Ebonite International was a parent company that oversaw the manufacture of
bowling balls
A bowling ball is a hard spherical ball used to knock down bowling pins in the sport of bowling.
Balls used in ten-pin bowling and American nine-pin bowling traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb. Balls used in five-pin bowling, ...
and
bowling
Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...
equipment. Their headquarters and primary manufacturing facility was located in
Hopkinsville, Kentucky
Hopkinsville is a list of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in and the county seat of Christian County, Kentucky, United States. The population at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census was 31,180.
History
Early years
The area of p ...
before closing on November 15, 2019.
The manufacturing plant now houses the CtD Education Center, owned by Ronald Hickland Jr., a former Ebonite ball core designer.
Expansion in 2007
In addition to Ebonite-branded bowling balls, Ebonite International has also owned the
Hammer
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...
-branded line of balls since 2002. In February 2007, Ebonite announced that it had acquired one of the industry's leading manufacturers,
Columbia Industries
Columbia Industries is a company involved in the manufacture and sale of bowling balls and ten-pin bowling-related accessories. Their most notable brand name is Columbia 300, which has produced some of the most well-known balls in the sport. Beg ...
. Since the acquisition, they have produced that company's signature
Columbia 300 line of balls. That acquisition also resulted in Ebonite gaining control of Dynothane Inc., which produced the
Dyno-Thane brand, and
Track International
Track was a company involved in the manufacture and sales of bowling balls and ten-pin bowling related accessories. The company was purchased by Columbia Industries and subsequently transferred to Ebonite International of Hopkinsville, Kentucky
...
, which produces the popular line of Track bowling balls. Dynothane and Track had been owned by Columbia, and were transferred to Ebonite when the latter purchased the former.
Acquisition by Brunswick
On November 15, 2019, the company announced that its assets and patents had been sold to
Brunswick Bowling Products, LLC. However, the purchase agreement did not include the Hopkinsville manufacturing plant, and it was subsequently closed. As of late 2019, Brunswick announced they would continue to produce the four EBI brands in its own manufacturing plants.
[
]
Brands
Ebonite has marketed bowling balls and other ten-pin bowling equipment under several brand names:
* Ebonite
* Hammer Bowling
* Columbia 300
* Track
* Robby's
* Powerhouse
Notes
External links
Company homepage
Ten-pin bowling equipment manufacturers
Companies based in Kentucky
Hopkinsville, Kentucky
{{US-manufacturing-company-stub