JANUARY 7th - Bowling on a Plane



On this day in 1964, Operation AstroBowl occurred. The world held its breath as Dick Weber participated in a promotion with American Airlines to make him the proud owner of the record for bowling a game at the highest altitude on an all-cargo Boeing 707 in which a single bowling lane had been installed. Okay they probably didn’t hold their breath. They were probably more concerned with trying to see the Rolling Stones whom had embarked on their first headlining tour just the day before. I haven’t been able to find a score for Weber’s game, and I’m not sure if bowling in a plane is an advantage or a disadvantage. A little turbulence could really mess up your delivery, but a soft bank may make a 7/10 split easier than Billy Madison passing Miss Lippy’s class. Bowling has to be one of the only sports that could possibly happen on a 707. You can pretty much rule out any team sports. Baseball would be a logistical nightmare. You could possibly do ping-pong. Though I’m not sure you could do worse than trying to stage a polo match on a plane. You’d have to fly fairly low because you want the horses ears to pop. And that would probably be your only issue with a plane full of horses and those mallet things or whatever. Of course you could just have Samuel L. Jackson on that mother f-ing plane to take care of all the mother f-ing horses on the mother f-ing plane. But I don’t know. I’ve never seen a polo match in my life. But then again I’ve never seen someone bowl on a plane before. However, it comforts me to know that it has happened.

This day has been Marked.

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