Bowling Bobbleheads Awards Blog

Twenty-four Bowling Bobbleheads in a Row

I interviewed a man named Art Hammond in 2003. He was Indiana’s premier bowling bobbleheads collector in the state. He claimed that he started as a young teenager. A man by the name of Gary Simmons got him started with it when he was caught loitering and skateboarding in Simmon’s bowling alley parking lot. He then decided that Art needed a different outlet and introduced him to bowling. Since then he has earned 24 bowling bobbleheads.

He allowed me to look at the bowling bobble heads he earned at state championships. I have to say I was impressed with the bowling bobbleheads. They were constructed of a trophy base, complete with brass plaque. The top of them varied from there. Some had male heads, but others had bowling ball heads. There were even a couple of bowling bobblehead trophies that had bowling pins bobbing from them. I thought that was quite amusing. All in all, it was a very moving set of bowling bobbleheads.

I asked him how he attained his two bowling bobbleheads, since they were from the same competition and year. He told me the second one wasn’t his, but it was his friend Matthew Barton’s, along with five other bowling bobble heads. Matthew had died a few years after they bowled the team’s first game back in 2004. As for how he got his he said they were on a junior bowling league and that the whole team got bowling bobble heads for their win. The rest of the bowling bobble heads were his.

A couple months later the league competed again and won, garnering them another round of bowling bobble heads. He showed me with a healthy amount of pride the slightly bigger bowling bobblehead. From there, the team went on to win several smaller, yet no less majestic bowling bobblehead trophies.

His team won the biggest bowling bobbleheads when they beat out Georgia in the state nationals. That was in late 2006. The teams winning streak lasted through 2007 until Matthew’s death. The team broke up, divvying up Matthew’s bowling bobblehead trophies. The team has had talks about getting back together on the anniversary of Matthew’s death and playing a yearly game of bowling on that special day. They didn’t feel right replacing him and going on to win bowling bobblehead trophies without their team mate.

After interviewing Art Hammond, I decided to make up a bowling league. The Bowling Bobbleheads. This was to commemorate the story in which I found myself entranced enough to write about it here. The Bowling Bobbleheads are going strong. We are going out to our first bowling match where they are touting bowling bobble heads prizes for each player. I think I might have my bowling bobbleheads engraved with Matthew’s name and date of birth.

The Bowling Bobbleheads are gaining recognition as a pugnacious group of bowlers that will acquire as many bowling bobble heads as they can. They will be undefeated when they go up against the Strikers of Steel. The Bowling Bobbleheads is just a match away from their first bowling bobbleheads.