Pro Bowling’s Ugliest Secret Still Threatens The Game
The PBA inspected every ball a pro threw — and never once checked whether he was trying to win. Hall of Famer Carmen Salvino wrote down what the inspectors could not reach.
A Bowler Paved The Way For Michael Jordan
In 1964, Don Carter signed a one-million-dollar endorsement with Ebonite—the first deal of its kind in American sports, forty times what Arnold Palmer earned from Wilson that year.
The Lane Change That ERASED a Bowling Generation
A mid-1960s switch to polyurethane lane finish — chosen for insurance math, not bowling — quietly ended the careers of the generation that built the PBA.
Bowling Erased a Whole Profession in 8 Years
The AMF Automatic Pinspotter cost more per game than the children it replaced. The pinboys weren’t erased because they were expensive — they were erased because they were human.
The PBA Let One Man Decide Your Whole Career
Frank Esposito was the PBA regional director who blocked Ernie Schlegel from the tour for four years. He was also the owner of the alley where he had already barred him as unsavory.
The Truth About Bowling Lanes Is Made of Paper
The wood grain on most American bowling lanes is a photograph of wood, pressed from kraft paper in one factory in Maine. How the sport swapped its floor without anyone noticing.
Cheap Lanes Are Never Coming Back: The One-Way Rent Deal
In 2023, VICI Properties — the Las Vegas casino landlord behind Caesars Palace — bought the ground under 38 Bowlero centers. Bowlero’s own SEC filings book the cash as a financing obligation, not a sale.
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The PBA Has Turned Bowling Into The WWE (seriously)
The Professional Bowlers Association hands its Playoffs winner a real WWE championship belt. Not a prop. The two executives who
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The PBA Called Him a Gimmick to Hide What He Was
The Professional Bowlers Association put Ernie Schlegel on ABC in a sequined jumpsuit and called him a gimmick. What that
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The PBA Hall of Fame Has 2 Standards. Only 1 Is Written
The PBA Hall of Fame has a written standard: ten tour titles, or five with two majors. Guppy Troup had