Professional Women's Bowling Association

PWBA and LPBT signs still visible July 2014 at the door of the longtime former home of the organizations, The Cherry Bowl in Rockford, IL.

The PWBA was formed in 1960 by a group of professional women bowlers. After the organization struggled, some of the players left the PWBA in 1974 to form the Ladies' Professional Bowlers Association (LPBA). The two merged again in 1978, forming the Women's Professional Bowlers Association (WPBA). When the WPBA dissolved in 1981, bowling center proprietor John Summer of Rockford, Illinois, started the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour (LPBT), a private company, to continue the women's tour. The LPBT adopted the PWBA name and a new logo in 1998. In the fall of 2003, the PWBA Tour ceased operations before the completion of its 2003 season, primarily due to dwindling interest in sponsoring women's bowling.[3]

The Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) then acquired the rights and assets of the PWBA. This gave the WIBC control of the PWBA name, trademark, logo, website domain (pwba.com), as well as the PWBA's historical records. The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) acquired the PWBA when the WIBC merged with the American Bowling Congress (ABC), Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) and USA Bowling in 2005.

Without a PWBA Tour, women either retired from professional bowling, competed in the remaining women-only tournaments in the United States, or moved on to other bowling tournaments outside of the United States. Wendy Macpherson started competing in the Japan Professional Bowling Association (JPBA) in 2004, going on to earn ten JPBA titles. In 2007, the Japan Bowling Congress (JBC) started the DHC Cup Girls Bowling International - at the time the third largest women's tournament in the world in prize money, just behind the U.S. Women's Open and the USBC Queens.[4]

Some women chose to bowl in professional men's tournaments. The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) opened its membership to women in April 2004. PWBA members such as Kim Adler, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Liz Johnson, and Kelly Kulick became members of the PBA, with Kulick becoming the first female to earn an exemption on the PBA Tour (2005–06 season). Women have had limited success in PBA events. Missy Parkin was the first female PBA member and now holds three PBA Regional Titles.[5] Johnson was the first woman to make a televised appearance on the PBA Tour, finishing runner-up to Tommy Jones at the 2005 PBA Banquet Open. Kulick became the first woman to win a national PBA tournament major with her defeat of Chris Barnes in the 2010 Tournament of Champions. Johnson became the second woman to win a national PBA tournament with her defeat of Anthony Pepe in the PBA Chameleon Championship at the 2017 World Series of Bowling.[6]

The USBC sponsored the PBA Women's Series starting with the 2007–08 season, allowing women PBA members to compete in a small number of events without their male counterparts. The final head-to-head match for that week's women's tournament would air in the same telecast as the PBA men's final round. The PBA Women's Series was discontinued after the 2009–10 season.

The PBA created the PBA Women's Regional Tour program in 2014, in which women bowl with and against their male counterparts, but there are specific prizes and benefits for women only.[7]

Many PWBA events were nationally televised on the TVS Television Network (as the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour) under a five year contract in the 1980s. When TVS could not maintain payments, it worked with Tom Ficara of the Cable Sports Network to continue coverage. After that agreement expired, Ficara acquired the TVS Network but did not renew the LPBT deal. LPBT final rounds were then televised on ESPN and ESPN2 from the late 1980s up until 2003, when the association folded. From 2004-2006, the WIBC Queens event (renamed USBC Queens in 2005) was the only scheduled event for female bowlers that received TV coverage.

For the autumn of 2007, the USBC acquired rights to the U.S. Women's Open. The event was televised for five Sundays on ESPN, with the action being called by PBA legends Nelson Burton Jr. and Marshall Holman. This event also served as the qualifier for the PBA Women's Series, a special four-stop mini-tour for the top 16 females. The finals for the mini-tour events were televised along with the regular PBA broadcasts for four Sundays on ESPN in November–December, 2007.

The U.S. Women's Open returned for five weeks in September–October, 2008. The PBA Women's Series was expanded to eight events in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons but was then discontinued.

• Official website of the Professional Women's Bowling Association
• Official website of the Professional Bowlers Association
• Women's professional bowling champions and awards 1949-present