"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport - the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the human drama of athletic competition..." ABC's Wide World of Sports Introduction
Every Saturday, when I was a much younger soul, like clockwork this poem recited. After the bowling match reached its conclusion, the last "so long" from the bowling venue ushered in these fine words. So familiar was its chant that you could close your eyes and just imagine the terrible spill that each week on cue, the unfortunate ski jumper would undertake.
While Sarah Palin (r.) was the biggest name to appear at International Bowl Expo in Las Vegas, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate took a back seat to an announcement made minutes after finishing her keynote address Wednesday morning. Palin learned of the return of the U.S. Women's Open in 2011 presented by the brands of Ebonite International.
Happy Independence Day! I am back from the 2010 Bowl Expo and annual Bowling Writers Association of America (BWAA) Board and general membership meetings. For me, this trip is akin to country music fans going to Fanfare in Nashville annually. As the proverbial kid in the candy store, I hardly knew where to start. This year was exceptional as two of New Jersey's "favorite sons," Tom Martino (right, Majestic Lanes, Hopelawn) and Johnny Petraglia (left, multi-hall of famer, Jackson) received top honors.
Whether you agree with her political views or not, Sarah Palin knows how to tailor a speech to her audience. Wednesday morning at the International Bowl Expo in Las Vegas, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee (center) came well prepared to talk to a group of bowling center owners and industry leaders. "You are an audience full of fellow sports enthusiasts, that's how I view all of you," she said. "I grew up in a family of sportsmen.
The bowling industry's biggest annual gathering - International Bowl Expo 2010 - is on the horizon and the Bowling Examiner will be there to provide first-hand coverage. This year's event, which carries a theme of "The Best Is Yet to Come," will officially begin Monday at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Las Vegas Hilton and run through Thursday. The estimated 5,000 attendees will have plenty of chances to learn the
latest about the sport, recreation and industry. 
Since covering the first of more than 200 PBA tournaments starting in 1964, I firmly have believed the Professional Bowlers Association is the best thing ever to happen to the Bowling Proprietors Association of America. As the Saturday afternoon ratings for the ninety-minute live Saturday afternoon PBA tour stop on the ABC-TV network grew to an amazing 8.5 million viewers, so did membership in the ABC and WIBC plus the BPAA. The PBA helped fill bowling centers, especially on Sundays and at no cost to the BPAA.
Professional golfer Jeff Sluman, an avid bowler since age 5 in his native Rochester, N.Y., who put two bowling lanes in the Hinsdale, Ill., home he's now selling, knows well the basic similarities between two of his favorite sports. "You have to have tremendous concentration for those three, four or five seconds when in bowling you are rolling it down the lane or in golf hitting a shot," he once said. "You have to be able to relax in between shots. And in the pros, both are individual sports."
A bowler can come to harbor many delusions over the course of 20 years in house shot leagues, but few compare to the delusion that I myself once entertained as a member of the same league as the great Bo Burton at Stuart Lanes in Stuart, Fla. in the 2004-2005 season. There, as I watched Bo rack up one 700 series after another and, on occasion, an 800 series, I almost believed that the discrepancy between the 214 average I myself recorded there and the 235 average that Burton maintained was merely a matter of 20 pins or so.
Jeff Bojé (r.) delivered the most inspirational speech I have ever heard at Bowl Expo when he was elected president of the BPAA during the 2004 convention in Las Vegas. Since Bojé's term as BPAA president was over and he had idle seconds in his life, he ran for USBC president and the board elected him to the position. His term ends Aug. 1 and he will preside over his final USBC convention April 27-May 1 in Reno, Nev.
When reading about USBC's recent quest to coach the two-handed style of bowling, I could not help but think back to some articles that were shared about the early days of the ABC and how the leaders of the time governed the game. In those very early times of governance, when the game was still being defined at a rapid pace, a new crop of hotshot bowlers came into vogue because some of the more ingenious players figured out how to make exotic bowling balls and use them to their advantage. Those early high tech balls were known then as 'dodo balls' and the players that used them were called 'dodo bowlers.'
The Storm Golden Ladies Classic tournament will be held at the Orleans Hotel-Casino and Bowling Center in Las Vegas from March 8-10. The tournament is open to all women over the age of fifty. The Storm Golden Ladies Tournament isn't just an ordinary bowling tournament. This year, almost 80 bowlers entered the event and, although it is a highly competitive event, it is a social event. It is more like a tea party, and a chance for old friends to gather and enjoy themselves in friendly competition.
The theme of the grand opening was "The Stars Shine Bright Deep in the Heart of Texas" and it was no exaggeration writes Joan B. Taylor (r.). The grand opening of the International Bowling Campus in Arlington Texas was embedded in a bowling summit over three days. People came in from all over the country and a few from outside the US for the Southern Bowling Writers Dinner and Roast, a BWAA Board Meeting, and two days of seminars wrapped around a mini-expo.