Family Comes Before Bowling - bowler Nelson "Bo" Burton Jr

Paul Kreins

Though it could be argued that tenpins runs in his veins, Nelson "Bo" Burton Jr. believes that the ties of blood are stronger than those of sport or business

NELSON BURTON JR. was born into bowling. His father, Nelson Burton Sr., was an accomplished champion and considered one of the greatest matchplay bowlers of all time. The senior Burton was also in the bowling business, having owned five different bowling centers over a period of years. Frequent friends and guests at the Burton household included many of the greatest bowlers of the era such as Ned Day, Buddy Bomar, Billy Welu, Harry Smith, and Glenn Allison..

Burton Jr.--or "Bo," as his friends call him--recalls that his first bowling ball was a hand-me-down from Mr. Day, given to him at age three. "It was a duckpin ball," Burton says, "and I remember putting it in a vise and drilling holes with a hand drill." Junior's first bowling experiences in those pre-bumper days were always positive because the pinboys knew his father owned the bowling center. "Whenever I threw it in the gutter, the pinboys just set up a pin there so I'd always hit something."

As a youth in St. Louis during the 1950s, Burton worked in his dad's bowling center because all the pinboys had been called off to the Korean War. Bo graduated high school a year early and went into the Army for an eight-year hitch, serving as an infantryman and battlefield medic. After his military stint he started bowling again while attending a Jesuit college. While there, he entered and won the 1964 PBA Coca-Cola Open in Louisville, and after college he joined the PBA tour full time.

Burton feels his "instant success" was a matter of experience and the advantage of living in St. Louis, a place he calls "the Mecca of bowling" at the time. "Billy Welu lived across the street from our bowling center, and he was the captain of the Falstaff team," he says. "I got to bowl with Harry Smith, Glenn Allison, and Ronnie Gaudern before I was 20.

"When I hit the tour full time, I didn't have to go through what guys go through today. The tour transition wasn't even a transition--it was just something that was ready-made for me."

The most important thing he needed to learn about bowling on tour was versatility. Often thought of as a bowler who throws it "pretty straight," Burton insists his biggest problem coming out on tour was that he hooked the ball too much. "Billy Hardwick was beating us all, so I learned to throw the ball straight," he says. "I think that was the best thing I did to give my career longevity."

Burton bowled full time for about 11 years, until he was selected to replace the inimitable Welu in the ABC-TV announcer's booth as Chris Schenkel's sidekick on "Pro Bowlers Tour" telecasts. During those 11 years, where he focused solely on bowling, he amassed Hall-of-Fame credentials by winning 12 PBA tournaments and seven ABC titles, including the 1976 Masters. He was the PBA player of the year in 1970.

After cutting back to a part-time bowling schedule, Burton won five more PBA tournaments, including the 1978 U.S. Open, and two more ABC titles. His nine ABC tournament titles are the most in history, and his ABC average of 206.66 for 23 years was the highest lifetime average until 1984. He was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 1979 and the ABC Hall of Fame in 1980. Burton Jr. and his father are the only father-son combination in the ABC Hall of Fame in the performance category.

ALTHOUGH MOST PEOPLE remember Burton for his bowling accomplishments or his color commentary on "Pro Bowlers Tour," his primary source of income came from real estate development in the St. Louis area. He bought his father's bowling center in 1978 and hooked up with an excellent business partner with whom he developed real estate projects such as strip malls, condominiums, and apartments. He also purchased half-interest in a 500-acre farm where he raised corn, wheat, cattle, and soybeans. His projects became a lucrative and diversified source of income. So much so, that his television and tour responsibilities were becoming more difficult and less rewarding to fulfill.

In 1978, with two children and a third one on the way, Burton went to ABC-TV Sports chief Roone Arledge to tell him he was going to leave the tour and, consequently, the broadcast booth. His bowling center and other projects were making more than he could earn traveling every week. Instead, Arledge made Burton an offer he couldn't refuse, which kept him on television but effectively ended his career in the bowling business. "I just couldn't do it all," he says, "especially a cash business like a bowling center." He sold the center later that year.

Burton's partners in his real estate business and the farm allowed him to continue those ventures successfully. "A lot of things I've had lucky in life are great partners," he says. "In television, nobody can deny how terrific Chris Schenkel was. In my farming business I had a great partner named Dave Terbrock, and in the real estate business my partner was an incredibly smart and honest guy named Jeff Iken. These guys were so good they allowed me a lot of time to concentrate on my television career."

Television was an excellent opportunity for Burton. After his meeting with Arledge, Burton went from receiving a free-lance weekly paycheck to being a full-time salaried and vested employee of ABC-TV, complete with pension and stock options. "TV became the deal," Burton says. In the 1980-81 season ABC-TV expanded its schedule from 13 to 21 shows, and "PBT" consistently outperformed all its competition, including major league baseball.

As ABC-TV came to rely more on the PBA tour as a steady lead-in to "The Wide World of Sports," Burton's commitment to television grew accordingly. "We were doing 18 to 24 shows a year," he recalls. "Now that became a full-time job. It was more production, bowling tips, commercials, and promos."

Burton's business-like approach to his new career paid off with four Emmy nominations in the sports analyst category. However, at the same time, his bowling took a back seat. "I just didn't have the commitment to bowling anymore," he says. That is, until Dennis Swanson took over the ABC Sports reins from Arledge.

"Dennis Swanson added years to my bowling career," Burton says. Swanson encouraged Bo to bowl more, at least on the winter tour, in order to stay in touch with the bowlers, the fans, and the PBA. Burton continued to be competitive right up until the PBA tour's run on ABC-TV ended in 1997.

Part of the credit for Burton's longevity goes to his penchant for exercise and fitness. Long before bowlers were commonly perceived as athletes, Burton raised the bar when it came to fitness, nutrition, and bowling. A former wrestler, he routinely lifted weights and ran, and he watched his diet carefully. "My bowling ability may not have been as good as a lot of players," he says, "but my physical ability allowed me to compete with them, and the longer we went the better chance I had." He still runs three days a week and lift weights; he even competed in amateur power lifting competition. "At age 57, I had the best lift of my career--180 pounds--and did a 280-pound bench press," he says proudly.

AS BURTON'S CAREER blossomed and his celebrity status grew, his personal life took a different direction. Behind the scenes and away from the public eye of television, he became driven to cut back his bowling schedule and business commitments because of his desire to raise and care for his four children, whom he had been awarded custody after his 1989 divorce.

"I made a commitment to give my children as fair a chance as I had, because I had terrific parents," he says, "so I cut everything back in 1990." With his youngest child only four years old at the time, Burton all but quit bowling for three years while he got his family life organized. Only when his girls entered college did he feel free to begin bowling again.

Today his children are happy and successful. Catrina, 30, is the chief financial planner for City Group Worldwide. Niki, 26, went to Alabama on a golf scholarship, graduated with a radio/television journalism degree, and now works for an advertising agency. Twenty-one-year-old Nelson Burton III, known as "Tripper," is a sophomore on a golf scholarship at Missouri. Brett, 14, is better known as the "Axeman," a moniker he picked up while boxing competitively. "He likes that name," Bo says, "But we have to get him to stop boxing because he's too good at other sports." Brett is a high school freshman and scratch golfer.

All of the Burtons bowl some, but with a home on a golf course, golf is now the true family sport. "My daughter won the club championship and the state championship, and went to Alabama on a scholarship," says proud papa Bo. "My older son won the St. Louis High School sectional and went to Missouri on a golf scholarship. And, believe it or not, my little boy can beat them all."

Along with talent and desire, Burton credits Brett's practice regimen and training for his success at such a young age. "This summer he'll get up at 5:00 a.m., chip and putt for an hour, hit 400 balls, chip and putt for another hour, hit 400 more balls, then chip and putt for another hour," Burton says. "Then, if there's enough time, he'll play nine or 18 holes. When you combine that routine with a tremendous youth program, it's easy to see how these kids get so good. It's not that different than when we were kids growing up in the bowling center." Burton pauses a minute, reflecting on the state of today's bowling industry. "But you don't see much of that anymore."

He can't help feeling bad about the current state of the sport and the business and the lack of money available to today's pro bowlers. "The last Senior tournament I bowled in--the biggest event of the year--I made the finals, made $1,400, and lost money for the week after expenses."

Publicly, Burton has had a positive effect on thousands of people and young bowlers. Privately, he affected hundreds more in a more direct manner. Over the years he sponsored young bowlers on tour (when it was legal to do so), helped players financially, gave brotherly or fatherly advice, coached struggling bowlers, gave away bowling equipment, and made his home available to every bowler passing through St. Louis, regardless of their rank in the PBA hierarchy.

"I have had so many good breaks in my life," he says. "I really get on my knees every day and thank the Lord for it, and I don't mind sharing it--especially with pro bowlers. I know how tough it is on tour, so that's the way I felt I could help other pro bowlers."

Bowling has been very good to the Burton family, especially Bo. "My late mother once said, `Bo, no matter what happens, remember that that black 16-pound ball has been very good to us. Don't ever forget it, and always be true to it.'" However, despite having been bestowed with every honor the sport has to give, Burton's proudest moment came earlier this year when the ABC included him among the 20 greatest bowlers of the millennium. "It was really special to be recognized with a group of guys who could really bowl," he says.

Bo Burton is enjoying life. When asked what he's doing these days he says he plays golf and still bowls a little, mostly doing exhibitions and charity events with friends like Johnny Petraglia, Mark Roth, and Parker Bohn III. Today, at age 58, he admits he can't beat any of the touring pros, but he still enjoys bowling. "I enjoyed the camaraderie, and I still enjoy bowling with the guys," he says. "I like the tour players. The people we had on the tour were really nice guys."

Most of Nelson Burton Jr.'s time, however, is spent taking care of his home and his kids. "With three kids at home ..." His voice trails off in rumination. "You know what it's like. This morning I was stripping beds, doing the laundry, doing the grocery list, got the carpet cleaning guy coming in, got to cut the grass, drove my son to school--" Another pause, then a whopper of an understatement: "It fills my time."

He reflects for a moment, then sums it all up. "I'm just a responsible father who has had some really lucky things happen to him. It's just like a big old picnic around here, and I'm just the oldest kid."

COPYRIGHT 2000 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group