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BOWLING AS MEDICINE
Date: 1908
In the early 1900s, a growing number of doctors and social reformers began to tout the positive effects of “recreation” for “the nervous and overworked.” Physical exercise was seen as an antidote to the anxieties and frustrations of modern life. Gertrude Hull, winner of the 1908 women’s championship in Cincinnati, was one of the most prominent advocates of the sport, extolling its virtues for both men and women. “Bowling is truly a democratic, cosmopolitan and social game,” Hull said, “serving at the same time to give clean, wholesome sport and muscular exercise, without the objectionable features of many other pastimes.”
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