Inside Bowling presents the History of Bowling Balls with the Orf's from Ray Orf's Bowling & Trophy Shop in St. Louis, Missouri.
Rich Orf and Steve Orf share their bowling ball collection with you and share their opinions of the most meaningful bowling balls in the history of bowling.
This episode features Reactive Resin bowling balls.
This is part 3 of a 3 part series. Enjoy!
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Great Collection!
Couple points you guys missed: You didn’t go into too much depth on the emergence then death of Particle balls, or the general technology shakeup that happened about the time Ebonite’s The One came out, specifically when Storm (with the Paradigm) and Columbia (EPX-T1) both put out balls that were very unique in formulation that wound up being soft and cracked all the time. Also no discussion of company mergers, buyouts, and odd companies (Lane 1, Elite, MoRich, etc.)
@Clayton Scheiber Oh yeah, absolutely. Though for the last 10 years, we’ve largely seen a rehash of tried and true things and only minor updates to technology. I’m personally waiting for another tectonic shift to happen.
@RWMunchkin12788
The tried and true is why I went with a discontinued ball for next one. I bought the Hammer Black Widow Legend, since it seems to be the ball that’ll react how I want. A lot of the new balls are way to mellow for style and I’m too stubborn to adapt. I may pick up a Trident Abyss after I roll this Hammer for a bit. But, things change and time will tell. But now, I went out of production. Honestly, I was really hopin to find a first gen red Pulse, but that search was taking too long.
@Clayton Scheiber The consumers are the ones driving this, not the ball manufacturers.
Particle balls didn’t die tho. Storm nano technology is particle.
Man I loved an old MoRich ball I had way back when, and I remember when I was bowling collegiately I thought itd be cool to get an epx t1… what a weirrdddd ball. Constantly oily and slimy. What nostalgia
What a fantastic series. I loved the walk down bowling ball history!
Impressive work putting all those classics together, guys. There’s more than a couple of those I’d like to have.
Can you still get the 3D offset hammer?
TurboX still in my bag—great ball. Storm Firestorm ‘95 my favorite ball of all time.
I still carry my Turbo X as well, it’s old and beat up and still performs. It is the most consistent ball I’ve ever owned.
Still have mine too! Bowled a 300 with it back in 98′
WOW. You guys just sent me on the ultimate trip down memory lane, and even mentioned the names of some old acquaintances. This was literally a chronology of my adult life. Thanks for that, and I would love to see more bowling history videos from you guys.
I remember the Ray Orf 890 series. I also remember the controversy, but you know what? Up until that time, he did and no one else. You should be proud of him.
Thanks Daniel. Very much appreciated and thanks for the suggestion.
Pretty much had a version of every ball I’ve had on this series including my old Quantum and Gyro Pro. The only thing missing was the Storm El Nino/Wrath/2000 or the La Nina. The Wrath was what I threw my first 300 with.
Fantastic series guys! So informative and entertaining. Very nice collection sheesh!
What a great collection! This brings back many memories in my 22 years of drilling. I feel like the Ninja is a monster that you missed. Also, my (then) boss got a bunch of X-Caliburs in 1991… I know this for a fact as we all got them from him and he didn’t own the center after November 1991.
I really loved my ninja fury and rpm
The red Pulse, even as of now, is my favorite ball I ever had. Did my best games with that ball. Would love to find one again. The teal Track Titon was pretty close too. I bought the Mission 2.0 when it came out 7-8 years ago. Didnt care much for it. Now I just picked up the Hammer Black Widow Legend. Looking at possibly the Trident Abyss next. Would to know your thoughts on the Hammer and Trident.
loved this segment. I started league bowling and so many of these were on my wish list. I did get to buy the Cuda C off a teammate. I still have to this day…
There was actually a ball between the Navy Hammer R and the 3D, and to my recollection, it was the one that got Hammer going back I to the right direction, and that was the Red Hammer R. Where the Navy had the old traditional Faball weight block, the Red had a completely different symmetrical weight block and that was the one that really got everyone’s attention, then the 3D took that to the next level.
You guys did a great job on the ball series. The Cuda C was my favorite of all time
I loved the Cuda/C and the Super Cuda.
My first actual “real” (or what I would consider, at least) bowling ball was a Hammer Big Blue solid (as opposed to the Big Blue Pearl shown here). I got it used from another bowler and absolutely loved that thing. It was the ball on which I went from the beginner no-thumb style throw to a (again, what I would consider to be) real traditional full-grip style. The back end on that thing was incredible and I’ve thrown Hammer pretty much exclusively ever since. I have been searching for another one for YEARS without luck. Wish I could find another…
I loved the Cuda/C! I still have one. I also have and love the Cuda 2000. I also throw the IQ Pearl gold and just picked up the IQ 30. Loved seeing this video!!
Quite a trip down memory lane. Brunswick’s Teal Rhino Pro and Danger Zone were my favorite Go Tos. Columbia Torque also went well. I think it was one of the early tournaments in 1992 or 1993 where Norm Duke won with a Piranha and all of the sudden everyone had to have one. It didn’t work for me as it seemed too erratic in its reactions. The downside of that era was the explosion in costs of the balls, which went from the 30s and 40s to pushing $100 a ball and $200 for Quantams. At the scratch tournament, regional and national tour levels it became an arms race. When I had to carry 9 balls to a regional tournament in the late 90s, it told me it was time to get out and I was probably not the only one.
The original Rotogrip Outlaw (which came out around the same time as the Teal Rhino Pro) was a great ball. I still had it in my bag ten plus years after I first got it, because I could always find a way to score with it when my newer, supposedly better, stuff wouldn’t work.
Man, I remember all of those balls on that first table. I saw them all over the bowling center when I started bowling league in like 1995-96. I had an X Caliber, a Rhino Pro Teal and the Red Alert Special Edition. I wanted the Red Pulse with the clear pin. Another lefty had one and let me throw it and I wanted it.
As a kid bowling in the 90s and early 00’s… The hammer 3D offset was absolute money for me. I won a lot of tournaments throwing that ball. That one will always be special to me. Also the original inferno was great. Amazing to see how drastically different bowling is now. I used to have a 3 ball arsenal as a kid. Now I have 12 and growing….
Track made a reactive ball in the early era called the Nuke. I had three of them in different configurations and surfaces. Hit like a tank, and was very versatile. Lots of high scores with that has a junior bowler. Nu-Line also had a solid reactive called the Super X which was also an amazing ball.
Great videos on the history of bowling balls. I still have and can use an original Midnight Blue Quantum. My all time favorite ball.