Budweiser’s Bowling Team Set a Record That Stood 35 Years. Then the Equipment Changed.

The St. Louis Budweisers set their bowling record with one rubber ball apiece. It stood for 35 years before new equipment helped change the scoring.

On March 12, 1958, Don Carter, Pat Patterson, Tom Hennessey, Ray Bluth and Dick Weber rolled 3,858 at Floriss Lanes. Anheuser-Busch’s sponsorship had brought an extraordinary group together on one team. Museum records preserve the scoresheet and the equal division of winnings, while Bluth’s late-life account recalls the pitch that helped bring Carter back to St. Louis. His remembered figures remain a recollection, not a recovered contract.

Those same bowlers helped build the Professional Bowlers Association as television and tournament money increasingly followed individual stars. When Hurst Bowling Supplies finally passed the Budweisers by ten pins in February 1994, Weber pointed to the equipment. Dick Evans’ contemporary column contrasted the Budweisers’ single rubber balls with bowlers carrying several alternatives. The story asks how both equipment and the economics of assembling a team shaped a record that lasted almost 36 years.

Chapters:
0:00 Weber Explains How the Record Finally Fell
0:50 Bluth Remembers the Brewery Pitch Meeting
1:50 Budweiser Brings Carter and Weber Together
3:09 The Budweisers Split Their Prize Money
4:56 Floriss Lanes and the 3,858 Record Night
6:11 The Budweisers Help Launch the PBA Tour
7:33 Hurst Bowling Supplies Breaks the Record
7:54 One Rubber Ball Meets a Different Era
8:58 Bowling Money Moves From Teams to Stars
10:52 The Careers Behind the Budweisers Photo
12:41 What the Budweisers’ Long Record Measured