Sylvia Wene (July 14, 1928 – May 19, 2013) was an American

ten-pin bowler Tenpin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The goal is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll of the ...

Biography

Wene, who was Jewish, was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. Wene was the first female bowler to score a

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New Yo ...

in sanctioned competition (on March 28, 1951), and the first to bowl three sanctioned perfect games - the first on March 28, 1951, the second on December 11, 1959, and the third on January 8, 1960. Her second perfect game, on December 11, 1959, during the finals of the World Invitational Match Game Tournament, was the first time a woman had scored 300 in match game competition. Wene won the BPAA Individual Match Game Title in 1955 and 1960, and was named Woman Bowler of the Year by the Bowling Writers Association of America in both of those years. She was a member of the All-America teams in 1955, 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962. Sylvia authored the book ''The Woman's Bowling Guide'' that was published in 1959. Wene was elected to both the

Women's International Bowling Congress The Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was an organization for women bowlers who played ten-pin bowling and was formed in 1916 as a counterpart to the American Bowling Congress (ABC). The WIBC was initially called the " Woman's Nation ...

Hall of Fame and the

United States Bowling Congress The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is a sports membership organization dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States of America, United States. It was formed in 2005 by a merger of the American Bowling Congress—the original codifier ...

Hall of Fame in 1966. She was inducted into the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF) () is the international hall of fame for Jewish athletes and special contributors to the world of sport. The purpose of the IJSHOF is to honor Jewish individuals, worldwide, who have accompli ...

in 1979, and the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

Personal life and death

Sylvia Wene was born to parents Nathan Wene (born 1892) a grocer, and Anna (née Klein, born 1896); a clerk. Wene would go on to marry Samuel Martin. They would remain married until his death in 1984. Wene died on May 19, 2013, at the age of 84.

References

1928 births 2013 deaths Sportspeople from Philadelphia American ten-pin bowling players Jewish American sportspeople 21st-century American Jews {{US-tenpin-bowling-bio-stub