Fifty-one years ago, there were no “professional” bowlers in this country. There were a number of well-known company teams, most of them sponsored by beer companies, who competed for cash.
A year later, Eddie Elias helped form the Professional Bowlers Association which stressed individual competition as opposed to team play. PBA members paid their own expenses and contributed to the tournament prize fund in order to have a chance to win.
But the bowling purists were certain that team bowling would attract enough spectators to make it profitable for players and sponsors alike.
In 1961, the National Bowling League was formed. It was the brainchild of bowling proprietor Leonard Homel of Los Angeles who, in 1958, retained a team of experts to put the plan on paper. The plan didn’t gain momentum until February of 1960 when an organizational meeting was held in the Palmer House in Chicago.
San Antonio, Dallas, Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Chicago, Omaha and Raleigh, N.C., bowling businessmen each put down $5,000 as an initial entry fee. Houston joined the group in March of that year.
Detroit and Miami, followed shortly by the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Birmingham, Ala., and Kansas City, Mo., joined the league. Two cities, Raleigh and Houston, pulled out in July of 1960.
The first player to sign an NBL contract was Fred Riccilli of Downey, Cal., who joined the Los Angeles team. The contract called for a salary of $10,000 for one year. By December of 1960, 20 players had joined the league.
After an initial draft in 1960, the official player draft was held in January of 1961. Joplin bowling proprietor Carl Richard was the second-round pick of Omaha, but Carl would sign with the Kansas City Stars. It’s interesting to note that Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees were among the draftees. Mantle was the 16th round pick of the Dallas club and Berra was the final selection of the New York team.
When play started in October, there were 10 teams ready to go: Dallas Broncos, Detroit Thunderbirds, Fresno Bombers, Fort Worth Panthers, Kansas City Stars, Los Angeles Toros, New York Gladiators, Omaha Packers, San Antonio Cavaliers and the Twin Cities Skippers.
Omaha, San Antonio and Kansas City dropped out of the league in December of 1961, and the Los Angeles Toros quit in January of 1962. That forced league officials to operate with six teams (Detroit, New York, Fresno, Dallas, Fort Worth and Twin Cities) for the duration of the season.
“The league competed with the PBA for television rights and the PBA won out,” said Richard who had a 208 average during the Stars’ short-lived season.
“Kansas City had a beautiful facility in the Midland Theater. We had a great crowd for our season-opening match at home (with Omaha), but the attendance dropped off after that,” Carl recalls.
“It was a first-class operation. We flew to all of our matches and (the club owners) treated us well and they paid us good. We got a $5,000 signing bonus and a salary of $15,000 a year. That was good money in those days.”
The season officially ended in May when league runner-up Detroit defeated regular-season champion Twin Cities 3-0 in a best-of-five series for the championship.
Underfunding and the popularity of the PBA led to the demise of the NBL after that one season.
The history of the league is detailed in words and pictures by John Fulgaro in his book, “National Bowling League — One Year Wonder.”
The book’s cover photo was taken at the Midland Theater and shows Carl Richard standing on the approach preparing to bowl. Two Joplin bowling friends, the late Del Maurer and the late Bob Thomason, can be seen in the crowd.
Would a national bowling league attract enough interest to survive in the sports market today? I seriously doubt it. Bowling is a participatory sport and most bowlers would rather compete than watch others. A team league would have to attract the game’s big names and I don’t believe Williams, Barnes, Duke, Malott and others would leave the lucrative PBA Tour.
That was the trouble with the National Bowling League. Some of the game’s big stars like Don Carter, Billy Welu and Dick Weber turned down NBL contract offers to stay with the PBA.
Misner, Efird post highs
David Efird’s 298 game and Chris Misner’s 765 series topped the city’s high score charts through Wednesday of this past week.
Misner’s big series include games of 289 and 245. Efird, no stranger to big games or series, finished with a 693 series.
Jamie Kohler and Bill Dutton notched a pair of 700-plus sets. Kohler, bowling at the Fourth Street Bowl, had a pair of 278 games in rolling 717 and 747. Dutton had 700s at both Fourth Street and Bowl East. He totaled 739 with a high game of 269 at the Fourth Street Bowl and shot 266-712 at East.
Lori Anderson continued her hot streak at Fourth Street with games of 211, 231 and 255 for a 697 series. Heidi Burggraf had 235-606 at Fourth Street and 217-235-613 at Bowl East. Candy Brown topped the charts at East, however, with a 258-626. She also had a 606 series that included a 222 game. Young Teri Lankford had games of 210 and 231 in shooting 621. Crystal Beeson posted a 603 with games of 202 and 222.
Steve Wiles remained on target in the senior men’s league at Bowl East, shooting 705 on games of 227, 220 and 258. Bill Byrd shot 267-222 for 676 and Tom Copher had a 268 game for the week’s high line. Setting the pace at Fourth Street were Glen Patton (569) and Bill Townsend (222-562).
Carolyn Fortson led the senior women at East with a 540 series. Millie Dickerson had the top game of 189. Bernice Cooke, bowling at Fourth Street Bowl, posted the week’s high series of 554. Billie Bilke had 203-527 and Millie Dickerson rolled 505.
The Phillips youngsters, Kenny and Katie, paced the youth majors division with 650 and 533, respectively, at East. Kenny had games of 202, 235 and 213. Darrell Brisco (259-223-660) led the majors at Fourth Street. Tyler Meyer shot 222-593 and Kenny Phillips 204-591. Zach Fort totaled 212-556 in the junior division.
College bowling growth
The United States Bowling Congress projects the 2009-10 season to go on record as the largest period of individual growth in intercollegiate bowling history.
So far this season, USBC Collegiate has added 25 new schools to its roster of institutions fielding collegiate bowling teams. Those additions are expected to push USBC Collegiate's total number of certified schools to 175, which would represent a 16.4-percent increase over the 152 schools that participated in 2008-09.
The current growth spurt has been felt across the country, but spikes have been seen in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Viterbo University, located in Lacrosse, Wis., is among the schools that are newly-registered this season. Director of Athletics Barry Fried explains what prompted Viterbo's decision to begin fielding bowling teams.
“One of the primary reasons we decided to add intercollegiate bowling was the increasing popularity of the sport,” Fried said. “It’s one of the fastest-growing sports in the country as 46 of 50 states have club or varsity bowling programs in high school. We felt the addition of bowling might give us a recruiting niche and help increase our enrollment.”
Currently, USBC Collegiate has approximately 2,775 registered bowlers in its program. That is nearly 150 more bowlers than it had last season.
Address correspondence to Wendell Redden, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802, or e-mail sports@joplinglobe.com.
