$150.00 - Luxembourg American Heritage Information Center

Section 8's Bowling Team, 1956
Standing: Unidentified, Ed Votava, Nick Hoffmann. Kneeling: Steve Heinz, John Gerich.
The Kirmes picnic has grown larger every year during the 1980's. The events are designed
with children in mind. Attendance has risen from one hundred in 1979 to almost five hundred
in 1987. The first place raffle prize in 1979 was a ten-speed bicycle. In 1987 the first prize was
round trip airfare for two to Luxembourg.
One of the purposes of the Luxembourg Youth Organization was to entice young men to join
the L.B.A. by interesting them in group sporting activities, one of which was bowling.
Joe Murphy, Sr, a member of Section 8 since 1954, remembers when the L.B.A. ran a bowling
league at the Markay Lanes in Chicago. At the end of the season, the L.B.A. would charter
a bus and travel to Aurora and compete against Section 7. These affairs came to an end in
the late 195O's.
During the mid 1970's, John and Glenn Murphy began bowling in the Morton Grove
Moose League at Schaul's Alleys on Dempster Street. When Schaul's closed in 1979, the Moose
were required to relocate to alleys further away from their base. As their membership declined,
the six Murphy brothers, Fred Schneider, Bill Elesh, Jim Stoneberg and Bruce and Rick
Hoffmann induced Section 8 to sponsor them. From one team in 1979 to ten teams in 1981,
the L.B.A. was again in the business of sponsoring bowling leagues. Today, the L.B.A. sponsors
a mixed bowling league at the Skokie Lanes, owned by Section 8 members John and
Jim Hammersmith.
104