Talk about dominating your sport. RIP, Mr. Strike.
Don Carter, First Big Star of Golden Era of Bowling, Dies at 85
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Professional Bowlers Association
Don Carter bowled with a distinctively ungainly style.
Baseball had Babe Ruth, boxing had Jack Johnson, and, during its golden age in the 1950s, bowling had [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDIgzpIKg-Q"]Don Carter[/ame].
Carter, bowling’s first superstar, died at his home in Miami on Thursday. He was 85. The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son, Jim, said.
A founding member and the first president of the Professional Bowlers Association, Carter was a powerhouse on the lanes at 6 feet 1 inch tall and 195 pounds, and so dominant that he received a $1 million endorsement contract — an unheard-of sum for an athlete at the time.
He bowled with a distinctively ungainly right-handed style, eschewing a traditional backswing, bending his elbow and knee and pulling the ball back around his stomach, then pushing it forward.
“I think there were probably 10 million bowlers who tried to emulate that,” said Bill Vint, a spokesman for the P.B.A. “I don’t think anyone did.”
Carter’s prowess catapulted him to the top of the field of competitive bowlers that sprang up after neighborhood alleys began proliferating in the 1950s. He won five of six World Invitational bowling titles, grueling 100-game tournaments that would test the mettle of any current star; won four all-star titles in tournaments run by the Bowling Proprietors Association of America; and was a charter inductee of the P.B.A.’s Hall of Fame in 1975.
“I often thought that if I could build a robot of the perfect bowler,” the bowling historian Chuck Pezzano said on the association’s Web site, “I would take most of the parts from Don Carter.”
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Don Carter, First Big Star of Golden Era of Bowling, Dies at 85
Enlarge This Image
Professional Bowlers Association
Don Carter bowled with a distinctively ungainly style.
Baseball had Babe Ruth, boxing had Jack Johnson, and, during its golden age in the 1950s, bowling had [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDIgzpIKg-Q"]Don Carter[/ame].
Carter, bowling’s first superstar, died at his home in Miami on Thursday. He was 85. The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son, Jim, said.
A founding member and the first president of the Professional Bowlers Association, Carter was a powerhouse on the lanes at 6 feet 1 inch tall and 195 pounds, and so dominant that he received a $1 million endorsement contract — an unheard-of sum for an athlete at the time.
He bowled with a distinctively ungainly right-handed style, eschewing a traditional backswing, bending his elbow and knee and pulling the ball back around his stomach, then pushing it forward.
“I think there were probably 10 million bowlers who tried to emulate that,” said Bill Vint, a spokesman for the P.B.A. “I don’t think anyone did.”
Carter’s prowess catapulted him to the top of the field of competitive bowlers that sprang up after neighborhood alleys began proliferating in the 1950s. He won five of six World Invitational bowling titles, grueling 100-game tournaments that would test the mettle of any current star; won four all-star titles in tournaments run by the Bowling Proprietors Association of America; and was a charter inductee of the P.B.A.’s Hall of Fame in 1975.
“I often thought that if I could build a robot of the perfect bowler,” the bowling historian Chuck Pezzano said on the association’s Web site, “I would take most of the parts from Don Carter.”
More
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