Pause for a second and contemplate this question: What is the fastest growing high school sport in America? Give up? Here’s a hint. It’s not lacrosse. It’s not hockey. It’s not golf. Still stumped? It’s bowling.

Surprised? I was too. But think about it. How many bowling birthday parties did you go to when you were a kid? According to the United States Bowling Congress, there are more than 10 million birthdays celebrated in bowling alleys annually.

To prove how popular of a sport bowling has become, the Bowling Proprietor’s Association of America held its 23rd annual National Bowling Week and, as part of the celebration, gave everyone in America a coupon for a free game on Saturday in an attempt to break the record set during last years’ National Bowling Week of 548,721 games bowled in 24 hours. Bowling centers across the nation participated in the event, including Ithaca’s own Bowl-O-Drome and the Helen Newman Bowling Center at Cornell University. Helen Newman lanes contributed 342 games to the record attempt.

In order to achieve its goal, the BPAA enlisted the help of celebrity bowlers, including NBA All-Star and avid bowler Chris Paul and former MLB first baseman and current broadcaster Mark Grace, to endorse the event. With their help, Henry Lewczyk, vice president of marketing and research for Strike 10 Entertainment, said he wanted to set the record at one million games bowled in 24 hours.

“On Saturday during the game of the week between Tampa Bay and Detroit, Mark Grace probably talked for a minute and a half about how much he liked bowling during a nationally televised game,” Lewczyk said.

Last year, to kick off National Bowling Week, the BPAA set up a bowling alley on Fifth Avenue in New York City. This year the president of the BPAA made an appearance on CNBC’s Power Lunch on Monday. On Tuesday a bowling alley was set up in Fox Studios, which was featured on “Fox and Friends.”

Lewczyk said that even though there are approximately 3,000 participating bowling centers in the United States, reports of number of games bowled will be sent in from centers worldwide because of military bases abroad. Every military base has a bowling center, and they report the number of games bowled to the BPAA.

Lewczyk said with bowling participation numbers constantly on the rise and the sport spreading worldwide, he sees no reason why it should slow down.

“It’s a lifelong sport,” he said. “Available to anyone at any age, and it’s well loved. Everybody has fun — from a six-year-old to a 100-year-old.”