Marion Ladewig         Bowling

Many consider her the greatest woman bowler who ever lived but it is easy to forget how truly remarkable Marion Ladewig was on the lanes. A native of Grand Rapids, Mich. she began competing in 1937, long before there was such a thing as a women’s professional tour as we know it today.

But the Michigan was home to some of the most competitive bowling in the nation at the time and Ladewig’s talents were readily apparent.
She began to make her mark in 1944-45 when she had the highest average in the nation; she would go on to earn that distinction four times.

In 1950 Ladewig won the WIBC all-events title; she also won the all-events crown at the city and state levels, the only bowler in history to do so. Five years later she won the WIBC all-events and doubles championships.

By this time Ladewig had established herself as one of the most prominent athletes in the nation. Detroit columnist Joe Falls compared her to Babe Ruth and hockey legend Gordie Howe and Ladewig certainly had the record to justify that claim. She won the BPAA All-Star Tournament (Now the U.S. Open) eight times and the World’s Invitational title five times. The Bowling Writers Association of America named her its Woman Bowler of the Year nine times, from 1950-54, from ‘57-’59 and again in 1963, still more than twice as often as any woman in history.

Ladewig was also present at the birth of womens’ professional bowling as we know it. She won the first-ever women’s professional toyrnament. the Professional Womens Bowling Association Championship in N. MIami Beach, Fla. in 1960. She competed professionally until 1964 when she was inducted into the WIBC Hall of Fame.

Even after her retirement from professional competition Ladewig continued to bowl regularly. As recently as 1996 when she was 81 she carried a more-than-respectable 160 average.

Marion Ladewig was one of the greatest competitors who ever lived but more than that she helped lead her sport into the modern era. It has been nearly four decades since she last competed as a professional but her contributions to womens athletics in general and womens bowling in particular should never be overlooked.