St. Louis is known for its baseball, but there’s another sport that St. Louis has a rich history to offer.

Opened in 1984, the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame was originally located in Wisconsin, but after competing with five other cities, St. Louis was picked to house the museum and hall of fame.

“The famous bowling team The Budweisers, who were located in St. Louis, proved to be more influential in the sport of bowling than any other thing the cities had to offer,” Supervisor Ira Lawerence said.

Visitors who enter the museum learn the history of how bowling began 5,000 years ago and its journey from a crude game to today’s 10-pin bowling.

“It’s something young and old people do, it’s good exercise, it’s fun, it’s something the whole family can do; that’s what makes bowling unique,” museum curator Jim Baltz said.

In the museum’s basement there are eight bowling lanes. Four of the lanes are regular Brunswick or AMF lanes, and the other four are the old time lanes that were used in an old church that required manual pinsetters.

“When the lanes were taken from the church piece by piece, the wood was numbered so it was put together to look the same as it did before,” Lanes manager Anthony Nerviani said.

The museum has collections of pins and balls that show how much the game has changed over the generations.

“I think it’s important to preserve any kind of sport. We should have a Smithsonian bowling,” Baltz said. “Bowling is not just 10-pins, it has ancient history.”