For those who flock to Men’s Bowling Night, there aren’t any visions of athletic grandeur – just plain old fun.
By James Riswick
News Editor
Few things in life can match the rush of adrenaline that comes with the thrill of competition and heated rivalry. Or the flood of emotions that encompasses you after making a clutch play in a rousing victory as ruckus fans joyously celebrate and cheer your triumph over an opponent. A walk-off homerun, a buzzer beating jump shot or a winning Hail Mary touchdown. These are what childhood dreams are made of and only a select few ever get to experience them.
The founders of Men’s Bowling Night (MBN) are certainly not in that select few. They may not have dreams of the Professional Bowler’s Association (PBA), but every Thursday, Pepperdine’s finest men and luckiest ladies hit the lanes of Corbin Bowl in Tarzana to get their small share of athletic glory.
Revived three years ago by juniors Drew Hoff, Robby Mooring, Jon Schmidt, Zac Luben, Drew Michaels, Joe Morris and Mike DeVore, MBN has become the “it” place to go on Thursday nights. Although MBN was originally created by Hoff’s brother Adam and other “founding fathers” during their time at Pepperdine, MBN version 2.0 has reached new levels of success with the exuberant presence of its revival founders.
On an average Thursday, about 30 people usually bowl on the lanes Corbin Bowl reserves for the Pepperdine group. Their record, though, is 127 people for their opening event last Fall.
Despite the “Men’s” moniker, of the folks who come out every week, plenty of ladies attend and according to Mooring they occasionally outnumber the men. That’s not a problem for Mooring. In fact, it’s by design.
“We really needed an avenue to meet women,” Mooring joked about he and his fellow founders’ motivation for reviving MBN. “We couldn’t do it on our own, so we decided to go bowling.”
Preparing for MBN
Just because bowling is a sport that can be played while drinking beer, smoking a cigarette and eating cheesy nachos doesn’t mean bowlers skip out on the mental and physical preparation that other athletes use to ready themselves for an event.
“There’s no sufficient way to prepare yourself for Men’s Bowling Night,” Mooring said. “But you know, you do your daily rituals. I wash my feet so I don’t get the bowling alley fungus. You do your stretches like the arm bend because you don’t want to pull anything.
“Obviously you do a style check to make sure you impress the ladies, cause every night is ladies night at Men’s Bowling Night.”
Others take a slightly different approach to their pre-bowling activities. For junior Greg Carlson, an MBN rookie whose 20-mph. deliveries and near flawless form impress many of his fellow bowlers, his preparation is a matter of exercise and diet.
“I eat a lot of fattening food,” Carlson said. “Grease my hair up, find the lightest ball I can and throw it down the lane really hard.”
The MBN Way
Although the bowlers still keep score, the numbers on the scoreboard are usually a distant thought for many at MBN. It’s not a league, people show up when they want, and who you bowl with usually depends on when you show up and who came with you.
Despite referring to themselves as the “E-Board,” the revival founders do little to maintain MBN other than show up most weeks, which suits the revival founders just fine. According to Hoff, it’s the event’s relaxed, low maintenance and no rules mentality and atmosphere that make it so appealing.
“It’s an outlet for people to have fun toward the end of the week,” Hoff said. “It’s not about bowling, it’s an excuse to hang out with people we like.
“It’s a no commitment activity,” Hoff continued. “Have fun, it’s your only obligation and even then, only when you want to.”
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few MBN traditions to know of when coming out on Thursday around 10 p.m.
The most famous of these is the 5 pin rule. When a bowler leaves only the 5 pin standing after his or her first shot (that’s the one in the middle behind the head pin), all the other bowlers line up on either side of the lane and clap as the unlucky bowler attempts a spare. If the bowler misses the 5 pin, a curse is placed on their heads of five weeks without interpersonal affection.
“One of our founding fathers, Micah Cade came up with that,” Mooring said. “He had noted that after he had missed several 5 pins, he had gone months without (affection). It’s like Boston’s curse of the Bambino only with bowling pins.”
Other traditions include the Bowler of the Week award, which is similar to the Stanley Cup of MBN. Each week, one lucky bowler’s name is written on a bowling pin and it’s kept by that person until the following Thursday.
Also, there has been a MBN formal where bowlers dress up in their finest attire and accompany a date for a night on the lanes. This is just one of the ways MBN pokes playful fun at Greek life. Another being its occasional nickname of Mu Beta Nu.
In many ways, it’s MBN’s no maintenance, no formality and no organization mentality that makes it so appealing to non-Greeks and even Greeks who want something a little different.
But that’s the beauty of MBN: anyone is always welcome. Each week there are always new faces mixed in with those who have gone almost every week for three years.
Freshman A.J. Winger hasn’t missed a week of MBN in her short time at Pepperdine and has actually bought her own bowling shoes knowing there will be lots of Men’s Bowling Nights in her future. Meanwhile, others may go once a year just because there’s nothing else happening on a particular Thursday night.
The best part may be the price though. For $7, bowlers get two games and bowling shoes. Not to mention the most important things MBN has to offer: lots of laughs, good times and just maybe a smidgen of exercise and that thrill of competition and not-so-heated rivalry.
October 30, 2003