History
Organized bowling for young people began in 1936 in Chicago when Milt Raymer, a high school teacher, organized an intramural league. Its success led to a city-wide program with more than 8,000 boys and girls taking part. The National Bowling Council provided financial support in 1945 to expand the program national and the following year it became the American Junior Bowling Congress (AJBC).
In 1962, Charles F. Hall was appointed head of AJBC and his leadership resulted in continued growth.
The Youth Bowling Association (YBA) was formed for the 1963-64 season by the Bowling Proprietors Association of America (BPAA), while AJBC was co-sponsored by the American Bowling Congress (ABC) and Women’s International Bowling Congress (WIBC) at the time. Membership continued to grow in both groups.
The ABC initiated the Collegiate division in 1966 to provide a men’s program for the nation’s student-athletes. The Association of College Unions International (ACUI) began a championship competition, conducted annually on the ABC Tournament lanes. The ABC/WIBC Collegiate Division was created in the mid-1970s and a similar ACUI event for women was staged at the WIBC Tournament.
The Collegiate Division was turned over to the Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) when it was formed, then back to ABC/WIBC under the name College Bowling USA in 1998.
YABA is the result of combining three groups – AJBC, YBA and ABC/WIBC Collegiate division – into one. The YABA officially joined the bowling family, and Hall was named the first executive director of the YABA.
YABA encouraged healthy competition, physical fitness, sportsmanship and good citizenship. It was designed to provide all youth the opportunity to learn the skills of bowling and to participate in organized play. Providing playing rules and supervision, along with leadership and teaching programs, YABA was dedicated to giving everyone the opportunity to bowl and maintain amateur status.
The YABA continued forward until the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) was formed in 2005, bringing the ABC, WIBC, YABA and USA Bowling together as one.
In 2011, BPAA and USBC came together again to form International Bowling Campus (IBC) Youth. Both organizations had been operating youth programs, and in the interest of youth bowling, they merged those efforts under the leadership of Chad Murphy, Director of Youth Bowling for BPAA.
In 2014, the organization made its official separation by forming its own 501(c) 3 under IBC Youth Bowling Inc. and is currently doing business under International Bowling Campus Youth Development.