Walk into any bowling alley and roll three strikes in a row, and you'll hear someone shout "Turkey!" It's one of bowling's most colorful terms, but unlike a "spare" or "strike," the word turkey seems completely random. Why would knocking down pins have anything to do with a large bird?

The tradition dates back to the late 1700s and early 1800s in America, when bowling tournaments around Thanksgiving and Christmas became wildly popular. Tournament organizers needed prizes that would draw crowds, and what better incentive than dinner itself?

The Original Prize Bird

Bowling alleys would award a live turkey to any bowler who achieved three consecutive strikes. Back then, this was far more difficult than it sounds—bowling balls had no finger holes, pins were set by hand, and lane conditions were unpredictable at best.

Getting three strikes in a row was rare enough to justify giving away a valuable bird. Turkeys weren't cheap, and for many families, winning one meant a proper holiday feast they might not otherwise afford.

The term stuck around long after bowling alleys stopped handing out actual turkeys. By the early 20th century, as bowling equipment modernized and the sport professionalized, "turkey" had become permanently embedded in bowling vocabulary.

Modern Bowling Terminology

Today's bowlers have expanded the poultry theme into an entire scoring vocabulary:

Four strikes: Hambone (or four-bagger)
Six strikes: Six-pack
Nine strikes: Golden turkey
Twelve strikes: Perfect game (300 points)

Professional bowlers now achieve turkeys regularly—some throw multiple turkeys in a single game. Modern equipment, synthetic lanes, and reactive resin bowling balls have made consecutive strikes much more common than they were in the 1800s.

But the terminology endures as a reminder of bowling's quirky history, when skill at the lanes could literally put dinner on the table. Next time you bowl three strikes in a row, you're participating in a tradition that's over two centuries old—even if the only bird you take home is the satisfaction of hearing "Turkey!" echo through the alley.

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