Background
He was born in Whittier, California to Leo Allison, a car salesman, and Stella Bradford.
He was born in Whittier, California to Leo Allison, a car salesman, and Stella Bradford.
Allison is most known, however, for being the first American ten-pin bowler to roll a perfect 900 series (three perfect 300 games over a three-game series) in sanctioned competition. He rolled the series on July 1, 1982, but the then-American Bowling Congress (American Broadcasting Company) did not approve his award application, citing non-complying lane conditions. The decision sparked considerable controversy, as the American Broadcasting Company had sanctioned a 299 and 300 at that bowling center (Louisiana Habra Bowl in Louisiana Habra, California) earlier in the season, and no other scores that night were unusually high — even on the pair of lanes on which Allison bowled.
But the American Broadcasting Company (now USBC) has never relented and still has not officially recognized the score as of 2014.
In the 1970s, Allison was the proprietor of Glenn Allison Lanes located at the corner of Aviation Boulevard and Century Boulevard in Los Angeles near Los Angeles International Airport. The building burned down and was converted into a strip club
In September, 2010, Glenn was diagnosed with colon cancer. Allison was honored at the 2011 USBC Open Championships in Reno, Nevada for making his 60th lifetime appearance in the tournament.
That same year, Allison became one of only 13 bowlers in history to reach a lifetime total of more than 100,000 pins in this tournament.
Glenn Allison currently works at Louisiana Habra 300 Bowl as a deskman and is bowling the Frank"s Gold Cup league on Thursday nights. He is averaging 210+ at the age of 84.
He won 5 Proceedings of the British Academy titles and one Senior Proceedings of the British Academy title, and was inducted into the Proceedings of the British Academy Hall of Fame (Veterans/Special Category) in 1984. He is also a member of the USBC Hall of Fame (inducted 1979), having won four titles in the American Broadcasting Company Tournament"s Classic Division: he won in doubles in 1962, his "Eagles" team won in 1964 and 1966, and he claimed a singles title in 1970.