Remember When 1943

Lowell Jackson became one of bowling’s first pros when Brunswick signed him to bowl exhibitions and demonstrate the company’s products in the 1920s and ‘30s. He is probably best remembered, though, as the conceiver and developer of the lane markings bowlers use to aim their shots. Introduced in the 1930s, markings were sanctioned for ABC competition in 1939.

According to Chuck Pezzano, writing on the occasion of Jackson’s induction into the ABC Hall of Fame in 2003, Jackson averaged 205 over a lengthy career. That was in years when stars averaged around 190.

With that record, you might never guess Jackson’s personal interest in lane markings: he was legally blind in one eye and had only 20% vision in the other.

Industry stats in this middleof-the-war year: ABC membership, an estimated 697,000; WIBC, 252,540; certified houses, 4,335. BPAA records do not reveal the number of members that year, but presumably it was less than 1,235. That was the tally four years later, in 1947, when the yearly counts began.•