International Bowling Industry- April 2010

THE WORLD'S ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE BUSINESS OF BOWLING

CONTENTS

VOL 18.4

PUBLISHER & EDITOR Scott Frager frager@bowlingindustry.com Skype: scottfrager

6 THE ISSUE AT HAND

22 COMPASS POINTS

Apollo O-Yeah!

Walking and riding and camping and taking pictures on the still-wild side of Africa.

By Scott Frager

By Gregory Keer

groh@bowlingindustry.com

OFFICE MANAGER Patty Heath heath@bowlingindustry.com

CONTRIBUTORS Gregory Keer Bill Mossontte Chuck Pezzano

8 NEWS FRONT Stu Upson talks about USBC’s financial health.

Peoplewatching.

MANAGING EDITOR Fred Groh

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26 BACKSTORY What was your first job, Tom Martino?

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Victoria Tahmizian tahmizian@bowlingindustry.com

ART DIRECTION & PRODUCTION Designworks www.dzynwrx.com (818) 735-9424

FOUNDER Allen Crown (1933-2002)

12 CENTER STAGE

28 BOWLING STARS

The furniture is alight and patronage has been on fire from opening day for Zagreb’s new center.

Really, how many bowlers have you met who were better?

By Bill Mossontte

13245 Riverside Dr., Suite 501 Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 (818) 789-2695(BOWL) Fax (818) 789-2812 info@bowlingindustry.com

www.BowlingIndustry.com

HOTLINE: 888-424-2695 14 OFF THE CLOCK

22

Hello, dolly

30 THE ATTIC TRUNK New York, New York: it’s a hell of a (bowling) town

Tami Nobiletti’s hobby is absolutely not for kids.

By Chuck Pezzano

46 REMEMBER WHEN

18 COVER STORY

1948

The heart of the matter

A year when you could buy a bowling ball in a jewelry store.

You can’t sleep all the time when you’re in the hospital. You have a lot of time to think.

36 Showcase

By Fred Groh 30

38 Datebook 39 Classifieds

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THE ISSUE AT HAND

Apollo O-Yeah!

I love the Olympics, even though the Winter Games have not been my favorite. This year, however, the Games became really memorable for me by opening my eyes–in more ways than one.

I’ve always relished the competition between countries. I love the athletes, their skills, their grace under pressure, and their sportsmanship. I enjoy learning about the host country and the far-flung sports that are a part of the Games.

On the other hand, I always poked fun at the curlers. It’s simple and easy, right? How hard can it be to glide a piece of granite (“stones,” as I learned they’re called) across a field of ice? And what’s up with their argyle uniforms? It gives them a clown-like look, not like the serious athletes who win places in other sports at the Games.

Those were my thoughts until this year. Then I happened to get into a conversation with family friend Zachary Rubiner.

He’s an 11-year-old who taught me a lot about the sport of curling and about sports humility. More on this in a minute.

I don’t think there’s anyone this side of Greece who enjoys the Winter Olympics as much as my mom. This edition of the Games was especially enjoyable for me because both parents, Barbara and Bob, were in town visiting from Kansas during the opening ceremonies and the first week of the competition.

Until their visit, I used to laugh at the flamboyance of the skaters, both ice and speed. I admired their talent, for sure, but just couldn’t wrap my head around the sport of it. Having Mom and Dad around to help with color commentary definitely gave me a better understanding of the events and put me in my place about my own, not-so-refined sporting skills.

Their visit also led me to my favorite sport this year, men’s speed-skating.

To watch American Apollo Ono was eye-opening. To understand something of the strategy, skill, power and raw endurance needed to pull off his amazing performances was, well, awe-inspiring.

As I watched the Games, I was reminded that just as these athletes can win or lose by mere thousandths of a moment or fractions of a point, business success can be told in one quarter at a time as well as in million-dollar mergers.

And from my folks and Zachary, I re-learned the lesson that it’s okay to enjoy a sport that doesn’t make the daily news. It’s okay to admire athletes that don’t have multimillion dollar sponsorships from major consumer brands. And it’s okay to respect a sport that isn’t mainstream.

Now, if we can only get Mom, Dad and Zachary together with the International Olympic Committee, bowling will become a gold-medal sport. .

– SCOTT FRAGER, PUBLISHER AND EDITOR frager@bowlingindustry.com

THIS MONTH AT www.BowlingIndustry.com Spectacular centers in a continuous slide show...the cuttingedge look of our industry.

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NEWS FRONT

Is USBC headed for Chapter 11? Booze on tournaments lanes?

SMART funds going for USBC needs?

STU UPSON

ANSWERS READERS AND RUMORS

IBI

: What is USBC’s current situation? Stu Upson, E.D., USBC: The financial situation is solid but we need to be very careful moving forward. I say that because we have to start balancing our budget every year and building up reserves, which we haven’t been doing consistently in the past.

It was unbalanced last year? Correct. It’s been up and down.

One year positive, one year negative, and there’s a lot of varying factors. [Editor’s note: In FY ending July 31, 2009, USBC reported an operating loss of $5m and a one-time benefit of $1m on $52m total revenue. In the preceding FY, the operating loss was $0.9m with a one-time benefit of $0.4m on $51m total revenue. Figures rounded from audited financial statement of Jan. 25, 2010.]

This year our challenge has been that we forecasted membership correctly but our tournament entries, both the Open Championships in Reno and the Women’s Championships in El Paso, are down about 10% versus what we had forecast, and down 10% versus previous years.

It’s been the economy, we think. We talk to a lot of cities about their convention business and they’re all down 15, 20%. So the big picture: we’re not doing too badly. We still have a lot of people showing up for these tournaments, but it’s below forecast.

Is Chapter 11 probable? No, absolutely not. We have plenty of money. If we’re smart, we have plenty of money to not only survive but start building financial strength again. We have a plan to do that.

We did some restructuring earlier this year where we reduced some staff. Thirteen positions were eliminated. We trimmed a little bit in several different departments so no one department was affected more severely than the others. Everybody took a little bit of the pain.

But we built up staff in other areas—all in an effort to balance the budget. We’re going to have a balanced budget for this year. We’re going into the budgeting process for next year, where we will have a surplus.

How did USBC get into this financial condition? Two things, I believe. First, the economy is hurting us, like it is everybody else. That’s not an excuse but it’s a reality. People aren’t

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traveling to tournaments, people aren’t spending as much money as they have in the past.

Number two, we have a building up in Greendale, WI, which we are trying to sell. When we moved down here to Texas, the plan was to sell the Greendale building, and the market there, as in most places in the country, is not ripe for a sell. So we’ve got a building there, which is on the market for $5.5m, which nobody wants to buy right now, and we’re not standing on being able to sell that for probably a couple of years. We’re also looking at leasing options.

Was the Clash of Champions cancelled because of your financial situation? Yes. The original plan was based on sponsorship and the sponsorship money isn’t there so it was a money-losing venture. We decided to put it on hiatus for this year.

Any other tournaments you will cancel? For this year [20102011], no. We are looking at everything for next year [20112012]. I say that in a very broad scope, not just tournaments.

We are doing an evaluation right now as part of our budgeting process for the next fiscal year. We are looking at every program. I think at our convention [April 28-May 1, Reno] we’ll be able to let the delegates know what we’re looking at program-wise. I think it’s safe to say that there will probably be some programs that we are currently doing that we will put on hiatus for next year.

Everybody seems to think alcohol will now be allowed at tournaments in order to raise money from alcohol sales. I would disagree. Yes, we will make money on it, but that’s not the reason we are doing it. We think that most bowlers who go out to our championship event prefer to have the ability to order a Pepsi, a cup of coffee or an alcoholic beverage. We’re trying it for a year. We’re only testing this right now at the Open

NEWS FRONT Championships. We are investigating possibly doing it at the Women’s Championships; we’re talking to the convention and visitors people there. Just those two right now as a test. We’ll talk to the bowlers to see how they like it, but the feedback we have gotten from most of the people has been extremely positive over this position.

Obviously there’s a very vocal group who think it’s a mistake and I understand their position completely. But this is an effort, by me and my group here, to try to make the tournaments more appealing and a better experience for everybody who attends. Because if people go and they have a better time, they’re going to come back and they’re going to bring more teams with them next year. That’s the driving force behind this position. Yes, on top of that we hope to make some incremental revenue.

What’s your long-run game plan for “building financial strength”?

We have to get our membership declines under control. Everybody knows we’ve been declining 5 or 6% every year, and this year we’re looking at exactly the same. We are in the process of looking at our membership products, trying to make them more appealing to a broader range of bowlers. That process [must] be allinclusive–not just the staff here in Arlington, [but also] the states, the locals, the proprietors, the bowler: what do they want? [We want] to create a new membership structure which we would be in a position to introduce for the 2011-2012 season.

Perhaps because of rumors about USBC’s financial condition, questions are popping up about SMART, the program for holding and investing scholarship money for young bowlers. Is SMART money invested or parked? Somewhere in between. It’s invested very conservatively. It’s a mix of stocks and bonds and cash. We’re trying to find the right balance between having a decent return–certainly nothing that’s high-risk–but we also want to be safe.

We don’t want to lose value.

[Editor’s note: About 70% of SMART investments are currently 100% insured by both FDIC and SIPC, according to USBC CFO Susan Merrill. The investments include CDs and Treasury bonds, all of which are 100% insured.]

Do youth bowlers get a share of increases in the portfolio value?

The providers do, so yes. If there are any gains at the end of the year above and beyond the basic value that a provider gives and any other monies we get on the side, [the gains] go back to the provider and the provider has the ability to pass those funds on to the scholarship kids.

‘Provider’? The proprietor, the association, the league, the tournament operator—anybody who is physically putting the money into the smart account on behalf of the kids.

The SMART funds are completely safe in that they’re not comingled with USBC funds; they’re in separate, protected accounts.

We don’t use the money for anything. They’re SMART funds, not USBC funds. There are a lot of rumors going around that we have been using the funds ourselves or co-mingling them. That is absolutely false. ❖ 10

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PEOPLEWATCHING New Director of Youth at BPAA is Chad Murphy, who will have charge of managing and developing programs to grow the sport among young people. He comes from Ebonite, where he was brand manager for Columbia 300.

Chad Murphy

Jamie Brooks, our cover profile in March, was named for USBC’s Proprietor of the Year Award.

Throughout his career, Brooks has focused on league bowling and incenter coaching instruction, and has been a consistent promoter of sanctioned (now USBC) tournaments and supporter of bowling programs in Jamie Brooks high schools near his centers.

Other recognition awards for the year went to Minnesota state and local association leader Harry Stewart and to California local leader and bowling writer Tina Martin.

Dean Ryan

Dean Ryan, manager of Ft. Meade Lanes at the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Meade, MD, has been named 2009 Army Coach of the Year. Ryan, who has coached the All Army team for the past seven years and led the team to victory over the Air Force in 2009, also coaches the All Armed Forces Team that competes against civilian teams.

Also on the coaching front, Norm Strehle has been inducted into the Washington State BPA Coaches Hall of Fame. Strehle has been coaching juniors since 1976, has taught high school club teams for 21 years, and coached in Special Olympics for 25 years, the past five as head coach.

Norm Strehle He has taught thousands of youngsters to bowl through local parks and recreation department programs.

Kelly Kulick

Kelly Kulick was one of about 250 women attending an International Women’s Day reception at the White House on March 9. The event was hosted by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Kulick said she did not have a photo op with the Obamas but did meet the president.

CENTER STAGE

Bar to the left, reception desk and shoes against the “Bowling” wall. Colors change at the bar and in ambient lighting.

CENTER

STAGE Trg Bana Jelacica, city’s main square.

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Bowling 300 Zagreb.

“We know every other bowling place is named like this but we still think this is a strong number and that it brings luck.”

Marko Macek, who is an investor in the center but not a bowler, says the prospect of hosting the 46th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in October was a lure in building the new center.

But the payback began as soon as Bowling 300 opened late last year. “We have an impressive entertainment center that brings together sports and fun and people of all ages,” a delighted Macek says.

They also have, in the city of Zagreb, Croatia’s first tenpin bowling center. ❖

CENTER STAGE

Through the window, 32 glowing lanes. The house also has four lanes of QubicaAMF’s Highway 66 small-ball game.

Snack bar on the left, eight billiard tables straight ahead.

Red-and-black seating in the Media Room, where patrons have Internet access, watch TV or just talk.

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13

OFF THE CLOCK

Hello,

dolly T

ami Nobiletti’s dollhouses are not kid stuff. Give one to an eight-year-old, something is bound to get broken, and too much work has gone into them.

About a year’s worth, for the country store (this page and top of page 16). Starting life as a miniature log cabin, it turned up in a corner of an auto junkyard the owner hadn’t visited in 15 years. Somebody picking over the rusty skeletons unearthed a battered old trunk. It had to be pried open. Inside, the little cabin was all cedar and in scale at one inch to a foot. Nobiletti thinks it’s at least 25 years old and was originally a display model in a store, but nobody knows for sure.

The country store she turned it into is one of a trio of dollhouses in the craft room at Nobiletti’s house (which is not in 1-inch scale). It’s the only one she’s finished, which she explains by saying, “A dollhouse is like your own house. How many years does it take to really decorate it the way you want?”

At least 26 years in the case of her two-story Victorian farmhouse (page 16), because she’s had it that long, but she’s been bearing down the past three years. The roof filigree (not in photo) is carved out of balsa wood in hearts and bows “just because it’s a dollhouse and it should be overdone,

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A bit of ease for the farm folk round about: the latest newspapers and canned goods, china and children’s toys, and a warm stove if you stop in on a cold morning. Also mail, since the store is the local post office, too.

“I try to do as much by hand as I can. The only thing I buy, because I don’t have the attention for it, is dishes.

You make a lot of that out of clay you bake. It’s something I avoid.”

Cans on the shelves are made with wooden dowels.

“The labels you can buy. I cheated; I got a magazine and printed them. I made over 300. [Vegetables:] I bought some and I made some. They’re all individual.”

OFF THE CLOCK you know? Dollhouses are fairytales.”

She also has a shell–roof and walls–that she’ll turn into an English Victorian residence in stucco and brick.

She started into the hobby when she was about 18. When she finishes all three houses, some years hence, she could sell them for around $4,000 apiece in today’s dollars but she plans to “save them.” Both her kids want one. They’ll get it–with a caveat.

“When I’m gone, if I see your kids playing with them, I’ll come back and haunt them.” ❖

The Victorian farmhouse under construction. Each shingle was individually placed. Nobiletti is creating the siding (still to be applied) and doors. The house is open in the back. Dollhouse shells are bought for around $750.

The bed started life as a kit of unfinished wood. The green fabric was Christmas ribbon. The doll is a quarter-century old, purchased in Cape Cod from the doll-maker, who was in her late 70s, hand–made all the lace, and painted the face.

“I’m a pack rat,” says Nobiletti, who draws on the resources of her center, Family Bowl in Plant City, FL. “Caps to spray bottles in the bowling alley are the size of a stool. I have an awesome group of seniors. They do tatting, a very fine crocheting. They might make eight inches that doesn’t go with anything; eight inches can outline a whole room of curtains.”

Some furnishings are gifts. “I love that because I can look at a room and say this person gave me this and this person gave me that. That means a lot to me.”

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A platform of old cedar was added to create a floor and porches for the country store. In the front, folks can set a spell in the rocking swing.

Everything in scale: 1 inch to 1 foot. Dollhouse hobbyists also work in 1/2 to 1.

COVER STORY FRED SCHREYER (RIGHT) AND KIRK VON KRUEGER, PBA VICE PRESIDENT AND TOUR DIRECTOR, AT THE PBA ONE A DAY DICK WEBER OPEN IN JANUARY. IT WAS HELD AT FOUNTAIN BOWL, FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA.

COVER AND STORY PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDY TEMPLETON, ANDY TEMPLETON PHOTOGRAPHY

By Fred Groh

The heart T of the matter You can’t sleep all the time when you’re in the hospital. You have a lot of time to think.

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he plan was to fly down from Portland on Friday and rent a car from Phoenix to Tucson.

Son Billy was coming in from L.A. and everybody, including daughter Elizabeth, a student at U of Arizona in Tucson, would be together for Parents Weekend at the school.

Fred Schreyer says the plane was five or 10 minutes into the flight and still ascending when he felt the pain.

Not like a jolt, he says, picking over his

COVER STORY words, but like a clench. Like a lock–up of the muscle under his shoulder blade. He settles on ‘cramp.’ “It felt like a cramp. Exactly, like a very severe cramp.”

Schreyer did not know what a heart attack feels like, never having had one. He was wrong about the location, too. He thought he would feel it in the heart area if one ever happened. Instead, the cramp swung around his side and up his chest to end above his breast.

“Gosh, honey, my back’s really hurting. Can you rub it?” That to wife Randi in the seat beside him. “She’s very good at giving back rubs.”

It didn’t work in this case, though.

The seat belt sign was still on but Schreyer was too uncomfortable just to sit. He flashed for a flight attendant. No, he didn’t think this was an emergency.

“Well, do you think you’re having a heart attack?”

“Well, I don’t necessarily think so. I just know I’m very uncomfortable.”

“She goes on the PA system to ask if there’s any medical personnel on the flight. Quite a few call buttons go off, and a guy sitting a couple of rows behind me comes up, sits down and asks me what’s going on. I tell him and point him. He feels it. He says, ‘Wow, you really do have a knot back there, but I doubt it’s a heart attack.’”

To this day, Schreyer doesn’t blame the Vancouver GP for making a mistake. He doesn’t blame Alaska Airlines for not turning the plane around or asking if he wanted to go back. He got something of a kick out of the overhead oxygen mask they released for him at his seat when he started getting clammy. With the mask’s spotty performance, he was thinking, “Boy, I hope I never need one of these in an emergency because I’m not getting anything,” meaning oxygen.

Schreyer was not at all panicked. He was thinking he didn’t want to ruin the trip. Something had to be checked but he’d do it in Tucson. He was just uncomfortable. ✻

Tucson. “They’re looking at me like, ‘You’re not driving anywhere.’ The guy said to me pretty quickly that he thought I was showing all the classic symptoms of a heart attack. I’m just thinking, ‘Wow, is this really happening? I can’t believe this is happening!’

“Randi stays with me. She’s on the phone when we get off, to talk to [Billy, their son]. He had flown in on a different airline. He came over and picked up my wife’s bag, maybe we both had checked a bag, I can’t remember. She had prepped him for it. ‘Your dad’s okay but he’s having a little incident and he’s with the paramedics.’”

They all took the paramedic van immediately to the ER at St. Luke’s. ✻

✻✻

They give you a local anesthetic. They make an incision in the groin area and come up through the veins to the artery. A tiny balloon is inserted into the clogged artery, then inflated to force the artery wall open. Metal mesh stents–two in Schreyer’s case–are put in to hold the artery wall open permanently, then the balloon is collapsed.

Schreyer had landed at 9:45. His angioplasty took about an hour. It was 11:30 when he was wheeled into intensive care.

After five days, monitored to be sure his body had accepted the stents and that he was not reacting against medication, Schreyer was discharged from ICU and the hospital.

He and Randi went over to the home of Randi’s sister, who lives in town, cleaned up, and were on a plane back to Portland that night.

Within two weeks, he was back at the PBA president/CEO’s desk full-time. ✻

✻✻

“I definitely had some periods in the hospital where I was reflective.

✻✻

Two hours later, the pain fluctuating but always there, paramedics standing by at the airport had no trouble figuring out what was happening. Schreyer had been wheeled off the plane before the other passengers, jabbed with an IV and given nitroglycerin to open the blood vessels. That had stopped the pain.

They were taking some tests and Schreyer was asking whether he could get on with his drive to CHECKING TV COVERAGE AT THE WEBER OPEN. IBI

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COVER STORY My wife was there. We kind of sent [the kids] down to Tucson, said, ‘Go have some fun and come back’; they came back on Sunday and spent the day. So I had company.

“But you’re also by yourself a lot. It’s not like you’re sleeping all the time. You’ve got plenty of time to think.” ✻

✻✻

A year before Fred Schreyer’s Oct. 16, 2009 heart attack, the country was in the first months of the downturn and he was thinking a lot about PBA business. He was still marching toward his goal–to move PBA into self-sufficiency, then growth–but economic upheaval in the country had tilted the road upward.

On the personal side, his wife was turning 50 and a big birthday trip was in the planning stage. Their son had graduated from college and there was some discussion about his settling in L.A. Elizabeth, their daughter, was a freshman in college.

Schreyer was giving an occasional thought to how much longer he wanted to work. “I never thought of myself getting old. You just live and then all of a sudden, ‘What’s going on here!’” He wanted to get to the point where he and Randi could do more traveling and he could play more golf, “but those [were] just kind of general feelings, never much more specific than that.”

A year and a half later, and six months after his heart attack, life has not changed terribly much. Conducting business at PBA is “doing a lot of things differently” and Schreyer has been thinking about how the changes have been received and how effectively they’re working. He focuses on the sales side of the company. But he doesn’t charge any of this to the heart attack.

Personally, he says he feels good. He hasn’t dramatically changed his diet, which was pretty heart-healthy anyway. He always tried to make time for workouts and finds he’s lost about 10% of his stamina since the attack. That, he says, he’s trying to get a handle on.

“You’re curious: how hard can you push yourself? At what point do WATCHING THE PLAY WITH TRACY WEBER, PETE’S WIFE.

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you stop worrying about what’s going on [in your body] and ‘just do it’? How much of this is just getting older and how much is an after-effect of the incident?”

Does he dwell on the attack? Yes and no.

“It is something [I] think a lot about because people are nice, always asking how you feel. People always want to talk to you about it. Less so with the passage of time but still, you’re thinking about what you can do, how you feel. Any time you have a little ache or pain you go, ‘What is that? Is that another incident?’ It makes you more sensitive to the little aches or pains.”

Feel more mortal?

“Without question, yes. Yes. “My first wife had cancer and I watched her die in a 13-month period. That’s really a hard, painful thing.

[But] it’s one thing when you know you’re dying or you watch yourself die or you watch someone die. With a heart attack, the suddenness of it— you think, ‘I’m 56, I’m taking pretty good care of myself, and it doesn’t matter.’ That’s the part where you go, ‘Wow! This could have been all over—just like that.’

“And then you say, ‘God, I would have left everything a mess.’ You wouldn’t have done any of the planning you think you need to do before you die.”

A lot of the mess in his case would have been in family matters, Schreyer says. He still had insurance policies showing his deceased wife as beneficiary.

His will needed updating.

But in business, too. “How do things go on without you? Have you prepared a transition? How much is in your head and how much is committed to writing?”

Contemplating the disarray, was he more concerned with finishing things or with preparing things?

“I don’t know you’re ever finished so I guess probably more preparing, although in some ways preparing and finishing almost become the same from time to time. It’s anticipating, having certain things in some type of order. That there’s—maybe that’s because it’s my personality—some logical transition. That whatever happens after you move on is fairly orderly and not overly complicated and difficult.”

More struck by the situation or more goaded into action, into actually doing something, like making plans?

“Initially it was more to start making plans and doing things to prepare. With the passage of time, it’s more [being] struck by the situation.”

The situation strikes him deeply, because he says it again: “You think you’re more or less doing the right things and just like that, something can happen.”

Did he change priorities, then?

“You certainly say you’re going to do that, and

COVER STORY you want to do that, and effecting change is always more difficult than saying [it], but definitely it makes you look at things a little differently.

“It makes me think more that things aren’t just open to how long [you] are committing to this or that, figuring you’ll get to it when you get to it.”

He thinks more in terms of time-spans, he says. He is more conscious of how he spends his time. He feels a greater sense of–“‘urgency’ may be overstating it–just making the completion of things more a priority. More to take action, not to defer action. To get things done, to move ahead, to accelerate the pace at which things happen, not to just let things play out at their own pace.”

Business accelerates on its own, he says, so mostly he has picked up his speed on the family side. When he got home to Portland, he sat down with his lawyer.

And he’s more involved with his son these days, “maybe pushing him a little to get more direction in what he’s doing.” He’s also more appreciative of friends and family, “even though that sounds a little trite; I think it’s really true.”

But he never made out a bucket list. It hasn’t been what you see in the movies, Schreyer says: “‘Gosh, I’ve always wanted to do this but I didn’t, and now I need

to.’ Nothing like that for me.”

Is he a different person today?

“It’s funny. As much as I’d like to say yes—you kind of feel you’d like to say, ‘Yes, it changed me to the core’–I think if I’m being honest I’m not sure I would say yes. I think I’m pretty much the same person. I hope I’m a little more sensitive [to] what’s going on and more in tune with that, but I don’t feel it changed who I am, really. It’s definitely had an impact on how I think of things.”

What, then, does it all come to? What is the lesson in having and surviving a heart attack?

“That’s always the big question,” Schreyer says. “More than anything, I think it highlights your mortality. It makes [you] aware that it could all be over tomorrow and if that happened–I don’t believe in an afterlife, so it won’t mean anything to [me] when [I’m] gone–but would you be happy with the way you lived your life? You don’t want to be overly trite, but have you lived a good life? Have you done things that you’re proud of? That make your kids proud?

“I don’t think I have any better answers to the mysteries of life and how to live your life than anybody else does, but what I walk away with is: you shouldn’t take things for granted. You just can’t think you’re here forever. Life can be very fleeting and there are no guarantees. There is certainly a–I don’t know if ‘randomness’ is the right word—but there is an element of life that is very unpredictable.

“You shouldn’t assume that there’s always time to do what you want to do.” ❖

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COMPASS POINTS

BY GREGORY KEER

owling at Double Decker Lanes in Rohnert Park, CA, can feature its share of wildlife. Just ask anyone who’s rolled and danced on glow nights or witnessed the kid chaos of an eight-year-old’s birthday party at the center. But the kind of unfettered recreation Susan and Jim Decker see at their bowling center in the north of the San Francisco Bay area is a far cry from the natural wonder they witnessed in East Africa.

The Deckers love to travel, especially with their family. A few years ago, Susan and Jim packed up the kids and made the trans-global trek to Kenya and Tanzania to experience the animals, the people, and the land most people only see in National Geographic or on the Discovery channel.

While the Decker family had taken a number of active trips around the U.S., including a journey to Florida, where they took in a bowling convention and some scuba diving in the Keys, this was Jim’s first time leaving the U.S. The Deckers live in the wine country near Santa Rosa, eight

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miles from their center, which is one hour north of San Francisco.

Susan was a bit more traveled, having seen a lot as a child and as a college graduate who toured Europe. “I’d gone to Africa with my family when I was 13,”

Susan explained, “but I didn’t remember much of it. My mom had studied different cultures and wanted to bring all the grandkids, this time, to experience Africa before it changed too much.”

COMPASS POINTS Susan’s mom handled all the arrangements, using a New York-based tour service called 2Afrika (www.2afrika.com), run by safari specialist Kenneth Hieber. All the Deckers had to do was grab their two sons (Kyle and Jamie, who were 11 and 14 years old at the time), join the grandparents and Susan’s brother’s family on the plane, and enjoy the nearly three-week mid-summer adventure.

The party of 10 landed at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, stayed in the Kenyan capital for a spell, then headed out on safari.

“We were always on the go,” Jim said. Because of their size, the extended family formed their own tour group, with two vans carrying five people in each vehicle, though the guides were in constant radio contact with other vans that were part of the expedition, especially when animals were sighted.

“Most of our time was spent on reserves,” Jim continued. Among the reserves the Deckers visited in Kenya and Tanzania were Maasai Mara National Reserve, Amboseli National Park, and Serengeti National Park. “We would have one night at a lodge, then traveled all day–about 40 miles in vans on dirt roads–to get to the next game reserve.”

The rewards of all that driving were considerable.

“We saw animals daily,” Jim recalled. “They came out in the mornings to feed and that’s when the vans would stop for us to observe. We saw lions, giraffes–three different kinds. There was an elephant in the road and we had to wait 20 minutes for it to move so we could drive on.

We saw rhinos, leopards, cheetahs, hippos, and crocodiles. My father-in-law is really into birds and the guide pointed out a lot of them.”

“If a tour guide did not know an answer about an animal, they’d look it up for us,” Susan added.

One of the observations Jim found most

JAMIE, SUSAN, KYLE AND JIM.

interesting was the response–or lack thereof–from the wildlife toward their onlookers. “The animals are oblivious to the vans and don’t get frightened.”

Despite the docile appearance of the creatures, the guides kept the tourists protected. “We never got out of the vans, except at lunch time or a break when we were safely away from animals,” Jim pointed out.

“If we got out near a river, the guides had huge guns to protect us against the crocodiles,” Susan said.

When it was time for the humans to rest, the tour would stop at oases amidst the arid expanse of the game preserve. “The rest stops were like Disneyland adventure towns,” Susan said. “There would be monkeys stealing napkins, but everything was otherwise very formal and fancy in the British style. You’d forget you were in the middle of a safari in Africa.”

The accommodations consisted of comfortable huts acting

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COMPASS POINTS

ARRIVING, VISITING, DEPARTING. VILLAGERS WERE AS CURIOUS AS THE TRAVELERS WERE.

as hotel rooms. “At night, you could hear critters on the roof.”

Once again, the hosts put safety first. There was fencing around the lodges. “You could not go for a walk,” Susan said. “There were guards armed with slingshots who escorted you around at night outside. We never felt afraid, though we did hear about somebody who got killed by a lion the day before we arrived.”

Animals and exotic-yet-fancy lodging were not the

only high points of the trip. The Deckers were impressed with the people of the villages they visited.

In particular, they met members of the Maasai, a seminomadic group indigenous to Kenya and Tanzania.

Despite efforts to fully modernize the Maasai, the 24

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people have maintained many of their traditional ways.

“How the Maasai live was interesting to our sons,” Jim said. “The people seemed low-key and, overall, happy.”

Susan had another side to the story of people-watching. “We also saw a lot of poverty,” she said. “For our safety, the guides kept us separated. There were some people begging and checking us out as much as we were checking them out.

“Still, the kids came back appreciating what they have,” She pointed out. “It gave them a sense that you don’t need a lot to be happy. They learned that we are all pretty much the same.”

While we all live under the same sun and moon, the Deckers found the sky itself quite different.

“I had an overall feeling of peacefulness,” Susan mused. “There was this clean sky in which you could see a zillion stars at night. The sky goes on forever there.”

The Deckers basked in the natural beauty of East Africa, which was made especially enjoyable by the high elevation (5,000-feet-plus), relatively constant temperature (70-75 degrees Fahrenheit), and sparse rain.

Jim was also taken in by being at the Earth’s equator and visiting Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater, a huge volcanic caldera which is home to 20- to 30,000 wild animals.

After nearly three weeks on the odyssey with family and animals and nature, the Deckers felt fulfilled. “It was a good bonding experience for all 10 of us,” Jim said.

COMPASS POINTS The adventure, it turned out, would have even deeper meaning.

“A couple of months after we returned from the safari, my mom was diagnosed with a [recurrence] of her breast cancer.

This safari was the last big thing she did before she passed away.”

Susan said that her mom wanted the family to continue traveling together. Since the safari, the group has taken an Alaskan cruise, a ski trip to Whistler, British Columbia, and a bicycle trip through Germany for Susan’s dad’s 80th birthday.

In this way, the Deckers have created a traveling tradition to last for several lifetimes.❖

Gregory Keer is an award-winning columnist, teacher, screenwriter, and guest expert in national media. Read more of his work at his online parenting magazine, www.FamilyManOnline.com.

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BACKSTORY

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB, TOM MARTINO, BPAA TREASURER? When I was a young boy in grammar school I can remember working for my father. He had his own produce business. I would do clean–up and take out the garbage and stock things. My father was very tough on me but he instilled in me a strong work ethic and clean working habits [and] the value of a dollar: you had to work for what you earned, and you had to work hard to get further High school, 1960. along in life.

My first job out of high school in 1960 was for a printing company called Nevins. I was just a stock boy. I attended night classes in accounting at college after work. My family didn’t really have the resources to send me to college on a fulltime basis, so I put myself through school. It took me 10 years.

My work habits at that job were the ones I learned at my father’s business. My attitude there was to enjoy what I was doing and make the effort to do things right the first time. It was never so much a job as it was a learning experience. I was very dedicated to every job I had. I was always dependable.

And with every job, I learned something more about myself and how to improve my work habits. ❖

At left, accepting the Landsgraf award for industry contributions from the Metropolitan Bowling Writers at last year’s East Coast convention. Presenter is IBI contributor Chuck Pezzano. Photo by Ron De Roxtra.

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BOWLING STARS

THE LEGEND OF ZANE PARKER

Really, how many bowlers have you met who were better?

BY BILL MOSSONTTE

B

ack in the early 1990s, when you had to do more to score well than to just make sure you didn’t foul, I was having all sorts of problems with the lane condition at Mission Hills Bowl. The bowlers didn’t care that we had wood lanes, an old lane machine, and that my personal belief was if you hit 9 you should get 9. They just wanted to score.

Well, this probably wasn’t an unreasonable request seeing that they were the customers. My problem was that no matter what we did, the scoring didn’t seem to get better. What do we do now?

I was out on the concourse one night taking my beating from the bowlers like a man when I heard the desk announce, “Zane Parker, 289-239-279, 807.” Finally! Maybe this would get me some relief. After all, if Zane could score, there had to be a shot.

I went to Ron at the desk and asked who Zane Parker was, thinking he was a new bowler to Mission, as I didn’t know him.

Ron said there was no Zane Parker.

What?

He explained he was tired of hearing about the lane condition so he made up a name and announced a score. He said if the bowlers complained, he would tell them they should go watch Zane and play there. Brilliant! Game on.

Every night we announced scores by Zane Parker. We put his scores in our column in the Bowling News. We made up flyers congratulating him. We would ask people if they had heard what Zane shot last night. The bowlers soon calmed down. I love it when a plan comes together.

One night, a bowler–let’s call him Mike–after hearing that Zane shot 279 in the final game, wanted to know what lane he 28

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was on. Ron told him 23 and 24 but that Zane had just left the building. In fact, he pointed to the rear door and said, “There he goes.” Mike started to walk fast to the rear door but couldn’t catch him.

The next night, Mike came down to watch Zane even though it wasn’t his regular league night. He just wanted to pick up some tips. Unfortunately, Zane didn’t bowl, as he was sick.

Mike called the next night and asked Ron if Zane was bowling. Ron said yes but that he had fallen on the approach and hurt himself and had gone home.

The next time Mike asked about Zane, we told him his job transferred him to Las Vegas and he wouldn’t be continuing in his leagues.

Over the next several weeks after Zane’s transfer, I would hear bowlers recounting different stories about him. One bowler even commented that he was the best bowler that ever bowled at Mission Hills Bowl, and that he would know. He bowled three leagues with him. ❖

Bill Mossontte is owner of Mission Hills Bowl, Corbin Bowl, Empire Bowl and Valencia Lanes in Southern California and is a big Zane Parker fan.

Have an offbeat way of handling bowler problems?

Post it on www.BowlingIndustry.com.

THE ATTIC TRUNK

L New York, New York It’s a hell of a (bowling) town

BY CHUCK PEZZANO

ove it or hate it, New York, New York is the hub of the universe in many ways, and over the years the Big Apple has been big-time in bowling history.

The Dutch settlers of Manhattan Island brought bowling with them. In 1732, a vacant space of ground near what is now Lower Broadway was an open area used for parades, markets, meetings and bonfires, and a portion was slightly enclosed and used for a bowling green. The area still bears the name: Bowling Green.

Bowling developed as a ball-and-pin game and by the 1840s, it was one of the most popular games in town. Bowling alleys were featured on almost every block, boosted by citizens from Germany and those with German ties.

But the pins were large and placed too close together, and there was no limit on the size and weight of balls, so the game became too easy and too monotonous. Scores of 300 were prevalent, especially because you needed only 10 strikes in a row.

In the 1860s, balls with finger holes were introduced, bowling clubs began to make waves, tournaments were devised, and lovers of the game knew there was much work to be done.

In 1875, a select group of 27 bowlers and students of the game–representatives of bowling buffs from New York City and Brooklyn–met in Germania Hall in the Bowery and started the National Bowling Association (NBA).

An expert committee was charged with reviewing the almost non-existent rules and specifications.

They agreed to a 60-feet distance from the bowler’s end of the alley to the center of the headpin spot, required dead wood to be removed, and nullified balls that bounced from the gutter to knock pins down. Pin and ball specifications were designed to more reasonable measurements to ensure a more competitive challenge, though widespread observance of the rules would take time.

Much of this early research and development was used in the founding of the American Bowling Congress (ABC) in 1895. That happened in New York, too. Dr. Henry Timm, Louis Schutte, Thomas Curtis, W.W. Ward and Samuel Karpf led a group that after four meetings at Beethoven Hall came to an agreement on playing rules, scoring, the building of alleys, and equipment guidelines. Curtis was 30

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THE ATTIC TRUNK as low as a dollar a night, and meals could be purchased for a reasonable 50 cents and up.

A once-only happening came in 1937 when New York City’s Coast Artillery Armory hosted the 37th ABC Championships, drawing 4,017 teams, the largest entry ever up to that time.

Most important was the press coverage from the highest-circulation newspapers in the world, including special features by such noted columnists as Dan Parker.

Boxer/restaurateur Jack Dempsey registered his team early for One of the event’s biggest boosters in entering the the 1937 ABC Championships. tournament, then supporting it, was former heavyweight champion of the world, then owner of a restaurant, Jack Dempsey.

When the city was awarded the tournament, Dempsey was elected first ABC president and Karpf the first to send a paid entry ($85) for his tourney team, headed by top star was secretary.

Mort Lindsey.

The New York Bowling Association “I used to do quite a bit of bowling while preparing for my fights and I think (NYBA) was formed in 1902 and Charles it’s corking exercise. It sharpens the eye and straightens the legs,” said the Ebbets was named first president. If the famed boxer. name sounds familiar, you’re right. He Dempsey also said he could probably practice and average 200. Though was deeply associated with baseball. some had their doubts, nobody challenged him.

The Dodgers home park, Ebbets Field,

was named after him.

There were stormy battles for years When bowling was booming in the ’50s and ’60s, the New York City area between the ABC and the NYBA, who could boast more than 60,000 bowlers in league play. In the early years of claimed that the ABC denied Eastern the century, the NYBA stretched as far as Newburgh, NY, 55 miles away. There bowlers opportunities for major were more than 12,000 league bowlers in Manhattan, while areas such as tournaments.

Westchester and Long Island peeled off to form their own groups. These In 1909, the NBA, the NYBA, and the days, the numbers, though not as large as in the past, are among the United Tournament Company put on a highest in the nation when you combine the city, Long Island, Staten Island big, big show, a tournament championship and Westchester. at the first Madison Square Garden.

Hundreds and hundreds of bowling centers, from board plank lanes in Estranged from the New York association, basements to 50-plus-laners have graced the area. the ABC did not participate.

It is said that there’s a tragic story behind every shining light on Broadway.

The National Bowling Tournament It’s not only said, but true, that there are more stories about bowling than was a three-week event on lanes built ever can be told. Here are a few more vignettes. just for the tourney. Though primarily ABC Hall of Famer Joe Thum was a bowling man of the world. As a for men, it also featured a women’s proprietor he erected a 24-lane center at the turn of the 20th century, was world championship and a juvenile world told he was crazy, and called it the White Elephant to needle his critics. He championship for bowlers 20 and under.

The latter two events were hosted by the New York Evening World, and the newspaper donated diamond medals to the women and youth champions.

Talk about class. Special music was supplied by a live orchestra and a new song, “Set ’Em Up on the Other Alley,” was played before every afternoon and night session.

A ticket for the entire three-week event, 36 sessions, was available for six bucks. All the hotels gave special rates, IBI

April 2010

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THE ATTIC TRUNK

Pages from the official program National Bowling Tournament of 1909

Natty Brunswick champs of 1908.

Their shirts read ‘BBC’ for Brunswick-Balke-Collender, the company’s name from 1884 to 1960.

On the reception and entertainment committee (listed below photo) were Joe Thum, bowling man of the world (second column); Charles Ebbetts, namesake of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ home field (third column); and Col. Jacob Ruppert, New York Yankees owner 1923-1939, during its first power years (third column).

Before 1905, balls were made of lignum vitae, an ironwood. Rubber balls appeared in 1905, with the Evertrue, provenance uncertain. Brunswick’s Mineralite released in 1914, five years after the tournament, was a rubber-compound ball that scored big on the lanes and with the bowlers.

THE ATTIC TRUNK

The field at the old Madison Square Garden.

First prize in individual competition was $241.40. The bowler in 500th position took home $4.23.

was a pioneer in promoting bowling for women and family members and operated a clean center that was as up-to-date as possible.

Thum took teams to Europe and brought overseas teams here and was one of the major forces in gaining world attention for bowling during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He died that year, but he lived long enough to know one of his dreams had been achieved, bringing the 1937 ABC tournament to his city.

The first telecast of bowling in the country came in 1947. It was coordinated by bowling writer Pat McDonough of the World Telegram, who often bowled with Babe Ruth. Bill Landgraf, pioneer member of the New York Association, tournament promoter and ABC Historian, was scorer, and the announcer host was sportscaster Win Elliot.

Two year later, Jimmy Powers, sports editor of the Daily News, teamed with broadcaster Al Cirillo to telecast matches on the Eastern network of ABC. From then on, bowling has been featured regularly from New York, as often as three times weekly.

The Metropolitan Bowling Writers Association has been around for half a century and has had members from every newspaper–regular working press who reached more than 10 million readers with their columns. The MBWA hosted and honored the bowling world’s biggest names and broke some of the top stories in history–among them, Don Carter’s million–dollar contract, the first by any athlete–at its luncheons and dinners that still continue.

It was one of the first sportswriting groups to elect a female

THE ATTIC TRUNK president (Pearl Keller) and encourage women to enter the bowling writing field.

When Sammy Davis Jr. was starring on Broadway, he often bowled at Times Square Lanes. John De Martino, manager of the small but classy center, fitted Davis for a bowling ball, and Davis liked it so much he bought bowling balls for any of his cast who wanted to bowl.

Many baseball players have been involved as bowling proprietors. Gil Hodges, player, manager and Dodger icon was an early proprietor. His close friend, BPAA past president and BPAA Hall of Famer John La Spina operates the popular Gil Hodges Lanes in Brooklyn, one of La Spina’s six-center chain.

John McGraw, Giants manager for decades, was an avid bowler in the Baltimore area and is given credit for naming the small–pin game duckpins. And Yankee greats Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto owned a bowling center across the river in New Jersey.

The Rev. Charles Carow, a Catholic priest, was a leader in the fight to remove the “white only” restriction in the ABC rules.

The battle was won in 1950. Carow was deeply involved in bowling, having expanded Catholic Youth Organization participation from 14 teams in 1940 to 262 teams eight years later. He served as a director on the New York Bowling Association board, gave speeches everywhere–and his heartfelt efforts were rewarded with his election to the ABC Hall. His

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efforts were emphasized when one of bowling’s keener officials, Tom DeChalus, became the 88th president of the ABC in 2001, the first black to achieve that lofty position.

For many years a handwritten thank-you note was displayed at Bowlmor Lanes signed by Ida McKinley. She was the wife of the slain President William McKinley.

When the lavish Chelsea Piers center was opened for business, one person asked where they were going to get the people to bowl there. One of the managers at the high-tech lanes simply said, “A million people live within walking distance of the center.”

Martin Michel, the current association manager for New York City bowling, is a bowler, writer, lover of bowling, and historian who provided much of the source material for this piece.

“Bowling has been an important part of New York history for as long as we have had a history–hundreds of years–and through all the ups and downs, we always look forward,” said Michel.

Amen. ❖ Chuck Pezzano has written between one and five bowling columns a week for more than 50 years. Author of 13 books, 500 magazine articles and more than 6,000 columns, he has been involved in more than 1,000 national TV shows, was a PBA founder and won the first intercollegiate match game tournament while a student at Rutgers.

SHOWCASE PROJECTORS

DATA SECURITY

LANE MACHINE SPECIAL

HOUSE BALLS

Has your older Sanction Technology lane machine from Kegel seen better days? Thought about trading it in?

Through May 15, 2010 only, Kegel will give you $2,500 above normal trade-in value for your old machine, just as long as it’s in operational condition, when you purchase a K+, Kustodian Ion or Kustodian Walker. For more information, contact Kegel at 800-280-2695 or your local authorized Kegel distributor.

Are your open bowlers always looking for the right ball? They’ll find it with the Rite Ball System for house balls from Done-Rite Pins and Capital Equipment. 12 weights from 5 to 16 pounds. 12 colors. 31 drilling patterns. Wider bridge between finger holes for increased comfort for your open play customer. For more information, call 800-222-2695.

ROOF COATING

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MINIATURE GOLF

LANE CLOTH

Now at The Lighting Store, big sale on projectors from Sanyo for a big impact on your customers. Sanyo’s PLC 200, 2200 ANSI lumens, 3-year warranty–reduced from $899 to $599.99. Also on special: big-screens. For more information, call 888-746-5483, 641-791-3397, or email cj@SoundAndLightKaraoke.com.

Look familiar? A leaky roof can be a proprietor’s worst nightmare. While a new roof may not be in the budget, an Industrial Roof Coating System from Benchmark Roofing will restore and preserve your original roof, saving you valuable time and money. For a complimentary roof inspection and free report on the current condition of your roof, contact Benchmark Roofing at 888-431-5352.

A pump house that ricochets the player’s ball in unexpected directions is one unusual feature of 18 holes of Castle Golf worked out by proprietor Mike Larson in teamwork with Castle designers.

Since the course opened at South Lanes Family Fun Center, Three Rivers, MI, “There’s always somebody out there playing,” says Larson. For more information on what Castle can do for you, call 800-688-4542 or visit www.castlegolf.com.

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New option from New Center Consulting, Inc.: back up your Xenix legacy systems onto any Windows computer for automatic security or back it up offsite on a web-based service. If your system crashes, NCC can rush you a brand-new back-up Pentium III Xenix computer, built with all your own data already intact. Contact Glenn Hartshorn directly at 248-3752751 or go to www.upgrademyscoring.com.

Enhance your customers’ bowling experience with the new Bowlopolis® Bowling Pin from QubicaAMF. This customizable pin adds excitement for birthday parties and other special events. It also complements the Bowlopolis® environment offered with our Bowlers Entertainment Center (BES) and centers that purchase the Bowlopolis® program from BPAA. For more information, contact your local QubicaAMF sales representative, or call us today at 800-333-0527.

Brunswick Red Edge Lane Cloth 8460QC is the newest addition to the Brunswick line of Red Edge lane cloths. 8460QC uses the same heavy-duty material found in the 8460XL blue cloth, but features a new quick-change plastic core. This newly designed cloth will save you time and scrub your lanes clean. For more information, contact your product specialist today.

DATEBOOK

APRIL

Mary Thurber, 913-638-1817.

6 Illinois State BPA board meeting Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Bloomington-Normal. Bill Duff, 847-982-1305 or billduff@bowlillinois.com.

27-July 1 Bowl Expo Las Vegas Hilton, Las Vegas. 888-649-5585 or www.bpaa.com.

JULY

MAY 17-19 Bowling Centers Association of Ohio convention and trade show Holiday Inn, Perrysburg (Toledo). Pat Marazzi, 937-433-8363 or pat@bowlohio.com.

24 Illinois State BPA board meeting Holiday Inn & Suites, Bloomington. Bill Duff, 847-982-1305 or billduff@bowlillinois.com.

JUNE 1-3 Kansas State BPA conference with exhibitors Adams Pointe Conference Center, Blue Springs, MO.

12-14 Independent Bowling Organization Trade Show & Convention.

Held in conjunction with the GMBCOA. Valley Plaza Resort, Midland, MI. Scott, 888-484-2322 or www.ibo-Show.com.

28 Bowling Centers of Southern California Annual Golf Tournament Black Gold Contry Club, Yorba Linda. Victoria Tahmizian, 818-789-0900 or bcsc@socalbowling.com.

SEPTEMBER 17-19 Wyoming Bowling Family Jamboree Sponsored

by Wyoming Bowling Council Sheridan Holiday Inn, Sheridan. Charlene Abbott, 307-324-3161 or kcabbott@bresnan.net.

21 Kentucky BPA annual membership meeting and elections Location TBA. Jack McCarthy, usa3609@aol.com.

23 Bowling Centers Association of Ohio executive board meeting Embassy Suites, Columbus. Pat Marazzi, 937-433-8363 or pat@bowlohio.com.

OCTOBER 3-5 West Coast Bowling Convention Harrah’s, South Lake Tahoe, CA. Sandi Thompson, 925-485-1855.

IBI is the official magazine of the convention.

11-15 East Coast Bowling Centers Convention Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, NJ. BPAA, 888-649-5586.

IBI is the official magazine of the convention.

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CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICE CALLS WORLDWIDE • PRE-SHIPS • WE SELL EQUIPMENT FOR SALE AMERICAN-MADE PINSETTER PARTS – HIGHEST QUALITY. Visit us on the web at www.ebnservices.com or call toll free (888) 435-6289.

USED BRUNSWICK PARTS, A2 parts and assemblies.

Large Inventory. www.usedpinsetterparts.com.

AS80/90 • BOARD REPAIR • Frameworx NEW KEYPADS • FRONT DESK LCD MONITORS

Michael P. Davies (321) 254-7849

291 Sandy Run, Melbourne, FL 32940 on the web: bowlingscorer.com email: mike@bowlingscorer.com

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CLASSIFIEDS EQUIPMENT FOR SALE NEW & USED Pro Shop Equipment.

Jayhawk Bowling Supply. 800-2556436 or jayhawkbowling.com.

Pinsetter Parts New from ALL major manufacturers. HUGE IN STOCK inventory.

USED Brunswick Scoring parts, AS90 cameras, processors, lane cables, monitors, and PC boards. Order online @ 888SBIBOWL.com or (888) 724-2695.

The Mechanics Choice!

AMF scoring packages with or without LCDs. (712) 253-8730; www.complete-bowling.com.

AMF package complete: 8 lanes, 8270s & AccuScore Plus.

(641) 414-1542.

24-lane Brunswick A-2 package. Automatic overhead scoring. Brunswick 2000 returns; wood approaches. In operation through 2003 season. Available immediately. Make offer. (906) 786-1600. Ask for Denis.

Buy or Sell @ www.bowlingyardsale.com; one-stop shopping for bowling equipment — from lane packages to dust mops!

REPAIR & EXCHANGE. Call for details (248) 375-2751.

EQUIPMENT WANTED LANE MACHINES WANTED. We will purchase your KEGEL-built machine, any age or condition. Phone (608) 764-1464.

SELL YOUR CENTER OR EQUIPMENT

FAST!

(818) 789-2695

WWW.FACEBOOKBOWLING.COM 40

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April 2010

CLASSIFIEDS CENTERS FOR SALE

CENTERS FOR SALE

CENTERS FOR SALE

EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA: 6-lane Brunswick center, bar & grill, drive-thru liquor store in small college town. Also, 3 apartment buildings with 40 units, good rental history. Call (701) 330-7757 or (701) 430-1490.

UPSTATE NEW YORK: 8-lane center/ commercial building built in 1992.

Synthetic lanes, new automatic scoring, kitchen and room to expand! Reduced to sell @ $375,000. Call (315) 376-3611.

WESTERN COLORADO: 12-lane Brunswick center with A-2s, wood lanes with synthetic overlay, 11,000 s/f building on 1+ acre. Business, equipment & real estate $740,000. Possible owner finance.

(970) 625-0680.

WWW.BOWLINGDIGITAL.COM

16-lane center in Southern Colorado mountains. Great condition. 18,000 s/f building w/ restaurant & lounge.

Paved parking 100 + vehicles.

Established leagues & tournaments. $950,000 or make offer.

Kipp (719) 852-0155.

CENTRAL WISCONSIN: 12 lanes, auto scoring, Anvilane synthetics, 82-70s. Great food sales. Yearly tournament. Attached, large 3 bedroom apartment w/ fireplace. $550K. (715) 223-8230.

SOUTHERN INDIANA (close to Indianapolis): 18-lane Brunswick center with lounge, liquor license & movie theater on 4+ acres. Turnkey business.

Owner retiring. Great investment!

(765) 349-1312.

SOUTHERN NEVADA: 8-lane center.

Only center in town of 15,000. 30 minutes from Las Vegas. AMF 82-70s, newer Twelve Strike scoring. R/E leased.

Will consider lease/option with qualified person. REDUCED TO $175,000. Call Steve @ (702) 293-2368; email ljjaa1414@yahoo.com.

CENTRAL IDAHO: 8-lane center and restaurant in central Idaho mountains.

Small town. Only center within 60-mile radius. Brunswick A-2 machines; Anvilane lane beds; automatic scoring.

(208) 879-4448.

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April 2010

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CLASSIFIEDS CENTERS FOR SALE

CENTERS FOR SALE

SOUTHWEST KANSAS: well-maintained 8-lane center, A-2s, full-service restaurant. Includes business and real estate. Nice, smaller community. Owner retiring. $212,000. Leave message (620) 397-5828.

LOCKER KEYS FAST! •Keys & Combo Locks for all Types of Lockers.

SE WISCONSIN: 12-lane Brunswick center including building, real estate & 7 acres. Raised dance floor, grill, pro shop, arcade, tanning room and more.

Reasonably priced. Owner retiring.

(920) 398-8023.

•One week turnaround on most orders.

•New locks All types •Used locks 1/2 price of new

All keys done by code #.

No keys necessary.

FAX YOUR ORDER TO US AT:

530-432-2933

CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-700-4KEY INTʼL 530-432-1027 Orange County Security Consultants 10285 Ironclad Road, Rough & Ready, CA 95975

WWW.BOWLINGDIGITAL.COM

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MINNESOTA: AMF 12-lane center in college town of Crookston w/ full bar, auto scoring. Totally remodeled 2005. Additional property for expansion. Possible contract for deed. Call Steve (218) 759-0037.

NE NEVADA: New 2001. 16 lanes, 19,200 square feet, 1.68 acres paved, sound & lighting, lounge w/ gaming, arcade, full service snack bar & pro shop. Call (775) 934-1539.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: 16-lane center w/ synthetic lanes, 82-70s, 19,000 s/f building w/ lots of parking. Newly remodeled bar & large kitchen. Owner retiring. (530) 598-2133.

UPSTATE NEW YORK: State-of-the-art 16-lane center with 82-70s in college town. 3.5 acres prime commercial. Call Bob (585) 243-1760.

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA: One of the top five places to move! Remodeled 32lane center. Good numbers. $3.9 gets it all.

Fax qualified inquiries to (828) 253-0362.

PENNSYLVANIA: 20-lane AMF center on 6 acres, 1 acre parking lot, full bar, recently added 13,200 s/f outdoor beach bar, sand volley ball court & entertainment stage.

(724) 301-2318.

UPSTATE NEW YORK: State-of-the-art 16-lane center with 82-70s in college town. 3.5 acres prime commercial. Call Bob (585) 243-1760.

NEW YORK STATE: Thousand Island region. 8-lane Brunswick center w/ cosmic bowling, auto scoring. Established leagues + many improvements. $309,000. Call Jill @ Lori Gervera Real Estate (315) 771-9302.

CLASSIFIEDS CENTERS FOR SALE CENTRAL ILLINOIS: 8-lane center with AMF 82-70s, full service restaurant, pro shop. Plus pool tables, Karaoke machine, DJ system. PRICED TO SELL. Includes RE. (217) 351-5152 or toms-uvl@sbcglobal.net.

SOUTHWESTERN WYOMING: 12 lanes + café & lounge, 2 acres w/ 5 bedroom home. Full liquor & fireworks licenses.

Outside Salt Lake City area. Dennis @ Uinta Realty, Inc. (888) 804-4805 or uintarlt@allwest.net.

GEORGIA: busy 32-lane center, real estate included. Great location in one of fastest growing counties in metro Atlanta.

5 years new with all the amenities.

Excellent numbers. Call (770) 356-8751.

SW WISCONSIN: 10 lanes, new automatic scoring/sound. Bar/grill. Great leagues, local tournaments, excellent pinsetters. Supportive community. 2 acres off main highway. $299,995.

(608) 341-9056.

NW KANSAS: 12-lane center, AS-80s, Lane Shield, snack bar, pro shop, game & pool rooms.

See pics and info @ www.visitcolby.com or contact Charles (785) 443-3477.

MECHANIC WANTED Head Mechanic—AMF 82-70s—in Kentucky. Call Dennis (502) 722-9314.

POSITION WANTED Brunswick “A” mechanic, 12+ years experience, AS-80/AS-90 scoring system expertise. Former owner/GM. Willing to relocate. Contact me at (308) 380-8594.

MANAGE TO OWN--SMALL CENTER. Started 28 new leagues in less than 5 years.

Reliable & honest. Excellent references. Call Andy (507) 527-2551 or Matt (507) 696-1151.

Sell Your Center or Eqpt.

Fast!

(818) 789-2695

WWW.BOWLINGWEBDOCTOR.COM

NE MINNESOTA: Food, Liquor & Bowling.

Established 8 lanes between Mpls & Duluth w/ large bar, dining room, banquet area. Two large State employment facilities nearby.

High six figure gross. 3-bdrm home included. $1.375m. Call Bryan (218) 380-8089. www.majesticpine.com.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: 16-lane center REDUCED to $799,000 for quick sale.

Synthetics, 82-70s, 19,000 s/f + parking.

Newly remodeled bar, large kitchen. Owner retiring. Will consider selling only equipment or building. www.siskiyoulanes.com. (530) 598-2133.

MANAGER WANTED Chain looking for a manager with experience in league formation & special events in central U.S. area. Respond w/ resume to Box 505 @ info@bowlingindustry.com or fax (818) 789-2812.

SELL IT FAST IN IBI

818-789-2695 IBI

April 2010

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CLASSIFIEDS

I could not have gotten my loan without him.

Pat Rinaldi Rinaldi's Riverdale Bowl Riverdale Park, MD The leading source for real estate loans with low down payments

Ken Paton (503) 645-5630 www.kenpaton.com kpaton@kenpaton.com

SERVICES AVAILABLE Drill Bit Sharpening and Measuring Ball Repair. Jayhawk Bowling Supply. 800255-6436 or Jayhawkbowling.com.

AMF scoring component repair.

(712) 253-8730.

KEN’S BOWLING EQUIPMENT – AMF scoring, pin decks, masking units & Brunswick power lifts.

(641) 414-1542.

SELLING, BUYING or FINANCING a Center? RC Partners can help–we are not brokers. (616) 374-5651; www.sell104.com.

INSURANCE SERVICES BOWLING CENTER INSURANCE.COM. Helping you is what we do best! Property; Liability; Liquor Liability; Workers Comp.

Bob Langley (866) 438-3651 x 145; blangley@bbsouthcarolina.com.

Insuring Bowling Centers for over 30 years. Ohio, Illinois & Michigan: Property & Liability, Liquor Liabiity, Workers Compensation, Health & Personal Insurance. Call Scott Bennet (248) 4080200, Scott@Bowl-mail.com; Mark Dantzer CIC (888) 343-2667, Mark@DieboldInsurance.com; or Kevin Elliott.

SELL YOUR CENTER OR EQPT.

For FLORIDA CENTERS Call DAVID DRISCOLL & ASSOCIATES 1-800-444-BOWL P.O. Box 189 Howey-in-the-Hills, FL 34737 AN AFFILIATE OF SANDY HANSELL & ASSOCIATES 44

IBI

April 2010

FAST! (818) 789-2695

WWW.BOWLINGDIGITAL.COM

CLASSIFIEDS AMF • BRUNSWICK EQUIPMENT COMPLETE PACKAGES WORLDʼS LARGEST NEW – USED SPARE PARTS INVENTORY

BUY

SEL L

Danny & Daryl Tucker Tucker Bowling Equipment Co. 609 N.E. 3rd St. Tulia, Texas 79088 Call (806) 995-4018 Fax (806) 995-4767

Bowling Parts, Inc. P.O. Box 801 Tulia, Texas 79088 Call (806) 995-3635 Email - bpitx@texasonline.net

www.bowlingpartsandequipment.com AMF and some BRUNSWICK PC board repair/exchange. 6-month warranty, fast turnaround. Call or write: WB8YJF Service 5586 Babbitt Road, New Albany, Ohio 43054 Toll Free: 888-902-BOWL (2695) Ph./Fax: (614) 855-3022 (Jon) E-mail: wb8yjf@earthlink.net Visit us on the WEB! http://home.earthlink.net/~wb8yjf/

PROPRIETORS WITH AMF 82-70 S.S. & M.P. MACHINES

MINIATURE GOLF COURSES Indoor/Outdoor. Immediate Installation. $5,900.00 & up.

WWW.BOWLINGWEBDOCTOR.COM

2021 Bridge Street Jessup, PA 18434 570-489-8623 www.minigolfinc.com

Save $$ on Chassis & P.C. Board Exchange & Repair!

A reasonable alternative for Chassis and P.C. Board Exchanges MIKE BARRETT Call for Price List

Tel: (714) 871-7843 • Fax: (714) 522-0576

C L ASS I F I E D AD F O R M 1 Write your ad here or fax separate sheet with this form:

3 Figure Cost: Multiply number of words Add 10¢ per word for BOLD copy Multiply by number months ad will run

4 Name

x $2.20 = x .10 = Subtotal x

total

Company

Billing Address

2 Choose Category: ❒ Equip. wanted ❒ Help wanted

❒ Equip. for sale ❒ Centers for sale ❒ Miscellaneous

Other____________________________ Deadline for each issue is the 1st of each month, one month prior to issue. (Example: To run in the September Issue, we would need your ad copy by August 1st)

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INTERNATIONAL

THE WORLD’S ONLY ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE BUSINESS OF BOWLING

IBI

April 2010

45

REMEMBER WHEN

1948 W

e don’t know how long it’s been since a bowling ball was advertised in a mass-market non-sports magazine, but here it is in the late ’40s. Complete with testimonials from Andy Varipapa, Joe Wilman, Catherine Fellmeth, Buddy Bomar and Ned Day. Not to mention the little miss in the corner with her very own Junior Mineralite.

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April 2010

Prices for the ball started at $21.95, by the way.

And note that you could buy it in jewelry stores.

The ’48-’49 season was played on 50,145 ABC/WIBC certified lanes in 6,097 bowling centers. BPAA claimed 1,335 members with 16,222 lanes. ❖