{"id":23,"date":"2023-06-27T03:07:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T03:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2025-02-08T20:49:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T20:49:15","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Beginning:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Elmer and Pearl Schoening erected the original facility in the 1940\u2019s.&nbsp; The grand opening was held on April 17, 1948.&nbsp; The first official ball was thrown by then Wood Dale Mayor, Walter Kehoe.&nbsp; Bowling legend, Buddy Bomar, was on hand for the opening.&nbsp; Hundreds of enthusiastic bowlers looked on as Buddy and teammate, Garner Wells, rolled against Elmer Schoening and fellow business associate Bernard Pruyn from Itasca, in an expedition match.&nbsp; Wells had a top game of 224 in the match.&nbsp; The center was then known as Bowlwood Recreation it featured eight lanes and was billed as a Wood Dale\u2019s new modern bowling center. Modern for those days meant manual pin setting equipment, staffed by pin boys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Automation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1952, William Witzke purchased the bowling alley. In 1954 Mr. Witzke installed automatic pin setting equipment, which was a giant step forward in that day.&nbsp; Witzke was also instrumental in promoting the center as a family recreation center.&nbsp; The business prospered under Witzke\u2019s management and another 8 lanes were added in 1955. A small cocktail lounge was also added at this time. The facility remained 16 lanes for the next 18 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Our Name:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Manfred (Fred) Knufinke purchased the bowling alley in 1971.&nbsp; Mr. Knufinke originally operated a tavern across the street from the center.&nbsp; Knufinke\u2019s corporation from his previous business was called Manfred\u2019s Bierstube Inc.&nbsp; Mr. Knufinke wanted to keep the same corporate structure, but the name just didn\u2019t fit.&nbsp; He decided to operate under the assumed name of Wood Dale Bowl.&nbsp; The center has operated under that name ever since.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Expansion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Manfred was new to the bowling business but soon showed that he had a knack for managing a business.&nbsp; He was able to secure an excellent staff including a manager, Chuck Hall, from another bowling center.&nbsp; Chuck had previously worked for Grand Bowl in Franklin Park and brought a great deal of bowling experience to the business.&nbsp; He also hired a night manager Lee Tomczak to work the night shift.&nbsp; Bowling was very popular at this time combining this fact with Chuck\u2019s experience, Lee\u2019s management style and Manfred\u2019s business skills the business did very well.&nbsp; In 1973, Manfred decided it was time to expand.&nbsp; The expansion included eight additional lanes, a new modern cocktail lounge, a nursery area for daytime ladies leagues, new washrooms, a sprinkler system throughout the entire facility, an additional parking lot, new storage areas, a pro-shop, and an overall modern look to the center. This modernization made Wood Dale Bowl a bowling center rather than just a bowling alley.&nbsp; In 1976 Mr. Knufinke continued his modernization when he installed new synthetic lanes across the house.&nbsp; GE made the lanes and the product was called Permalane.&nbsp; DBA products installed them.&nbsp; These lanes were the first synthetic lanes in the entire country. Synthetic lanes today represent a majority of the new installations in the bowling industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Beginning: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Elmer and Pearl Schoening erected the original facility in the 1940\u2019s.&nbsp; The grand opening was held on April 17, 1948.&nbsp; The first official ball was thrown by then Wood Dale Mayor, Walter Kehoe.&nbsp; Bowling legend, Buddy Bomar, was on hand for the opening.&nbsp; Hundreds of enthusiastic bowlers looked on as Buddy and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wooddalebowl.com\/index\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}