Just about every president of the United States has had a connection to the sporting life. Theodore Roosevelt liked to shoot animals. (It was a sport back then.) Lincoln was a wrestler. Eisenhower, Clinton, and Obama spent a lot of time on the golf course. All of the chief executives have professed to love baseball, and they all throw out ceremonial pitches. George W. Bush was once even part owner of a Major League Baseball team. And when Gerald Ford was in college, he was one of the best football players in the nation.

But not every president can say he was a bowler.

Now I’m biased, so be warned. I love bowling, and I’m pretty damn good at it, too. But I have to say that it is one of the most fun, if underrated sports out there. So when I come across a president who admits to being a bowler, I have to share.

It was just over 69 years ago that President Harry S. Truman opened the first White House bowling alley. The “S” did not stand for “strike.” Truman himself was not much of a bowler, but White House employees were allowed to form a league in 1950. A seemingly mismatched group of household staff, secretaries, switchboard operators, even Secret Service agents used the two lanes in the West Wing to hone their skills and compete in tournaments all over the country.

Dwight Eisenhower, Truman’s successor, closed down the lanes in 1955 to make way for a mimeograph room. (That’s old-tech speak for copier room). But the golf addict was not a complete hard case. He allowed a new pair of lanes to be opened in the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House.

That was pretty much it for the bowling alley until Richard and Pat Nixon came to Pennsylvania Avenue. They were both avid bowlers, and in 1969, shortly after taking office, President Nixon had one lane built in an underground workspace beneath the White House driveway. Paid for by supporters and out of his own pocket, the Nixon bowling alley provided hours of enjoyment.

After taking office in 2009, President Obama vowed to take out the bowling alley in the White House basement and install a basketball court. Thankfully, it turned out to be an empty threat, and the single lane remains. Most recently, members of the Trump family have bowled a few frames there.

Even a basketball addict like President Obama can’t deny how cool bowling is. Image: AP Photo/Alex Brandon.

Both the White House and the EOB bowling alleys are showing their age. After the 2015 White House Correspondent’s Dinner, actor Matt Walsh said the EOB lanes were “like a crappy suburban bowling alley.” There was a plan to renovate the lanes in 2014, but that plan was nixed in favor of spending taxpayer money on other unspecified projects.

The White House lanes remain popular with staff and guests. And it may be that “worn” look that draws them. Whatever the case, I hope the lanes stay open. It’s much better to celebrate the history of White House bowling by rolling a few frames than just looking at pictures of a bygone era.