northendbear;842656473 said:
Yep - worked there and bowled on the team (yes, Cal had an intercollegiate bowling team).
Many, many hours of working, practicing, and also spent my share of time playing asteroids as well (used to hear the audio from that game in my sleep).
Don't recall when they starting taking the lanes out, but recall that they removed half of the lanes and replaced them with pool tables initially, then later removed the remaining 8 lanes and finally converted the whole thing to a book store.
I have made a few attempts to find out where the bowling team trophies that we had on display went to - including the National Championship that we won when I was there, but have never been able to locate them. Hate to think that they were tossed out in the dumpster during the remodeling, but ...
I worked in the Underground during the early nineties. At that time, one half of the bowling lanes had been removed and replaced with pool tables as you recall. I believe that happened late eighties. I'm not exactly sure when they removed the rest of the lanes but I believe it was mid- to late-nineties when they moved some of the arcade machines upstairs and put the bookstore downstairs.
Working there, I did get to try and fix issues with the lanes (usually stuck pins or bowling balls) and those machines were ancient. Also, every Sunday, the lanes were waxed with this machine that we had to pull halfway down and then it would drive itself to the front. I usually brought a change of shoes and socks because the wax (or oil?) would seep into my shoes.
There were some incidents that occurred during the time that I worked there that lead to the Underground being closed to the public which put a serious dent into the money that was being made. Friday and Saturday nights became like a dead zone.
A little while after I graduated, I heard about an armed robbery that occurred after hours. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the final nail in the coffin for the Underground being open late.
