Oahu Bowling Association
A Short History
In 1954, Mr.
Hiroto “Hiro” Hirashima organized nine teams for the 1954 ABC
Tournament in Seattle. They were the first Japanese-Americans to
bowl in this event. Four years later, he
founded the Oahu Bowling Association (OBA) and remained as the
Secretary-Treasurer until July 1977.
Our first office was on Keamoku St.
in the City & County of Honolulu (which is also the State Capitol) and than
we moved to 1481 S. King St. For the last 30 years we’ve been located at 2295
N. King St. in the Kalihi
Shopping Center. Than Roy Kehahuna became the
Secretary-Treasurer between 1977-1980.
Masa Aoki was the man between 1982 through 1998. Than Ronald Shim Sr. from September 1998
through the millennium July 2000. The
current Executive Director Arthur
Machado Jr. has served from September 2000.
Oahu has 17 bowling centers 7 public,
9 military and 1 collage. Many of the
military centers accommodate leagues with both military and civilian bowlers,
as well as tournaments open to everyone.
There are 5,238 active members in 115 leagues (8 are senior leagues) as
of April 14th.
Presently our association has 24 members on the Board of
Directors. The President, 3
Vice-Presidents, an Executive Director and 19 Directors. Our meetings are held on the second Sunday of
the month when scheduled. The Executive
Board which consists of the President, 3 Vice-Presidents, Executive Director
& active Past Presidents and are scheduled at least once a quarter.
The OBA website, www.oahuba.org,
has been in existence for a little over a year.
It was developed as an additional means of promoting bowling activities
on Oahu. This
includes information about upcoming tournaments, bowling news from around the
community and support for the bowlers and the sport of bowling from the
association. The website has evolved
(and continues to evolve) to include news from around the world and to expose
the bowlers to events and programs they would not otherwise have the chance to
experience such as Phantom Radio.
Sincerely,
Arthur B. Machado
Jr.
Executive
Director, OBA