900 Series - Sanctioning Issues

Sanctioning Issues

On 1 July 1982, Glenn Allison bowled the first 900 series in sanctioned league play, although it was not officially sanctioned by the American Bowling Congress due to "non-compliant" lane conditions. To this day, there is a "cult following" supporting Glenn Allison and urging the USBC to officially recognize him as the first bowler to achieve a perfect series, especially because it was accomplished before the era of reactive bowling balls, and other scores in the bowling center that night were not unusually high.

The only bowler to be credited with multiple 900 series is Robert Mushtare, who claims to have bowled five individual 900 series within the span of one year. He claims that he bowled two perfect series in practice, and an additional three in league play. The USBC denied one of his in-league 900 series, but the other two were officially sanctioned. His claims were the subject of an ESPN feature on Outside the Lines. His feat, while spectacular if true, is considered by many critics to be fraudulent, especially given that both sanctioned series were shot in a pre-bowl session (sanctioned league play outside of the normally scheduled day/time) rather than during his normal league session, so few people were around to witness either one.

The first 900 in the history of the Professional Bowlers Association was bowled by Joe Scarborough on April 22, 2013 in a PBA50 Tour (formerly PBA Senior Tour) event. The PBA had seen 3 consecutive 300 games on one other occasion, by Norm Duke in 1996, but this was not considered to be an official 900 series because the first two of Duke's 300 games were at the end of one round of play and the third was at the beginning of the next round.