Bio

The Gate City Blind Bowlers started out as a recreational program for blind individuals in 1968. The Industries of the Blind together with the Greensboro Parks and Recreation department sponsored a weekly outing to a local recreational center where blind individuals could get out of the house and enjoy many different activities. At the Fairview Recreational Center one of the activities was duck pin bowling. After a while of enjoying this form of bowling the blind participants ask why they couldn’t go to a regular bowling alley.

In 1971 Parks and Recreation offered a chance to go bowling at Friendly Lanes (which doesn’t exist anymore). After a few years of recreational bowling the participants wanted to become a sanctioned league with the American Blind Bowlers Association. Lonnie Cunningham contacted the ABBA secretary and got all the forms and information he needed to officially sanction as a league. Therefore the Gate City Blind Bowlers was established in 1973 and there were about twelve bowlers the first season. Some of the first bowlers were Gladys Alexander, John Thomas, Geraldine Lindsay, Lonnie Cunningham and Charlie Dawson. Charlie was the president, Lonnie was the Secretary and Geraldine was the treasurer for about 15 years. They continued to bowl at Friendly lanes until it closed in the mid 1980’s.

The very first tournament the Gate City Blind Bowlers participated in was the South Eastern tournament in Richmond, Virginia. They all bowled really well and some even came home with cash prizes. The first national tournament they participated in was in Washington DC. They were supposed to be there to bowl in the 3:00PM squad but didn’t arrive in Washington DC until 6:00PM. The national tournament director told them since they were able to arrive at all she would find them a place to bowl. They ended up bowling in the last squad of the night at 10:30PM and didn’t finish bowling until almost 1:00AM the next morning. After all that late night bowling they were still able to place and bring home some money. During a later national tournament in 1984 one of the teams, representing Gate City Blind Bowlers, set the highest record for total pins in the team’s category at that time. The team’s name was the Spinners.

In 1986 the Gate City Blind Bowlers co hosted the ABBA national tournament. It was held at both Friendly Lanes and All Star Lanes. It was the largest tournament in the ABBA history with about 1500 bowlers attending. The Lion’s were instrumental in securing the bid and assisting us to hold the tournament. The blind bowlers didn’t even know about the bid for the 1986 tournament until about 20 representatives from a local Lion’s club stood up during the 1983 tournament in Deer born, Michigan and placed the bid.

The 2010 ABBA national tournament will once again be held in Greensboro at Gate City Lanes May 26 -31, 2010. For information about the tournament and the league’s fundraising activities, please go to the league’s web site www.GateCityBlindBowlers.org.

The Gate City Blind Bowlers are charter members of the Carolina Bowling Alliance, which was developed in 1997 to promote bowling across North Carolina and adjacent states. Lonnie Cunningham is the originator of the organization’s slogan “A new concept in Blind Bowling”.

Today the league bowls on Thursday nights at Gate City Lanes from 6:30PM until 8:30PM and transportation is still provided by Greensboro Parks and Recreation. If you want to join us and need transportation please contact Anita Cunningham and she will arrange for the van to pick you up. Volunteers are always welcome as well. If you would like to financially support the league, please use the contact information above.