I wasn't amazed at the amount of publicity that Kelly Kulick (pictured right) received after winning the prestigious Tournament of Champions last Sunday in Las Vegas.

Over the years, women who beat pro male rivals in any sort of sporting event have been glamorized, sometimes it is deserved and sometimes it isn't.

I think Kelly Kulick's amazing feat is the greatest female victory over male rivals in any sporting event and I will attempt to prove it by stating facts about Billie Jean King, Danica Patrick and Julie Krone.

Billie Jean King: She was a superb tennis player but she is best known for beating Bobby Riggs in a national TV match in the Astrodome back in the early 1970s.

Billie Jean was in her prime, Bobby Riggs was over-the-hill but was a great showman. She didn't beat one of the super stars at the time, she beat a super star of a previous era.

By contrast, Kelly Kulick not only beat but annihilated the man many consider the best bowler on the PBA tour for the past five years – Chris Barnes – by a 265-195 score.

Danica Patrick: Her only victory against male auto race drivers gained international attention because it came in a "good ole boys" sport and it never had been accomplished before.

She didn't achieve the victory alone. She had a good car and a good pit crew and good communications system during the race in Japan.

Julia Krone: She is not the first woman jockey to beat male rivals, but she is the best woman jockey in my opinion as a former horse race writer. She rode in the Kentucky Derby and Breeders Cup and won millions and millions of dollars for horse owners.

But as a trainer once told me, the horse wins the race but needs the help of skillful a jockey who knows how to control the tempo of the race based on the information given them by the men/women who train the thoroughbreds.

By contrast, Kelly Kulick was alone on the lanes and had to be both smart and decisive with every delivery for 50 games spread over four days.

Let's compare formats:

Tennis: Women players are limited to three set matches so they are on the court for approximately 150 minutes, tops in most cases. Even to win one of the major titles the player only has to win seven matches spread over two weeks.

Auto Racing: In most cases, drivers (male and female) are behind the wheel of a car for four to five hours. This does not include 24 hour races where maybe two or three drivers will take turns behind the wheel.

Horse Racing: Most races take from a little more than a minute to a little over two minutes to win.

Bowling: In a major tournament like the Tournament of Champions it will require a bowler to roll a 15/16 pound bowling ball approximately 720 times during the regulation 48-game tournament.

That means working split shifts three days in a row – bowling eight games (which generally take four hours) in the morning and eight games at night each day. Before each shift most bowlers will roll an additional 20 balls during the practice session.

Now lets compare fields:

Tennis: A major tennis tournament will draw all the healthy elite players in the world plus a few local qualifiers needed to bring the field to 132.

Auto Racing: Fewer than 50 cars will start in most races but all the starters must survive time trials to decide the starting order of the cars.

Horse Racing: Most races draw 12 or fewer starters but in the Kentucky Derby more than 20 talented colts generally start.

Bowling: A few tournaments draw more than 450 contestants, but the Tournament of Champions drew 62 champions – all male champions except for Kelly Kulick.

That meant she had to finish in the top 24 after the 24-game qualifying round and then in the top four after 24 match play games where each victory was worth 30 bonus pins.

She won 14 games, lost nine and tied one while bowling against male legends like Pete Weber, Walter Ray Williams, Parker Bohn and Chris Barnes to name a few.

She qualified second Friday night, which earned her one of the four spots on the national ESPN telecast Sunday afternoon.

The word spread Saturday that Kelly had become only the second woman to make a telecast in the 51 year history of the PBA and her presence and the fact the PBA was not up against the National Football League for the first time this season resulted in a strong 1.52 rating (1.7 million viewers).

On Monday morning, Kelly Kulick and bowling got great exposure despite the fact that the two NFL games together were attracting more than 100 million viewers and front page newspaper coverage.

The $40,000 championship check she won is nothing compared to the two year PBA tour exemption she earned by winning the Tournament of Champions.

She said she was on a "mission" and case you missed it she used an Ebonite Mission ball throughout the tournament, a rarity in a long format event.

This will be the second time Kelly became the only woman to earn a tour berth for a year. She did it in 2006 but had limited success in the 20 tournaments.

For this fantastic one-time win over male bowlers to have any real lasting impact for Kelly and the PBA, she must become a consistent finalist.

Even the elite male bowlers always admit that in a one-game match anybody can win because luck can become the deciding factor.

Kelly Kulick won the Tournament of Champions title in a grueling 50-game marathon.

Kelly said she won the championship match because she was bowling against the pins and not Chris Barnes and as one woman bowler once said: "The pins don't know or care whether a man or woman is throwing the ball."

But the American public did.

Don't misunderstand what I am trying to say. I don't think Kelly Kulick is the best woman athlete ever (my vote would go to Babe Zaharias for that honor) and not even the greatest bowler (Marion Ladewig in my opinion) ever.

But I am convinced it is the greatest victory achievement by a female athlete when going up against male rivals in any sport.

Her male rivals were all tournament champions and now Kelly is one of them.

Email address: Evans121@aol.com