1. Bowling's roots trace back to around 400 AD in Germany, where it started as a religious practice to cleanse oneself of sin by rolling a rock into a club (kegel), giving rise to the term "kegler."
2. Even King Henry VIII of England enjoyed bowling in 1511, but he later banned the sport among the common people, reserving it as a "pastime of the elite."
3. The first million-dollar endorsement deal wasn't secured by a basketball or football player; it was bowler Don Carter who signed the groundbreaking contract with Ebonite International in 1964.
4. Evidence of a game akin to bowling was found in Egyptian tombs in 1930, suggesting the game's existence around 3200 BCE, close to the emergence of written language.
5. Early bowling balls lacked finger holes and were made of round stones; bowlers used rubber or wood. The transition to polyester resin and multicolored plastic began in the 1960s.
6. Japan houses the world's largest bowling alley, the Inazawa Grand Bowling Centre, boasting an impressive 198 lanes.
7. Apart from Texas, nine-pin bowling is prohibited in all states. Texas adopted nine-pin and ten-pin bowling in the 1830s when strikes with wooden balls were more challenging.