PBA Celebrates Its First 50 Years In Style
Las Vegas, Nev. - 1/28/2009

By Dick Evans

Many times in life things of great expectations fall short of expectations after you walk away from the event.

Seldom do things of great expectations exceed expectations and you want to pinch yourself to make sure you are experiencing reality and not just dreaming.

The PBA’s 50th Anniversary Gala celebration dinner and the H&R Block Tournament of Champions Jan. 21-26 were spectacular in so many ways and to everyone who was fortunate enough to share in the historic event.

I went out on the limb and billed it as the Greatest Bowling Show on Earth in a story a few weeks earlier and it actually wound up being the greatest bowling show of the universe.

You don’t have to take my word that this was a bowling event for the ages because everyone I met were overflowing with pride and praise.

Ask the spectators who stood in long lines to buy the Luby Publishing Company’s 50 Greatest Players in PBA History Book put on sale for the first time.

Ask the 40 players (five were deceased and five could not make it to Las Vegas) what it meant to see hundreds of hundreds young and old bowling fans lining up to ask the greats of yesterday and greats of today to sign their special 50th Anniversary Posters and Books.

The book was in such hot demand that they sold out before half of the fans standing-in-line got a chance to purchase the superb book.

One lady who got every signature reportedly was offered $300 for her copy...but refused the offer for the book that cost her $19.95.

Ask Peggy Elias (widow of PBA Founder Eddie Elias) who was overflowing with pride and happiness. She said her late husband would be proud of “his boys,” – the fond way Eddie described PBA players in the early years.

“Every part of the weekend has been marvelous,” Peggy said while on stage as the final speaker at the Gala dinner. Peggy even took a moment to congratulate the PBA’s Janay Leddy for the way she brought the celebration dinner together.

It indeed was a feat.

Forty players were there with their wives and three – Norm Duke, Del Ballard and John Handegard – were there with their families for the induction into the PBA Hall of Fame ceremonies.

Also there were key members of The Bowling Foundation, which was the sponsor of the dinner.

Everybody who was anybody in the bowling world in this country was there – USBC leaders, coaches, proprietors, manufacturers, ball drillers, writers and even Women Hall of Fame members Robin Romeo, Betty Morris/Laub, Judy Soutar plus Carolyn Dorin-Ballard – and they seemed to enjoy every minute so that meant they enjoyed about 330 minutes of nonstop exchanging old bowling stories, drinks and great food plus the introduction ceremonies.

“What a great night to honor the 50 greatest PBA players,” said Fred Schreyer, CEO and Commissioner of the PBA. “It was a special evening, way beyond what we expected or hoped for.”

The PBA went the extra mile to make it special...showing video clips of all 50 bowlers, a special PBA 50th Anniversary program book at every seat, beautiful glass trophies for each bowler plus a special designed bowling ball with each bowler’s picture in it.

The Hall of Fame inductions also were special. John Handegard did the best job in my estimation, Del Ballard had some funny moments but far too many minutes and Norm Duke spoke the way he bowls – like a champion.

Pete Weber said a few words about his legendary father Dick Weber, who was voted the No. 3 bowler in PBA history; Walter Ray Williams was superb with his remarks that he thought “Earl’s record is better than mine because it was more condensed; Susie Anthony (Earl’s widow) was endearing with her remarks “that if Earl were here, he probably would say he wasn’t deserving. He wouldn’t turn it down, but he be very humble.”

I got the impression that every person in the audience of about 430 was humble to be there on that special night in bowling’s history.

On the next morning, about 10 hours later, Rhino Page probably would have been a candidate for one of those Southwest Airlines TV commercials about “don’t you wish you could escape?”

Rhino, the hottest young player on tour, had victory within his grasp on his second strike attempt in the 10th frame in his championship match against Patrick Allen, a fellow lefthander, his roommate and sometimes coach.

But Rhino made a rookie mistake after asking for a rerack after he already had taken the two allowed in a TV game. He got nervous because he saw the 25-second clock was about to expire so he made a hasty decision.

Instead of accepting a small fine for taking too much time between shots, he rushed and made his shot to beat the 25-second clock.

Haste makes waste in most things in life and it certainly did for Rhino, who knocked down only four pins on the crucial shot and lost the H&R Block Tournament of Champions title by a 267-263 count on the Lumber Liquidators’ PBA tour.

In a way it reminded me of the TofC finals the previous year at the Red Rock when Chris Barnes, one of the best spare shooters in the business, missed a single pin spare late in his match and that cost him the title.

This was a fun week for all the participants and it showed off and on the lanes at the Red Rock. There was a lot of hugging, a lot of laughing and a lot of admiration and a few touching of wine glasses.

The match that tickled my funny bone came in the position-round duel between Sean Rash and Pete Weber.

Neither was in the hunt for one of the four spots on the ESPN telecast so they had fun and the fans roared.

Rash did a rash thing in the middle of their match. He took Pete’s bowling ball when it rolled back on the rack and used his towel to wipe it down. Pete thanked him and threw a strike.

So Pete asked him to do it again, Rash wiped Pete’s ball again and it resulted in another strike.

Then Pete took Rash’s bowling ball and wiped it off and sure enough Rash struck. But this time Rash took a dollar bill out of his pocket and folded it in the neck of Pete’s shirt.

It was spontaneous entertainment at its best and the crowd loved it.

The only disappointing moment for me personally was when Chris Peters, one of the three former Microsoft executives who purchased the PBA in 2000, escaped the building before I could put my tape player in front of his smiling face.

But I did hear Peters tell an interested person something that makes me feel confident the PBA will be around for a 51st year.

And this is all by memory but it went something like this:

Chris Peters said he was still hoping the PBA would break even this season but even if the PBA only lost a little money it wouldn’t be terrible because so many big companies are losing big-time money.

And that includes big time sports organizations like the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and NASCAR.

Long live the PBA and long live the players that made it great.