JEFF RICHGELS

The time is long past for the United States Bowling Congress to certify Hall of Famer Glenn Allison’s 900 series.

My level of caring when it comes to league bowling scores is near zero: league is a social thing for me and the level of scoring in non-Sport leagues is so astronomical compared to what it once was — with far fewer bowlers — that it’s hard to imagine anything that would prompt a “wow.”

Don’t take this the wrong way: I am not dissing anyone’s achievements in league bowling, I do realize that league scores do matter to many, and I do write up the league scores in the Madison area in my blog six days a week during the bowling season.

But without looking it up, I can’t even tell you how many 900 series there have been now since Allison shot his famous series on July 1, 1982 at LaHabra 300 Bowl in LaHabra, California.

I think that says it all.

And it’s part of the reason USBC should officially recognize Allison’s 900, though it’s not the only reason.

I think it’s inarguable that Allison’s 900 is the greatest league series in bowling history.

He shot his 900 with a polyester Columbia YELLOW DOT, not one of today’s far more powerful resin balls, which alone makes it a greater feat than any of the 900s shot with resin.

It is true that the lane pattern transition he dealt with wouldn’t rival today’s, but that hardly equals the difference in strike power of the balls as a factor, especially considering that he rolled his 900 on a second shift after not even shooting 600 with a different ball the first shift.

He also dealt with pressure like none of the other 900 shooters has, although Jeremy Sonnenfeld probably came close in rolling the first certified 900 15 years after Allison’s 900.

I haven’t talked to any American Bowling Congress officials who were involved in rejecting Allison’s 900, but I have to think it’s a decision they wish they hadn’t made.

Conspiracy theorists have reasoned that ABC turned down Allison’s 900 because of his association with Bill Taylor, the late bowling guru who was ABC’s harshest critic.

Sports Illustrated did a lengthy and great story on Allison’s 900 a few months after he shot it that you can read here. Taylor was among the many interviewed for the story.

The local ABC inspector who checked the lanes after Allison’s 900 said everything was in order, but then ABC Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Burt Kellerman said no after flying out of Milwaukee the next day to check the lanes. How anything can be taken out of an inspection that far after a score is just one of the many troubling issues.

That was a different time in bowling, when ABC still tried to enforce fairly strict lane conditioning rules. A “crown” was the rule of the day.

The Madison Bowling Association was in the middle of a fairly extreme crackdown at the time — if I recall I was proud of a 205 average in league in 1982-83, while just a few years later I’d be 20 pins or more higher.

That was after the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America forced ABC (and WIBC) to accept “short oil” by threatening to start its own bowling membership organization if the lane conditioning rules weren’t loosened.

That eventually led to the 3-unit rule that with the advent of resin balls essentially allowed lane men to put down conditions as easy as they could make them.

Even if you accept that the lanes were not legal under the rules of the day when Allison shot his 900 — and there is plenty of doubt about that — I think it’s indisputable that they were “harder” than pretty much any house shot today. (Yes, I know some house shots can be difficult wet/dry or on bad surfaces, but we’re talking in general terms.)

So I don’t see how anyone could be offended if USBC made the logical — and correct — decision to recognize Allison’s 900. It simply would have to note that the score is being recognized because the lanes would meet today’s standards.

I haven’t talked with current USBC Executive Director Chad Murphy about Allison’s 900, but I have talked to a couple of board members off the record.

The one objection I have heard from them is that it opens USBC to potential legal issues from all of the other bowlers whose scores were turned down.

As Bowlers Journal’s Bob Johnson wrote in May in calling for USBC to recognize Allison’s 900, the legal issue isn’t really an issue.

The easy answer is simply to recognize all of those scores as well, including another famous score by a legend that was turned down a decade before Allison’s: Ray Orf’s 890.

The only scores I would not recognize are those that were turned down for reasons other than lane conditions, such as an illegally weighted ball.

USBC declined to comment for this story.

I’ve yet to hear a convincing case for not recognizing Allison’s 900, although I’m certainly willing to listen to anyone who wants to make it. I’d even be happy to run what they write as a guest blog on 11thFrame.com if anyone wants to do so.

And for the record, Glenn would like to see his 900 recognized.

I have seen some make the argument that he doesn’t, but I sat with him in the Silver Legacy keno room a for few minutes in Reno this spring the day of the USBC Hall of Fame inductions and he was clear in saying he’d welcome it being recognized.

And you can see a 20-plus minute video interview with Glenn here in which he states that he would like it recognized at about the 19:30 mark.

And the time to do it is while he still is alive and can enjoy the recognition. Glenn is in good health as far as I know, but he is in his 80s.

ABC could have had the first certified 900 shot by one of the game’s living legends. It blew that, obviously not knowing what was to come with the sport’s technology- and rules-based scoring explosion.

That is known now and it’s time to make the record book reflect what every knowledgeable bowler knows: Glenn Allison’s 900 was the greatest league series ever, it always will be and it would be legal under the rules of the two decades-plus.

You can sign an online petition supporting the certification of Allison’s 900 at this Facebook page.