The World Bowling Writers (WBW) International Bowling Hall of Fame was established in 1993 and is located in the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, on the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas.
The International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame was located at 11 Stadium Plaza, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and shared the same building with the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum, until November 8, 2008. It moved to Arlington and reopened in early 2010.[1] In 2012, the WBW was merged with the International Bowling Media Association.[2] After the merger, the WBW Hall of Fame inductees became part of the IBMA Luby Hall of Fame.[3]
WBW Hall of Famers are chosen strictly in the basis of athletic performance, to even qualify for consideration, a player must be an amateur and accumulate a minimum of 15 points in any combination of four specifically designated international competitions;
with gold medals occurring in an event other than five-person team. Five points are credited for a gold medal, three points for silver, and one for bronze.
Each summer, the WBW Administrator scans a database to determine eligible candidates and sends ballots with those players’ names and resumes to current officers of the World Bowling Writers, which formed the Hall's Board.
There are two categories: “Men” and “Women.” Voters can cast one vote in each category for every three names listed there, and one vote for any group of “leftovers” names in each category that totals less than three. The man and woman who receive the most votes are elected.
In the case of ties, more than one man or one woman can be elected, provided that each candidate in the tie receives at least two-thirds of the total votes cast in that category that year. If that standard is not met, no one is elected in that category that year.
See footnote[5]
| Year | Male | Female | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inductee | Country | Inductee | Country | ||||
| 1993 | Rafael Nepomuceno |  Philippines | Olivia Coo | Philippines | |||
| Annette Hagre Johannesson |  Sweden | ||||||
| 1994 | Philippe Dubois |  France | Jeanette Baker |  Australia | |||
| Arne Svein Stroem |  Norway | ||||||
| 1995 | align=center colspan=2 | None | align=center colspan=2 | None | |||
| 1996 | Ying-Chieh Ma | Asa Larsson | Sweden | ||||
| 1997 | Cheng-Ming Yang | Martina Beckel |  Germany | ||||
| 1998 | align=center colspan=2 | None | Cara Honeychurch | Australia | |||
| 1999 | Les Zikes |  United States | Edda Piccini |  Mexico | |||
| 2000 | Tomas Leandersson | Sweden | Lita dela Rosa | Philippines | |||
| 2001 | Gosta Algeskog | Sweden | Irma Urrea | Mexico | |||
| 2002 | align=center colspan=2 | None | Eija Krogerus |  Finland | |||
| 2003 | Kaarlo "Kalle" Asukas | Finland | Pauline Buck | ||||
| 2004 | Anders Ohman | Sweden | Shalin Zulkifli |  Malaysia | |||
| 2005 | align=center colspan=2 | None | Diandra Asbaty | United States | |||
| 2006 | Tito Reynolds | Mexico | Lynda Barnes | United States | |||
| 2007 | Tore Torgersen | Norway | Zara Glover | ||||
| 2008 | Bill Hoffman | United States | Ann-Maree Putney | Australia | |||
| 2009 | Gery Verbruggen |  Belgium | Clara Guerrero |  Colombia | |||
| 2010 | Mika Koivuniemi | Finland | Kirsten Penny | ||||
| 2011 | Raymond Jansson | Sweden | Shannon Pluhowsky | United States | |||
| 2012 | align=center colspan=2 | None | align=center colspan=2 | None | |||
| 2013 | Osku Palermaa | Finland | Kelly Kulick | United States | |||