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What happens when you mix a football, twenty bowling pins, and plenty of beer? You get Fowling—the greatest game you’ve never played.
Born at the Indy 500, this mashup of bowling and football has exploded into a phenomenon that brings people back to this legendary IndyCar race year after year. But it’s not just about knocking down pins; it’s about wild team names, celebrating the biggest sporting event in the world, and trying to etch your legacy in the legendary Golden Fowl trophy.
An IndyCar fan-favorite pastime [0:00]
Various fans: Fowling: best game ever!
This came out of nowhere about 10 years ago.
This place is heaven, basically.
It is my personality!
Greg: You've probably heard of Beer Pong, King's Cup, and other drinking games, and seen American tailgating culture. But have you ever wondered what happens when you mix all of that together and toss in bowling for good measure? That is Fowling. A game born from the Indy 500 parking lot that's grown into something bigger.
What is Fowling? [0:29]
Fan 1: Fowling is very similar to horseshoes. It's like a combination of horseshoes and bowling, and..
Fan 2: Dodgeball.
Fan 1: Dodgeball, too. It has all the best elements, all combined at once. And they invented it here. And somebody had made an actual bowling lane. Somebody picked up a football and then, "Oh!!!"
The rules of Fowling: Pins, footballs and BEER? [0:53]
Fan 3: So how Fowling works is, you just throw the football and try to knock down as many [pins] as you can, and the first one to knock them all wins. I mean, [it] sounds stupid to say, but that's how you play!
Greg: The rules are simple: throw a football and be the first to knock down the other team's pins. Oh, and always have a beer ready. In fact, the beer is mandatory! You need to bring a case to enter the tournament. Two teams, 20 pins, one football, and countless beers.
Meet Chris Hutt: The man who created Fowling [1:18]
Chris: Let me get my little timer machine out. Oh. Hi, everybody!
Greg: Now that you know the rules, it's time to meet the man behind the madness.
Chris: My name is Chris Hutt, and we are in the Coke Lots here at the Indy 500. And it's the best place to be.
Greg: But where are we specifically? I know we're in lot 1A.
Chris: We are in lot 1A. This is our campsite for the past 31 years. In 2001, we made a bowling lane. That didn't work.
Greg: What happened?
Chris: Well, our backstop didn't stop bowling balls from going into our neighbors, which isn't neighborly. So, we stopped using bowling balls right away on Thursday morning. Saturday afternoon, a couple of guys were playing catch with the football. One of the balls wasn't caught. It bounced. Hit the pins. We were like, “We need to be throwing the football at the bowling pins.” So that was 2001.
Greg: And now it's…
Chris: This is the 22nd Super Fowl. I think our record was 32 states and three countries because this is 104 teams.
Greg: Wow. What are they playing for?
Chris: They're playing to win half the pot and getting their name on the Golden Fowl over there, dedicated to one of our friends who passed away. And everybody here is trying to get their really dumb team name on it.
Greg: I can tell.
Meet the Fowling players and teams! [2:28]
Claudia: What's your team name?
Fan 4: Team Smoke Break.
Fan 5: We're the Misdemeanors.
Fan 10: Surf and Turf.
Fan 2: Bohica.
Fan 11: We are Stepcousins.
Fan 3: The Cocaine Dreamers did give us a good fight.
Claudia: What's the best team name you've come across this year?
Fan 12: Ooh, best team name. Well, they're pretty raunchy. Am I allowed to say those? There's the Mike Hunt Fowling Club. There’s Lick the Box. I know a good one. My team name this year was The Speedway Spark Sluts. Hometown Heroes.
How Fowling grew from a tailgate game into a business [2:57]
Greg: When you started all of this, what got you to decide to do it for a business?
Chris: We all had our regular jobs. I worked for a construction supply company in Detroit. We would tailgate back in Detroit. People would run up, “What are you doing?” “We're fowling. Come on, join the party.” And people would leave me their names, phone numbers, and emails. And every time I would set it up, I would send out a blast on my flip phone, you know, and people would show up, and they'd have new friends. And it just kept growing. And it got to the point where, like, wow, this is something.
So, we went for it and started a business. In 2014, we opened our first bar in Detroit called the Fowling Warehouse. Now we are about to open our ninth location. So, we have national championships now. We have leagues. It's just been all right here from this same tiki bar. We always joke that sometimes day drinking pays off.
Greg: It does. Usually, day drinking does pay off. It's night drinking that's the problem.
Chris: Right, right, right.
Don’t make this Fowling rookie mistake! [3:52]
Fan 3: If you're ever going to come Fowling, don't tell them where you're from. As we said, we made it to the finals, and then everyone starts asking us where we're from. I said I'm from New Jersey, so if you look out here into the crowd, they will throw you a beer when you hit the pin with the red cup. I was getting Busch Lights all day, and the guy threw me, in the finals, started throwing me these 12% IPAs, and I threw up everywhere. And that is how they get people who are not from Indiana. That is how you lose in Fowling.
How long fans have been coming back to the Indy 500 to fowl [4:18]
Greg: Every year, 350,000 fans from all over the world descend on IMS for the Indy 500.
Fan 13: This is just the best party on Earth.
Claudia: How long have you been coming to this?
Fan 12: I have been coming since 2009.
Fan 5: About five years coming here.
Fan 14: This is my sixth year coming here.
Fan 15: My friends have been camping out here for like 20-some years.
Fan 10: Played since 2005, played every year since then.
Fan 11: We come Saturday for this, and we come Sunday for the race every year.
Fan 15: This is my 10th year. The best, best ten years of my life. It is my personality.
Claudia: Have you brought your fiancé here?
Fan 15: He is here! He's fowling right now.
The best part of the Fowling tradition [5:00]
Greg: What's your favorite part about putting on this whole event every year?
Chris: The smiles. Knowing that when we're all done with all this tomfoolery of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we get to go to the greatest thing in the world, the Indy 500. It's like a family reunion. You show up on Thursday morning, wait in line, and everyone rushes to secure their spots. You start setting up, and you just keep meeting—it's just great. It's my favorite weekend of the year. We're only going to miss it for a funeral… and then we'll have to think about it.
Claudia: What's your favorite part about this camp?
Fan 10: Just the family. Everyone's family. It's one big get-together. Every year, it's the same. It just grows.
Fan 15: Thursday morning at 7 a.m. Right when they open the gates.
Claudia: Do you guys bring the family over?
Fan 8: This is my family.
Fan 10: Yeah, sure.
Claudia: What's your favorite part of Fowling?
Fan 12: That all my friends come from all over the country, and we all get together and we have some beers. We've had racecar drivers come over. We've also had professional basketball players stop by. We've had a few flyovers that they flew over for us. Lots of different things every year. So, it's super fun. It gets bigger every year.
Closing thoughts [6:43]
Greg: Much like Carb Day, the flyover and those other staples of the Month of May, Fowling has become more than just a game. It's become a tradition and one that's brought people together for over two decades.
Fan 15: I wouldn't change it for the world. I come here—I'll come here until I die.
Greg: Friends, families, even those mortal enemies return to the same spot every year for the chance at etching their team's name in the Fowling trophy…
And for a brutal, brutal hangover.
Chris: You can see it. Everybody knows everybody. Everyone brings their stuff over. And we have this big tournament. It's a lot of work, but somebody had to do it.
Greg: Look how it's working out. Well, thank you very much.
Chris: Thank you. Thanks for giving me a microphone. I keep this, right?
Greg: Yeah, 100%. You get to interview someone else.
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