Ahh--bowling back in the day! You didn't have any area on the lane back then. If you missed wide by a board or two you missed the headpin entirely. You couldn't shred the rack with those black rubber balls. Everybody threw 16 pounds back then, except for, notably, Dave Davis, who sometimes threw 14 so he could swing the ball freely and speed up when he had to. Back then if you averaged 190 for two years you could join the PBA. Nobody talked about weight blocks, tuning ball surfaces, or oil patterns. You just picked your spot and if you hit it you probably hit the pocket. There were none of these house shots that I call "ceiling tile" patterns--in other words if you hit an area the size of an acoustic tile you got a strike. 300? Forget it. My friend's aunt tossed a perfecto and got a two column writeup and her picture in the paper. The guy who drilled my first ball threw a 300--once--and he was a local hero. Bowling was the #1 participation sport in the nation. ABC membership was easily in the tens of millions. There were five--FIVE!--bowling alleys within a mile of my house. Jukeboxes, pool tables and cigarette machines in every bowling alley. Two-finger house balls. Wooden pins that they kept for years and painted with oil-based enamel from time to time. One ball for strikes and spares. Shooting the 2-4-5 was the same in game three as in the first game. Nowadays you whiff it right in game one from the flood of oil down the middle and by game three you are chopping it because today's balls have eaten up all the oil... On this show I see PBA founder Eddie Elias, and I think that's Gary Dickinson in the alternate seat. Chris Schenkel was clearly no bowler cuz he called the pins left up wrong a lot of the time. But he was loved for decades with his smooth set of pipes. Billy Welu was a great color man, and tho he passed away long, long ago you still hear people using his expressions, like "straighter is greater" and "trust is a must." Oh how I miss those days when bowlers got paid as much as golfers! Ten grand was a hell of a lot of money back then. Win two or three shows and your house was paid for, and you had a start on putting your kids thru college. Balls had cool names back then, like Tornado and Crown Jewel. Nowadays you have to choose between stuff like Burnt Corpse and E-coli. If the names don't make you blow your lunch the colors will. Bowling back then was FUN and now even in a C league it is just a pain in the ass with hotshots cussing you out if you use your old Blue Hammer from the 1980s. Now you spend $200 for a ball and pray that it doesn't get banned. Where oh where did bowling go wrong? Thank you so much for posting this old match. It is like a time capsule for me.
Bowlero Lanes still exists today and recently went through a massive renovation making it more of an upscale facility. It’s a 72 lane house in an L shape with 1-24 facing east-west and 25-72 facing north-south.
Dave used to work at Red Wilson's bowling supply in Phoenix az. & so did l. Bowlers of today couldn't average 190 on those conditions using a rubber ball. LMAO!!!!
Ahh--bowling back in the day! You didn't have any area on the lane back then. If you missed wide by a board or two you missed the headpin entirely. You couldn't shred the rack with those black rubber balls. Everybody threw 16 pounds back then, except for, notably, Dave Davis, who sometimes threw 14 so he could swing the ball freely and speed up when he had to. Back then if you averaged 190 for two years you could join the PBA. Nobody talked about weight blocks, tuning ball surfaces, or oil patterns. You just picked your spot and if you hit it you probably hit the pocket. There were none of these house shots that I call "ceiling tile" patterns--in other words if you hit an area the size of an acoustic tile you got a strike. 300? Forget it. My friend's aunt tossed a perfecto and got a two column writeup and her picture in the paper. The guy who drilled my first ball threw a 300--once--and he was a local hero. Bowling was the #1 participation sport in the nation. ABC membership was easily in the tens of millions. There were five--FIVE!--bowling alleys within a mile of my house. Jukeboxes, pool tables and cigarette machines in every bowling alley. Two-finger house balls. Wooden pins that they kept for years and painted with oil-based enamel from time to time. One ball for strikes and spares. Shooting the 2-4-5 was the same in game three as in the first game. Nowadays you whiff it right in game one from the flood of oil down the middle and by game three you are chopping it because today's balls have eaten up all the oil...
On this show I see PBA founder Eddie Elias, and I think that's Gary Dickinson in the alternate seat. Chris Schenkel was clearly no bowler cuz he called the pins left up wrong a lot of the time. But he was loved for decades with his smooth set of pipes. Billy Welu was a great color man, and tho he passed away long, long ago you still hear people using his expressions, like "straighter is greater" and "trust is a must." Oh how I miss those days when bowlers got paid as much as golfers! Ten grand was a hell of a lot of money back then. Win two or three shows and your house was paid for, and you had a start on putting your kids thru college. Balls had cool names back then, like Tornado and Crown Jewel. Nowadays you have to choose between stuff like Burnt Corpse and E-coli. If the names don't make you blow your lunch the colors will. Bowling back then was FUN and now even in a C league it is just a pain in the ass with hotshots cussing you out if you use your old Blue Hammer from the 1980s. Now you spend $200 for a ball and pray that it doesn't get banned. Where oh where did bowling go wrong?
Thank you so much for posting this old match. It is like a time capsule for me.
Bowlero Lanes still exists today and recently went through a massive renovation making it more of an upscale facility. It’s a 72 lane house in an L shape with 1-24 facing east-west and 25-72 facing north-south.
Commentators:
Chris Schenkel & Billy Welu.
Where did you get this footage??
Bobby looked like Jerry Mathers.."leave it to Beaver".
When I watch old Dave Davis videos, it reminds me more of Parker Bohn III.
3535sb parker idolized him
Dave Davis coached Parker.
@frothyshoes - yes it was really pronounced k-nipple.
I don't care what period you're from, If you're a lefty, you'll want to study Dave Davis's approach and arm swing.
@3535sb Dave used to coach Parker when he was a junior bowler
Dave used to work at Red Wilson's bowling supply in Phoenix az. & so did l. Bowlers of today couldn't average 190 on those conditions using a rubber ball. LMAO!!!!
Is it actually pronounced Bob K-Nipple? Or was the announcer just trying to be nice? Anyways this was fun match to watch, thank you
Bob Knipple was always a scrapper, just like here.
Davis needed more time at the snack bar. Jeesh...looks like a bowling skeleton