JOHN
M. BRUNSWICK
Sport: Bowling
Inducted: 1996
Country: United States
Born: October 6, 1819, in Bengarten, Switzerland
Died: July 25, 1886
John Brunswick is the founder of the bowling and billiard manufacturing
empire. A small carriage manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio, Brunswick
built his—and America’s—first billiards table in 1845,
a milestone that
would spark the growth and popularization of the game worldwide.
Within two years of the introduction of that first table, orders were arriving
from both sides of the Atlantic. Brunswick’s tables were outrageously
ornate by contemporary standards, and the best of them were often considered
works of art. In 1888, two years after his death, the company entered the bowling
manufacturing business. In 1890, Brunswick’s son-in-law, Moses
Bensinger,
was named Brunswick president. Under his stewardship, the
Brunswick company became a major factor in developing and popularizing
various versions of the sport of bowling, particularly tenpin bowling,
throughout the world.
Brunswick emigrated to the United States in 1834
and after working as
an errand boy in New York City, found employment in Philadelphia
as an
apprentice carriage maker. Eventually settling with his family in
Cincinnati,
Ohio, he worked for two years as a steward on an Ohio River steamer,
before opening his own carriage works in 1845. In 1848, sensing the
need to expand his burgeoning billiards business, Brunswick summoned
his half-brothers from Switzerland, and a sales office was established
in
Chicago, Illinois.
As the company grew to become a worldwide household name, it underwent
several name changes. In 1872, John M. Brunswick & Brothers became
known as J. M. Brunswick Billiards Manufacturing Co. In 1884, after
successful mergers with Julius Balke’s Great Western Billiard
Manufactory
and Hugh Collender’s Phelan & Collender Company, the name
was
transformed into Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a name it
retained
until becoming the Brunswick Corporation in 1960.
In 1995, the
Illinois State Historical Society presented the Brunswick
Corporation with its Sesquicentennial Business Award in commemoration
of the company’s 150th anniversary. It was the first
Sesquicentennial Award ever conferred by the Society. The company
has also been
recognized as Chicago’s oldest continuously independent public
company. |