Eight pins down, two to go in the aftermath of a good throw in a Fowling Warehouse. Image by Tom Adkinson

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. – When you score in the delightfully peculiar sport of fowling, you don’t know whether to holler “Strike!” or “Touchdown!” or “BONK!”

Fowling is the illegitimate offspring of a union between football and bowling. “F” from football, “owling” from bowling. It’s pronounced with a long “o” as if it were spelled “foaling.”

Each Fowling Warehouse has multiple lanes placed close together, meaning that errant balls can affect adjacent games. Image by Tom Adkinson

The sport is simple. Set up 10 bowling pins in the traditional configuration at both ends of a fowling lane (or is it a gridiron?) and then assemble two teams of up to five players to chuck a football at the bowling pins. The traditional overhand quarterback style is what most players use, but underhand is perfectly acceptable. Kicking isn’t.

Sounds easy, right? It’s not. In between the teams’ alternating throws, beer often is involved. In fact, beer was central to the invention of fowling because it began as a tailgating activity at the Indianapolis 500 in 2001.

Fowling Warehouse bartender Jeff Kowalski visits with Noni Hutt, one of the originators of the laughter-inducing sport. Image by Tom Adkinson

Originators Chris and Noni Hutt saw potential for a highly social activity beyond a tailgating party and in 2014 opened the first Fowling Warehouse just outside Detroit in Hamtramck. It opened with 20 lanes and plenty of beer coolers. Friends came to play, a fowling league formed, and charities used fowling frivolity for fundraising.

Normal play in fowling is offense only. Team A cannot try to keep a ball thrown fairly by Team B from hitting the targeted pins. However – and this is a laughter-inducing however – when a ball from one lane bounces into another lane, any pins that go down count.

First-time fowling player Tom Mesereau calls on long-ago high school football skills to score points in a completely new way. Image by Tom Adkinson

As the official rules state (yes, fowling does have rules): “A pin down is a pin down during normal game play. Any non-malicious act that knocks a pin down counts. Examples: wind, accidental grazing of pins while clearing boards, dogs, earthquakes, footballs from adjacent games, etc.”

The rules also explain a BONK. That’s when a player’s first throw with all 10 pins still standing hits the 5 pin (the one in the center of the formation), knocks it off the board and leaves the other 9 pins standing. The opposing team gets one attempt to score its own BONK. If it fails, the BONK-throwing team wins that game.

All eyes are down the field, or lane in fowling terminology, on every throw in a sport that often depends more on luck than true skill. Image by Tom Adkinson

Throwing a strike (downing all 10 pins on one throw) is a game winner, too, no matter when that happens in a game.

The first and last of the house rules (not the game rules) speak volumes about fowling: “No Knuckleheads” and “Have Fun.” Image by Tom Adkinson

The Hamtramck Fowling Warehouse operated until mid-2026. By that time, Fowling Warehouse franchises were open in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dallas, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Kansas City, attracting new fowlers eager to score their first BONK.

Trip-planning resources: FowlingWarehouse.com and VisitDetroit.com

(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available at Amazon.com.