Bowling alleys, like universities, are melting pots

I spent time Saturday night watching the NCAA women’s bowling championship match on ESPNU.

How or why, I do not know and don’t care to retrace my steps. It happened. I came upon it, I was curious, and that’s the name of that tune.

Nebraska defeated Arkansas State 4 games to 1 for the championship. It was the Huskers’ sixth NCAA title in the sport. They won the first NCAA women’s bowling championship, in 2004.

Recently, Tom Shatel of the Omaha World-Herald asked former Nebraska athletics director Bill Byrne why he chose to start a bowling program.

“You been out to the saloons in western Nebraska?” Byrne said. “It’s very popular out there. And we didn’t have pool.”

But no one on the Huskers’ 2021 title team is from western Nebraska. No Ogallala representation. Nor is there a central Nebraskan or eastern Nebraskan. There isn’t even anyone from Cedar Rapids. The one in Nebraska, that is.

So I went online, and learned that none of the 11 Husker bowlers were Nebraskans. Two of the five women who delivered the school its sixth NCAA women’s bowling title were from Illinois. The other three were from Florida, Hawaii and Mexico.

I don’t know how these things happen.

Arkansas State lists nine players on its roster. One is from Arkansas, Lauren Bunting of Cabot. That’s the home of Allfam Bowling. Bunting has teammates from Washington, North Carolina, Michigan and Ohio.

That got me wondering how many Iowans are on each University of Iowa roster, so I went to Hawkeyesports.com and did the counting. This is all players, not just scholarship athletes.

Anyway, here’s the breakdown of Iowans and non-Iowans for the rosters as listed Monday afternoon:

Baseball: 24 Iowans, 17 non-Iowans

Men’s basketball: 8/7

Women’s basketball: 5/8

Men’s cross country: 4/8

Women’s cross country: 14/7

Field hockey: 0/21

Football: 39/68

Men’s golf: 2/8

Women’s golf: 1/9

Men’s gymnastics: 2/13

Women’s gymnastics: 6/14

Rowing: 30/26

Soccer: 4/24

Softball: 10/14

Men’s swimming and diving: 3/24

Women’s swimming and diving: 7/17

Men’s tennis: 0/9

Women’s tennis: 0/11

Men’s track and field: 19/42

Women’s track and field: 28/32

Wrestling: 10/22

Twenty-seven foreign countries have athletes on Hawkeye teams. Iowa has a football punter from Australia. It has golfers from England, Spain, Northern Ireland, Peru, Austria, Israel, Colombia and Switzerland.

I have no problem with any of this, by the way. Universities are supposed to be melting pots, among other things. I had a next-door dormitory neighbor from Iran before things between that nation and the U.S. went haywire, which means it was long ago. He was a good fellow. I hope he thought the same of me.

Anyway, on to the next scrap of paper blowing in the wind.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com