|
The Pro Bowlers Tour was a broadcast of the Professional Bowlers Association that aired on ABC from 1961 – 1997. Professional Bowlers Association is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States and worldwide. ...
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ...
See also: 1960 in television, other events of 1961, 1962 in television and the list of years in television. For the American network television schedule, please see 1961-62 American network television schedule. ...
This is a list of television-related events in 1997. ...
The original commentators were Chris Schenkel and Billy Welu. In 1974, Welu died suddenly of a heart attack. The search for his replacement included bowling legends Dick Weber and Dave Davis, but it was the young Nelson Burton Jr. who was ultimately selected for the analyst job in 1975. He remained Schenkel's broadcasting partner until the end of the series. Chris Schenkel Chris Schenkel (born August 21, 1923 in Bippus, Indiana; died September 11, 2005 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) was an American sportscaster. ...
Billy Welu (b. ...
A blonde haired, very skilled worker with a 70s look. ...
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), more commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ...
Dick Weber (December 23, 1929 - February 14, 2005) was a famous bowling professional and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). ...
Nelson Bo Burton Jr. ...
Bowling became extremely popular once ABC began airing it. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the Pro Bowlers Tour typically outdrew college football and college basketball in the ratings. Many sports fans considered it a weekly tradition to watch bowling on Saturday afternoons, which was a lead-in to ABC's Wide World of Sports. ABCs Wide World of Sports is a long-running sports anthology show on American television. ...
On the telecasts, Bo Burton would host taped segments in which he would give tips or interesting facts about bowling.
The final PBT broadcast was on June 21, 1997 at the St. Clair Classic that was won by Walter Ray Williams Jr. It was a very emotional broadcast in which Williams Jr. and Pete Weber, the game's two giants at the time, battled it out until the very end. It essentially marked the end of an era of bowling on network television due to declining ratings, although CBS aired a few events during the 1998–99 season. Fox Sports Net aired some bowling in 2000, and ESPN took over from there. is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
This is a list of television-related events in 1997. ...
Walter Ray Williams bowls on ESPN for a PBA Tour title. ...
Pete David Weber, nicknamed “PDWâ€, [1] (born August 21, 1962 in St. ...
A television network is a distribution network for television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many television stations. ...
CBS Broadcasting, Inc. ...
Fox Sports Net headquarters in Los Angeles. ...
Footage of the series' final broadcast in 1997 is featured in the 2006 DVD documentary A League of Ordinary Gentlemen. A League of Ordinary Gentlemen is a Ten-pin bowling sports documentary that was released on DVD in 2004. ...
Trivia - Although the series maintained high ratings throughout most of its years, ABC opted against renewing its contract with the PBA primarily due to the overall decline of the sport in the late 1980s and 1990s. This can be attributed to changes in bowling ball technology and the fact that it became much easier to achieve higher scores, which resulted in less competition.
- Mike Aulby occasionally served as a lane-level reporter for PBT. Other pros who were not competing on the telecasts also helped out as statisticians.
- A member of the Weber family threw the first (Dick) and last (Pete) ball on the series, demonstrating how both the father and son each dominated their own eras of the sport.
- It became somewhat of a running gag about how Schenkel was absent during some of the memorable moments of the series because he was out on assignment coering other events for the network. For example, Schenkel missed the first 300 game (1967) on the telecast as well as the first 7-10 split conversion (1980). As his career progressed, he began covering bowling almost exclusively and thus saw many of the great moments toward the latter part of the series.
- It was reported in newspapers that Chris Schenkel did not intend to retire after the series ended, even though he was in his mid-70s by 1997, as he wanted to earn money to pay for his grandchildren to go to college. When CBS picked up the PBA Tour in 1998, there was talk of Schenkel moving to that network, but it never materialized. Gary Seibel (play-by-play) and Marshall Holman (color) got the jobs instead.
- Bo Burton only called one more national bowling event after leaving PBT - the 1998 Women's College Bowling Championship on ESPN2, which included future PBA member Kelly Kulick. However, he is expected to return to the booth for the 2007 Women's U.S. Open on ESPN.
The running gag is a popular hallmark of comic and serious forms of entertainment. ...
Marshall Holman (born 1954) is a professional American bowler primarily known for his success on the PBA Tour throughout the 1970s and 1980s and his flamboyant personality that captured the attention of many bowling fans. ...
ESPN2 debuted on October 1, 1993, as a sister station of ESPN. Nicknamed the deuce, ESPN2 was to be branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross, snowboarding, and BMX racing. ...
Kelly Kulick (born March 16, 1977) is an American professional bowler from Union Township, New Jersey. ...
Commentators - (1961–1974) Chris Schenkel, Billy Welu
- (1974-1975) Chris Schenkel, various guest commentators
- (1975–1997) Chris Schenkel, Nelson Burton Jr.
Other guest commentators On some broadcasts, either Schenkel or Burton were on assigment so other commentators filled in. |
Feeds |
Contact