1966 Miller Open (PBA Tour) stop in Milwaukee.” Lillard’s first pitch was a featured segment on CBS affiliate KHOU-TV.

Two days later, USBC Ambassador Walter Ray Williams Jr. commemorated National Bowling Week by signing autographs before the Sept. 1 Florida Marlins/Philadelphia Phillies baseball game at Dolphin Stadium.

Another top bowler, Danny Wiseman, is scheduled to throw out the first pitch at the Baltimore Orioles-on Sept. 24.

Other national events included announcement of the winners of second annual Show and Tell art, photography and writing contests, PBA's Show Us Your Finish Work Video Contest on bowlspace.com, four special PBA youth clinics and a Buy One Game, Get One Game Free coupon promotion in conjunction with Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

USBC and BPAA provided bowling centers across the nation with kits of information on how to promote National Bowling Week while USBC e-mailed similar information to its local associations. Many bowling centers and USBC associations took the information and worked together to create their own National Bowling Week celebrations. Among them were:

•Mount Hood Lanes in Gresham Ore., kicked off National Bowling Week on Aug. 24 with a cosmic bowling party for chamber of commerce members, which also acted as a fund-raiser for Mount Hood Habitat for Humanity. The next day, Mount Hood Lanes held a Bowling Blast Off with free bowling, junior league sign ups and the Mayor of Gresham there to bowl with the kids. Nearby Wilsonville Lanes also held a Bowling Blast Off and cosmic party as a fund-raiser for the local food bank. Both centers hosted fund-raisers for the Oregon National Guard Emergency Relief Fund on Aug. 26. Bowling camps were held during the weekdays at both centers.

•Tiki Lanes in Lancaster, Ohio, had a special event Aug. 25 to kick off National Bowling Week. Mayor David Smith delivered a proclamation about the beginning of National Bowling Week with representatives from the DARE program were in attendance. Every child who signed up for youth league bowling and paid their membership dues received three free games, and were entered in a raffle for a Dr. Pepper mountain bicycle and an XM Radio satellite unit. During open bowling times, Tiki Lanes had "Quarter Mania," a promotion where after paying a $6 charge for the first game, each game cost only a quarter for each bowler.
This year's celebrations follow a calendar year 2006 that featured the number of bowlers going up 3.5 percent to more than 66 million and the number of paid games up 1.4 percent. That means more people bowled more games in 2006 than the previous year.

For more information, including the National Bowling Week logo, visit www.bowl.com.