50-year family tradition lives on

ISLAND LAKE – Much has changed at the bowling center that Jerry DeLaurentis Sr. opened in December 1960, just off the corner of state Route 176 and Roberts Road in Island Lake.

The center was called 3-D Bowl for the DeLaurentis men who opened it – Jerry Sr. and his sons, Jerry Jr. and Solly. It was a 12-lane alley with a small lounge and a pizza parlor. Over the years, Jerry Jr. and his son, Jerry DeLaurentis III, would take over ownership and expand the project.

As the family gathered with friends, customers and former employees in December to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the 20-lane automatic-scoring center played host to the party.

"After 50 years, it's a lot of people," current owner Jerry DeLaurentis III said. "There were people who haven't worked there in years that showed up, customers from back in the '70s who got wind of it and came out, and a lot of family."

The center they see has undergone a pair of major changes over the past half-century. The first came in 1978, when the center expanded to 20 lanes and added a game room with pool tables.

An even larger expansion came in 1994, when Sideouts Bar and Eatery was added to the current bar site, bringing five outdoor volleyball courts and a full sports bar atmosphere to the bowling center. An in-house pro shop also was part of the expansion.

"They go well together," DeLaurentis III said.

Along the way, the center was at the forefront of changes in the bowling industry. They brought in bumper bowling to help expand the game's appeal to children in the early 1980s. Automatic scoring came along in 1987 – one of the first area centers to get the service, DeLaurentis III said – and in 1996, 3-D Bowl became the first center in the country to add touch-screen monitors for the scoring system.

"We were the first install in the entire nation for that, so that was cool," DeLaurentis III said.

The latest trend is toward shorter bowling league seasons, and 3-D Bowl has plenty of options for players with busy lives at home and work.

"The traditional bowling leagues, the ones that lasted 35 weeks or almost the whole year, are going by the wayside," he said. "Now we have every other week leagues, short-season leagues, and a lot of leagues that include parties at the end of the year.

"We make it more for people who can't commit that long anymore. The leagues really are now for just about anybody."

That includes youth and junior bowlers. DeLaurentis III said the center had about 150 youth bowlers in leagues, a pretty steady figure over the past few years.

"That seems to always be growing," he said. "The bumper bowling has really helped. The kids used to get frustrated and discouraged, but now they're not."

The technological advances have helped bowlers to enjoy the game more, but they've also helped DeLaurentis and his staff of 40 at the center and bar to manage things more efficiently.

"From [my father and grandfather] doing the scoring and sharpening pencils every day and ripping up scoresheets, now a league bowler comes in and his name is on the lane with his handicap, his scores are driven right to the website, and he can look for his scores and average there," DeLaurentis III said. "Between the website and e-mailing, even taking reservations over the website, it's amazing."

More than anything, though, DeLaurentis said he is proud to keep the tradition of 3-D Bowl in the family.

"Through the 50 years, we've been through three generations of family ownership, which is kind of cool," he said. "We had a lot of people tell us that they didn't know many businesses that had been around 50 years, let alone be owned by the same family that long."