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The
Origin of Duckpin Bowling
Duckpin bowling is a game that has changed little since its invention before the turn of the century. In 1898, Wilbert Robinson was one of Baltimore's most famous citizens, as the star catcher and team captain for the Baltimore Orioles. Burly, barrel chested and gregarious, Robinson was a shrewd businessman. A year earlier, he and O's teammate (and future Hall of Famer) John McGraw opened a combination bar/gym/tenpin bowling alley called "The Diamond", which occupied a three story brick house on Howard Street. Within months, "The Diamond" gained a nickname as "the sports headquarters of the east." One spring day, Robinson met with John Dittmar, who operated John Dittmar & Sons, a woodworking company,
supplying hard maple bowling lanes, balls and pins for "The
Diamond." Robinson suggested that his worn out tenpins could
be cut down into smaller pins, possibly creating a summer novelty
game.
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| At that time, Bowling was a winter sport only. Dunlap took the pins back to back to his Pratt Street factory, and developed three different sized pins and a five inch ball. Robinson, an avid duck hunter, picked out one of the pins that he thought resembled a squatting duck when laying on its side. He asked Dunlap to make him a few sets and he would call them Duckpins. Two weeks later, Robinson held a special bowling match at "The Diamond," using his new equipment. The bowlers loved the new game and it quickly spread to other bowling centers in Baltimore, Washington and other eastern cities where the Orioles played. |