LETTER: Bowling lanes will enhance intramurals, varsity athletics, recruitment, Rice life
To the editor:
Rice is a campus very much dedicated to sports.
We pride ourselves on having one of the highest rates of intramural participation in the nation.
We have everything from lacrosse to rugby (women's and men's) to racquetball.
Rice also has a handful of leisure sports. These include pool, frisbee golf, foosball and beer golf.
But what we lack here at Rice is the in-between. What we lack is bowling.
Aside from being an enjoyable sport that all walks of life can part-icipate in, bowling has many attributes that would benefit the individual at Rice as well as the campus as a whole.
A simple 10-lane bowling alley would do wonders for our school. It could be placed in the basement of the Student Center, the Baker Institute or even the gym where they shut down the shooting range.
Bowling will keep Rice competitive with the Ivy League schools.
It could even give Rice that precious edge over a few of them.
The addition of a bowling alley could become the sweetest morsel of enticement when those little Owlsters finally opt for Rice over Harvard or Princeton on Owl Day.
In addition to this, Rice could gain more national attention as a venue for the PBA tour.
For the student body, a bowling alley opens up a whole new arena for intramural, intercollegiate and club sports.
Even the Human Performance Department could get involved by offering bowling as a HPER 101 class.
Walk, Jog, Run may become obsolete since bowling is more appealing to the athletically disinterested.
Bowling promotes mens sana in corpore sano .
Bowling will be an accessible, healthy and safe alternative to campus events.
One can easily pass on an evening of Pub Night or a college party while staying on campus without heading to Mudd or the library by bowling a few frames instead.
Also, it's a great way to meet and get to know others.
And who can deny the glamour of bowling apparel?
The installation of a bowling alley at Rice could be seen by others as a way to promote the Student Center, as a merchandising opportunity for the bookstore or as a reminder of our American heritage.
But the way we see it, bowling is just fun.
Ken Baker
SRC '98
Dave Miller
Jones '96
This item appeared in the Opinion section of the March 22, 1996 issue.
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