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Whatever It Takes - bowling, history

Bowling Digest, June, 2001 by Larry Paladino

Willing to do anything for bowling, Dick Weber leads our list of those who pushed the sport forward

A COUPLE YEARS AGO, WITH all the hoopla of the approaching new millennium, newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media flooded us with the "best" of the 20th century. Among the topics were the best bowlers, and the lists contained probably all the names you'd expect.

But we haven't seen any stab at pegging the "most influential" bowlers in history and by history, we're not talking about since the first prince of Egypt rolled a round stone at some wooden pegs about 5200 B.C., or even since some 17th century Dutch settlers in America set up lanes and rolled wooden balls to knock down some kegels. Essentially, the history of bowling started toward the end of the 19th century. And since then, there certainly have been some great bowlers.

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However, their greatness doesn't automatically translate into "influential" contributions to the sport, although ability is one of the criteria for our list. Some of bowling's most influential people might not make it into a "best" 10, but they affected the sport in other ways, such as media coverage.

Although newspapers covered bowling extensively in the first half of the 20th century, it wasn't until the second half that the biggest deliverer of the message emerged: television. Untapped millions of people, most of them recreational bowlers, suddenly were able to see the best bowlers in the world in their own living rooms. They could see what those bowlers did that made them excellent and emulate their styles. Movies also were of some influence before 1950, but nothing like TV. Were it not for TV, hardly any attention would have been paid to bowling in the past several decades, especially as print-media coverage began to erode. Unfortunately, though, TV's presence also diminished at the end of the 20th century.

In the 21st century, it may be up to the Internet to pick up the slack. Chris Peters, a former Microsoft executive who headed up the purchase of the PBA last year, might be an indicator of what's to come. Perhaps watching bowling online--and even playing simulated games against opponents across the world--will be the wave of the future.

But our focus here isn't on the future--it's on the people who got bowling to where it's at today. You probably can guess some of our choices, but others may seem more surprising. So let the arguments begin. Here are BOWLING DIGEST'S 10 most influential bowlers.

1. DICK WEBER

Who could dispute Weber's influence, from his exceptional ability to his longevity to his personality to his sense of public relations? He always has been at the forefront of the game, willing to do whatever it takes to call attention to bowling--and without getting bent out of shape like some bowling purists do if a promotion seems a little off the typical track.

Weber appeared on CBS's "The Late Show with David Letterman" in 1994, throwing ball after ball into such items as an aquarium filled with eggs, a TV set, a pyramid of champagne glasses, and a video camera. He could good-naturedly perform such an exhibition because of his credentials.

The 71-year-old from Indianapolis, who first achieved bowling fame as a member of the fabled Budweiser team in St. Louis, not only earned 26 PBA regular tour titles but has piled up Senior tour victories as well. He owns an ABC Tournament title and had 14 other top-10 finishes. His credentials have earned him a spot in five halls of fame.

Weber was the first bowler to win PBA titles in five decades, to cash in every PBA tournament over a span of two years, and to win three consecutive titles twice. And he is one of only five men to reach the elite 100,000 pinfall club in the ABC tourney.

"The game has changed dramatically over the years," Webber said in 1994. "You either have to learn how to play with the new technology or you quit. And I'm a long way from being a quitter."

The 5'9", 160-pound righthander never was someone who relied on strength to generate a hook; instead, he utilized the right kind of velocity and rotation to send the ball to the pocket and produce strikes, If he wasn't blasting pins at a tournament, often he could be seen in other very public settings calling attention to the game. In September 1968, for example, on a lane set up outside Madison Square Garden in New York, Weber, Andy Varipapa, middleweight boxing champion Dick Tiger, and Louisiana flycasting expert Ann Strobel participated in an exhibition.

"I had a little contest with the lady flycaster," Weber says. "She had to cast a weight, trying to hit a little four-inch circle for 10 points, while I bowled for a normal score. I lost. She was amazing. She never missed."

In another high-profile moment, Weber joined another strike-throwing specialist--Milwaukee Braves pitching great Warren Spahn--at the Polo Grounds in New York in 1964 to swap tools of the trade. Weber, the Bowling Writers Association's Bowler of the Year in 1963, gave Spahn a bowling ball after the future baseball Hall-of-Famer won 20 games for the 13th time. Spahn gave Weber an autographed baseball.

Whatever It Takes - bowling, history

Bowling Digest, June, 2001 by Larry Paladino

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