FEATURE Sports Complex Bowled Over: Milwaukee Hosts IGBO's Silver Anniversary Jim Provenzano | April 26, 2005 Members of the Milwaukee bowling community at a recent tournament - Photo by Stuart Feider Which sport has more active participants than the total number of athletes who participated in the last Gay Games? Ask the members of the International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO), and they will take that honor with pride. This May, celebrations and competition for the 25th annual IGBO tournament take place May 25-30 in Milwaukee, Wis., one of the cities that founded the historic league. IGBO XXV co-directors Bill Conklin, David Burney, and Mark Klemme are expecting between 400 and 800 bowlers for the anniversary tournament. "We have a lot of things going on, and are rapidly receiving applications," says Conklin. Although Milwaukee has been host to five midyear tournaments, the annual tournament has never been held in Milwaukee. Last year's IGBO tournament, held in St. Louis, welcomed 530 bowlers to its events. Other upcoming regional tournaments include the Sunshine Invitational Tournament (May 6-8 in Orlando, Fla.), the Rose Bowl Classic (June 5-6 in Portland, Ore.), and the Ladies Organized Valley Invitational Tournament (June 3-5 in Los Angeles, Cal). All tournaments are listed on the IGBO website (www.igbo.org). IGBO's history goes back to 1980, when gay and lesbian bowlers from gay leagues in Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, San Diego, and Toronto met during a tournament in Los Angeles. With the number of players and leagues growing, the governing body was formed. Now with more than 200 leagues and 17,000 participants, the organization says it's the largest group of GLBT athletes in the world, with member leagues in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. "The amazing growth of gay bowling is not surprising," Conklin says. "It's one sport that truly does not discriminate among its participants. Whether young or old, male or female, wheelchair-bound or deaf, strong or weak, tall or short, bowling is a sport that virtually any living person can enjoy recreationally or as a member of a league." Even before the formation of IGBO, gay and lesbian leagues began emerging in the United States in the 1970s as a social outlet for men and women who wanted to socialize outside of bars. Before that, members of the Daughters of Bilitis are documented as having organized group bowling events as far back as October 1956. The evenings at a San Francisco sports center are listed in the calendar of events of the first issue of The Ladder, the historic periodical published by and for lesbians. By the mid-1960s, men's bowling leagues had followed, organized by the pre-Stonewall San Francisco gay rights group the Society for Individual Rights (SIR). The SIR Bowling League met each Monday night, with more than 100 members by 1968. Following the example of organized bowlers, other sports like softball and flag football emerged, suggesting that sports groups, and bowlers in particular, predate even most GLBT civil rights groups. What makes current IGBO tournaments unique are not only their GLBT inclusion, but also frequent campy themes like "The Wizard of Oz" or "Boot Camp," where bowlers wear thematic costumes. Annual tournaments are held each May the week before Memorial Day. The Mid-Year Tournament is usually held over the Veterans Day holiday weekend. Every four years, IGBO also coordinates its tournament to coincide with the quadrennial Gay Games competition. For example, in 2002, the annual IGBO tournament took place in Auckland, New Zealand, a week before Gay Games VI in Sydney. In addition, nearly 50 tournaments are held around the world each year, giving those 17,000-plus members plenty of opportunities for friendly competition in singles, pairs, and team formats. Because of the high numbers of bowlers in the Wisconsin area, Conklin says as many as 1,300 people may participate at IGBO XXV. Two large bowling facilities, or "houses," will be used for singles and doubles events, with a third house for scratch matches after tournament. (In scratch bowling, scoring is done without handicaps. A scratch score is a basic game total.) Milwaukee bowling organizers are well prepared, having also held an annual Thanksgiving tournament for the past five years. A bowler since his childhood in Arizona, Conklin recalls his parents taking him to their "bowling nights" more than 30 years ago. Not content to be stuck in the children's supervised play area, he soon took up the sport with his parents' blessing, and has competed seriously since age 18. In 1982, when he moved to Milwaukee, Conklin started bowling in gay leagues, and soon met a welcoming community. "I've been bowling ever since," he says. Conklin has also been involved in organizing tournaments since 1982. Like his co-directors, he takes pride in having the 25th annual IGBO tournament in a city with a lengthy history of supporting GLBT leagues, and in a sport that has such a rich historic past. Jim Provenzano is the author of the novels PINS and Monkey Suits. Read more sports articles at www.sportscomplex.org Related stories Channel Surfers [12/04/2005] Gay Games 2010 bid – latest update [13/03/2005] For more info on Gay Sport in South Africa contact Gay Sport SA