When Hoffman Lanes opened on the northwest corner of Higgins and Roselle Roads in 1961, a whole new avenue of entertainment rolled into Schaumburg Township with the bowling balls.
The bowling alley, now owned by AMF Bowling Centers, Inc., was originally the work of A & L Bowling Centers of Chicago. Joseph J. Abbell and Leonard Lamensdorf, for whom A & L was named, were local real estate investors and developers of shopping centers as well as bowling alleys. This was their sixth venture into the bowling business in the Chicago area.
The building was begun in January of 1961 with the promise of “a cocktail lounge, possibly a piano bar, restaurant, snack bar, pro-shop and nursery for toddlers.” (Daily Herald, 2/2/1961) They expected to employ a babysitter for the nursery in the afternoon and evenings at no charge to the customers. Two meeting rooms were also available to leagues and their organizations who were affiliated with Hoffman Lanes. The restaurant and snack bar would be under the supervision of brothers, Kanellas “Nello” and George Cafcules.
It was also expected that employees would come from the Hoffman Estates area. There would be positions available for “machine maintenance men, concourse and lounge waitresses and the control counter.” (Daily Herald, 2/2/1961)
The interesting thing is that A & L hired Hoffman Lanes neighbor, B & K Realtor Co. at Roselle and Higgins, to begin registering leagues and individuals. Obviously, there were only so many local establishments in town who could offer such a service!
Free bowling instruction would be offered every morning to adults. The 8-14 year old crowd would be instructed on the first four Saturdays the lanes were open. It was also stipulated that children under 16 would be asked to leave the bowling alley by 9:00 every weeknight unless accompanied by their parents. This would change to midnight on Saturday night, per Hoffman Estates curfew hours.
By March the building was on its way with F. & S. Construction in charge. (F & S built most of early Hoffman Estates so they would seem to be a logical choice as a contractor.) Many bowling leagues from Hoffman Estates and nearby communities had already signed up for the lanes. It was expected to house 48 lanes and now included a billiard room. Needless to say, there was a demand for entertainment.
In June, A & L hired Leslie Zikes, Sr. to be general manager of the bowling alley. He was expected to “supervise all phases of construction, internal operations and promotion of the 32,000 sq. ft. ultra-modern building.” (Daily Herald, June 1, 1961) Zikes was also expected to hire 20-25 employees very shortly.
It was at this time Zikes announced that the Lanes would feature 24 Brunswick “Gold Crown” Lanes, including automatic pinsetters (Brunswick called them “the pinsetters with the magic brain”), pinfinders and telescores. The telescore tables were special pedestal tables made by Brunswick that had a built in overhead projector designed to be used for scoring. It would be interesting if someone would comment on whether this bowling alley used the projection part for scoring or used a paper score sheet.
When the plans were discussed early on, you may have noticed there was to be 48 lanes. By June, they were down to 24 lanes and by August, when they opened, they were up to 32 alleys. Plus, it was air-conditioned! This was a real bonus in the early 1960s when central air was not a part of the early homes of Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg.
In an ad from a 1963 issue of The Record, it informs readers of the P&G Restaurant being open in Hoffman Lanes. They served breakfast, lunch and snacks seven days a week.
According to former local resident Jay Campbell, four other bowling alleys were built around 1961 with the same type of building and outdoor sign, as well as 32 or 36 lanes. They were: Meadowdale Lanes in Carpentersville, now called Liberty Lanes; Park Lanes in Loves Park; Town and Country Lanes in Springfield, now called Spillway Lanes.
To this day, Hoffman Lanes has been a successful entertainment venue in Schaumburg Township. They gained even more notoriety in May 1994 when they began holding the Petersen Classic tournament each year on 16 of their 32 lanes. The Petersen is privately-sponsored, open to any male or female bowler and runs over a period of months beginning in May and ending in August. The Hoffman Lanes sign, in fact, bears the moniker of “Home of the Petersen Classic.”
Hoffman Lanes is one of only three existing bowling alleys in Schaumburg Township and is by far and away the longest lasting. You can visit them at 80 W. Higgins Road or online here. Bowl a game or two and have a quick bite to eat. It was fun in 1961 and still is over 50 years later!
It was reported in the Daily Herald on July 3, 2015 that Hoffman Lanes had closed. Our regrets.
Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org
History of Schaumburg Township 
I am trying to jar my memory and I could be wrong, but I think use of the overhead depended on the situation. My parents and one brother where in leagues there in the mid to late 70’s. I also used to bowl with my Dad and friends there as a kid in the late 70’s to early 80’s. If memory serves me, leagues used the overhead projector scoring system and open bowling used paper score sheets. I do remember going with my Dad a lot when I was little and frequently asking why we couldn’t use the overhead. We would go just as leagues were ending and open bowling starting on Saturday and I recall we had to use paper score sheets and grab a pencil from the box at the counter but the leagues were using the overheads. I always hoped we could use the overheads 🙂 Again I could be wrong but I think that is how it was arranged at that time.
Thank you, Dave, for responding to my question about the overhead projectors. It’s interesting that there was a distinction between the types of scoring that was used by league bowling versus open bowling. Why do you think they would be reluctant to use it all the time?
Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
That’s a very good question. The most plausible reason that would make the most sense, IMO… could be cost of maintaining them. The more they are used the more bulbs they would go through plus the clear plastic score sheets, and grease crayons must of cost them more to purchase than pads of paper score sheet and pencils. I do know they would come by and ask kids not to play with the lights (me included when I was a kid) if you messed with them. We used to turn them on and make shadow puppets (some kids more vulger shadow puppets, sadly) that would project up on the screen. So I also thought the reason was to limit damage to them but thinking cost was the biggest factor.
Cost was the factor. Not only the lamp but the electricity to run them. I grew up next to a bowling alley and the owner was always retrofitting to keep up with the times. It was a cool retrofit when he put the overhead projectors in. Lots of ooooing and ahhhing over those. So with what those continual retrofits and maintenance over the years, he watched operational costs to the penny. It, like most others have gone from a place for the blue collar working guys to go bowl, drink and smoke for an evening to ‘family’ oriented fun centers. A move that had to be made for the business to survive.
Thank you for that additional confirmation Bowler. Two pieces of clarification always help!
Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
I worked there in the summer of 86. It’s true that the leagues would be the only ones to use the overhead scorers. I really don’t know if it had to do with costs involved (the halogen bulbs themselves might have been expensive), but it did have to do with league-style play. Everyone who was bowling on that particular pair was suppossed to be able to see what the scores were, and it was rather silly for people to try and huddle over the score table to see them. The overheads were actually kinda new back then, as some other places still had scoring tables with just a light over the table. It was quite a job back in those days to keeps everyone with sharp pencils and cut sheets during league time! Also, they might have had Brunswick machines when they opened, but by the time I worked there, they had AMF machines.
Not true. I worked there in the late 80s as a pinchaser mechanic during my highschool days. Back when Don Carter Lanes owned it. Hoffman Lanes always had till the day they closed Brunswick machines. Believe me, Gary Erickson, head mechanic for 30 plus years drilled it into our heads. It had Brunswick origional A1 machines, wood lanes, and overhead projectors. AMF bought the center and added their name to Hoffman Lanes o become AMF Hoffman Lanes but it still had the A1 Brunswick pin setters.
So sad to see it go. So many good memories working there.
My mom was in a ladies league with her best friend at Hoffman Lanes in 1968-69. While they bowled we girls took ballet lessons at Kassel’s Studio of Dance located inside Hoffman Lanes. Our dance recital was performed at Conant High School because there was more space there.
Wow! A dance studio in Hoffman Lanes? I certainly had not heard that one before. Very interesting detail Kim. Thank you!
Is this the same place where Jack Buck, and Whitey Harris televised top Star bowling. And a beautiful woman named Isabel always sat right in the front? What was her story and whatever happened to her?
Tom,
I will be darned, you are correct! The first place I checked was You Tube to see if they had any of the videos and, by golly, they do. There was Jack Buck doing the announcing. It looks like the show was alternately broadcast at Hoffman Lanes or Marlboro Lanes outside of St. Louis, MO. This makes sense since this was about the time Jack Buck was rehired by the Cardinals to call their games.
I didn’t watch enough of the videos to see if Whitey Harris appeared on any of the shows. Though I did a search and he did not appear.
As for Isabel, the woman who sat in front, I’m afraid I don’t know her story. The camera pans to the audience at various times and, also, the “booth” where we see Jack Buck doing the announcing. Was Isabel a local woman? Was she a big bowling fan? I’ll have to throw this out to the readers of the blog to see if anyone is familiar with her.
The interesting thing is Wikipedia barely mentions the fact that Buck called bowling tournaments but, like most sports announcers, while h may be largely known for announcing one sport, he often called many others. Bowling was obviously one of them. This means he had to be very conversant in the sport.
What an interesting comment! I am going to have to do an update of the blog post and throw it open to the blog readers. This is such a cool tidbit of information. Who would have thought the great Jack Buck came to Hoffman Estates on a regular basis in the 1960s? Wow!
Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org
Top Star Bowling is a fun show to watch on demand on YouTube. It’s neat to see what was happening within the first few months after stepping my feet on this planet after birth. Mr Buck did well in announcing the game of strikes, spares, and open frames. I’ve been watching this daily with my elder mom as well as Championship Bowling with Fred Wolf. I also watched the Professional Bowlers Tour on ABC (America’s Bowling Channel) every Saturday when Chris Shenkel and Nelson Burton Jr called the action. Mr Buck’s signed off saying “Thank you for your time this time. Till next time, So Long!”.