IGBO 2012 early-bird registration period extended to Tuesday 17 April!

A message from IGBO 2012:

 IGBO XXXII - Greater New York City Area
Wednesday, May 23 - Monday, May 28, 2012

Dear IGBO Bowlers:

The greater New York City / New Jersey area will host IGBO 2012 annual. The host committee and Northeast Region welcome you aboard the U.S.S. IGBO for a week of Fleet-sized fun!


Tax Day in the US has been extended to Tuesday, so with that, and the possibility of website outages today due to IGBO’s Server Migration Project, the Admirals of the USS IGBO 2012 have decided to also extend our Early Bird Deadline as well.

The new deadline for our Early Bird is Tuesday night at Midnight. After this time, the entry fee for the IGBO Annual will increase by $10.00. We encourage all bowlers to take advantage of this extra 48 hour window and get their applications in early. At this time, all shifts are still open, but some are filling up.

Click HERE to register.

While you are registering, please make sure you enter our Super Mega Bracket. For only $20 an entry (up to 2 per bowler), the Super Mega Bracket goes across all 9 games of the tournament with a top prize of $1500 (based on 450 entries).

Also, we are offering discounted tickets to two awesome Broadway shows Friday and Saturday night. For more information and to purchase tickets, please go to the following page: http://www.igbo2012.org/broadway_shows.php

Our Crew is working hard for your arrival, and we hope you plan to Join Our Fleet!

The Admirals and Crew of the USS IGBO 2012

PS: Regional Directors, IGBO Reps and League officers, please pass this message on to your bowlers who may be planning on entering the tournament. Thank you.

23 May 2012 / Sailor Moonz welcomes you to IGBO 2012

Final IGBO from Ty Whitfield on Vimeo.

Find more about IGBO 2012 bowling HERE.

A bowling romance

Sport is about far more than performance. It's first and foremost a social activity, and that's a big reason LGBT sports clubs and events exist. Here's a great example of the power of sport to bring people together from Jeff Kagan in Next magazine:

Matt Graham likes his balls heavy. Of course, we’re talking about bowling—get your mind out of the gutter! In 13 years of bowling, Graham has bowled nine perfect games (that’s 12 strikes in a row, earning a score of 300), and he’s had dozens of games above 290.

With such high scores, many bowlers decide to compete in national tournaments, so two years ago Matt went to Columbus, Ohio, to play in the International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO) Annual Tournament over Memorial Day Weekend. He didn’t bowl as well as he had hoped, but he picked up more than a spare in the hospitality suite after the games. Matt recalls, “I was hanging out with other fellow bowlers and friends when I saw a guy dressed in black enter our circle. He was smiling from ear to ear because he had bowled a 279 earlier in the day.”

Keep reading HERE.

IGBO 2012 and 2013

We're pleased to share the dates of the annual tournament of FGG member organization IGBO for 2012 and 2013, after a highly successful 2011 tournament in Toronto last spring.

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IGBO XXXII - Greater New York City Area
Wednesday, May 23 - Monday, May 28, 2012

The greater New York City / New Jersey area was selected to host IGBO 2012 annual.

The host committee and Northeast Region welcome you aboard the U.S.S. IGBO for a week of Fleet-sized fun!

www.igbo2012.org

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IGBO XXXIII - Tampa, FL
Wednesday, May 22 - Monday, May 27, 2013

Tampa was selected to host IGBO 2012 annual.

The host committee and Southern Region welcomes you for a week of Pirating fun! Tampa does Pirates well! So we’ve decided to share the bounty of our buccaneer experience with the participants of IGBO XXXIII. Please don’t be offended if you’re asked to Surrender the Booty - we promise that you’ll Find Your Treasure in Tampa!


www.igbo2013.org

Outsports top-100 moments in LGBT sports history: numbers 41-50

Here's a reminder of the latest ten stories in the Outsports series:

Over the rest of the summer we will release our list of the 100 most important moments in gay-sports history. We have focused on specific moments, whether they be a few minutes or a day, that have shaped the course of our history; Many of the faces of those moments will be familiar to our readers.

We focused on what we consider to be the “gay-sports movement.” There were certainly amazing gay and lesbian athletes before the Stonewall riots in 1969, but there wasn’t a push for gay equality in sports until after that fateful day in New York City. Our moments range from July 1, 1969 to July 1, 2011.

We note in this group two Gay Games-related entries: the founding of FGG member organization IGBO, and the coming out story of Gay Games Ambassador Brian Sims.

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41) The founding of the International Gay Bowling Org. / 1980 / bowling
42) Lana Lawless wins right to play on LPGA Tour / 2010 / golf
43) Brian Sims tells his story / 2009 / college football
44) Kye Allums comes out / 2010 / college basketball
45) Hudson Taylor openly supports gay rights / 2010 / wrestling
46) NBA fines Kobe Bryant $100k / 2011 / NBA
47) Rene Portland leaves Penn State / 2007 / college basketball
48) Figure skater Andrej Nepela named Slovakia athlete of the century / 2000 / figure skating
49) IOC ends mandatory gender testing / 1999 / Olympics
50) Rick Welts comes out / 2011 / NBA

IGBO recalls a fantastic bowling tournament in Cleveland

FGG member organization IGBO (International Gay Bowling Organization)has been around since 1980 and has hosted many bowling tournaments through its history. Sports Coordinator Toby Pineau shares his recollections of an IGBO Annual Tournament held in Cleveland:


One memorable tournament was held in Cleveland, Ohio in May 1998. Over 500 bowlers from the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand gathered for a superb
bowling tournament.

Cleveland showed us a fabulous time, starting with a registration event and party at the historic Cuyahoga Country Courthouse with dancing and refreshments on tap until midnight. The state-of-the-art Palisades bowling center was able to host all bowlers on its 100 lanes.

We also enjoyed visiting the city. I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Science Museum, the Galleria shopping center, and Tower City, to name of few of the attractions on offer to IGBO bowlers that weekend.

Cleveland LGBT bowlers are old hands at organizing great tournaments. They've hosted the GIFT (Gay/Lesbian Invitational Fellowship Tournament) bowling tournament each year since 1988 and by 2014 will have over a quarter century of experience in tournament organization. The organizers of the GIFT tournament know that the sports experience has to be great, but that people come to have a good time, and they ensure that all participants have the best time possible every year, with events such as the "GIFT Cruise" on the famous Goodtimes III Lake Erie cruise ship.

We're looking forward to plenty of bowlers in 2014. The nearby cities like Columbus and Toledo in Ohio, Detroit in Michigan, Buffalo in New York, and Toronto, Hamilton, and London in Ontario are just the biggest of the many cities near Cleveland and Akron. IGBO's "North American Heartland Region" includes 42 leagues and offers 10 tournaments each year.

The LGBT bowling community represented by IGBO is very happy to see one of our founding cities host the next Gay Games. We know from our own experience that they'll put on a great event, and more important, will be fantastic hosts, full of warmth and friendship, for everyone who comes to Northeast Ohio for Gay Games 9.

Game on!

IGBO Annual 2011 underway in Toronto

The FGG wishes the best to the hosts and participants of International Gay Bowling Organization's annual meeting and tournament, currently underway in Toronto.

Here are some photos from the festivities:

Board dinner at the CN Tower

Stephanie Johnstone, former FGG board member, and Larry Sanchez, IGBO director for Southwest US and Pacific

Hometown presentation of Dr Tom Waddell Trophy at SF bowling tournament

On Friday, February 18th, 2011 at 7:15pm, just before the opening of the main competition at the San Francisco Golden Gate Invitational Classic Bowling Tournament, the Federation of Gay Games will have the honor of making the "hometown" presentation of the 2012 Tom Waddell Award to Sara Waddell Lewinstein.

This is a "hometown" presentation in more ways than one. First, because it will be made in San Francisco, Sara's current home. And not just her home city, but at the Serra Bowl, which she manages, and at an event in which she is intimately involved.

"Home" as well because this beyond her own contributions to LGBT sport, to the Gay Games, to the place of women in sport and the integration of men's and women's sport, this award recognizes Sara's role in the life and work of the man it honors, Dr Tom Waddell, her partner and spouse.

And "home" of course, because San Francisco is the home of the Gay Games, the Athens of our movement.

For more information about the tournament, part of the schedule of events of FGG member organization IGBO, visit the website HERE.

IGBO launches online member community

FGG member organization International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO) has launched an exciting online member community:

Welcome IGBO Members!

Our new IGBO member community allows much-needed organization of member accounts, secure member profile information, and a host of online collaboration and social networking tools! The IGBO Member Community allows you to personalize your own member area within the site. It also gives you access to 30+ IGBO member blogs, 40+ IGBO member forums & message boards, new downloadable Media galleries, new WIKI online documentation area, and much more!

Only IGBO members can access areas and content within the IGBO Member Community site. If you are a member, and do not have an IGBO user account set up, you are welcome to set up your account right now. Registration takes only five minutes. Your information is secure and encrypted using the latest online security encryption tools.

For help accessing this community site, please direct your questions to any IGBO board member or our IGBO webmaster. Once logged in, you can post forum questions for additional assistance.

In Unity, Fellowship and Communication,

IGBO Online Communications Committee

Take advantage of close-out prices for IGBO 30th Anniversary merchandise

FGG member International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO) celebrated its 30th anniversary last year in Columbus, Ohio.

Their special anniversary merchandise is still available at their online store, at close-out prices.

You can purchase, for example, a polo shirt worth USD 40 for only USD 10!

To visit the store, click HERE. 

Register for IGBO annual tournament and meeting in Toronto

From the website of the host of Federation of Gay Games member organization International Gay Bowling Organization's annual tournament:

Toronto is honoured once again to have been selected to host an IGBO event. In 1991 we hosted the IGBO Annual and in 1997 we hosted IGBO Mid Year with both events being deemed fun for all.

For 23 years Toronto has hosted the Maple Leaf Classic annual bowling tournament with great success. We are proud to say that committee members, past and present, and many more volunteers have come forward to be part of the IGBO Annual 2011 Committee. This will make us a strong committee with a wealth of knowledge and expertise to host the 31st IGBO Annual Tournament.

Register HERE.