Final Frame

IMBA 2015 Award Ceramony 

Duke v.Aulby

The two bowlers with all the majors

by Josh Hyde

            Norm Duke and Mike Aulby both won every major.  Aulby has won the Super Slam which includes the Touring Player’s Championship along with the Triple Crown and three USBC Masters Tournament.  He is the only player to accomplish that feat.  Both Duke and Aulby have bowled 300s on national television.  Aulby bowled his game against Ozio and Norm bowled his against the great Walter Ray Williams Jr.  They have won every major and they know how to strike.  Also, they have four Player of the YearA wards between them.  Duke has the highest average on the PBA tour.  Mike Aulby has had the highestaward in his career and is the only bowler to have won a Major three times.  This is what every bowler wants to do.  There are only a handful of guys that can do this. 

            Duke earned his Triple Crown with his win at the US Open and became the fourth bowler to complete the Triple Crown. What a way to win, because the US Open is one of the hardest if not the toughest tournaments on the tour.  The Bucket shot is not simple and a bowler can easily miss it, but Aulby made it to win the 2008 US Open.  Norm Duke is a great player in clutch situations which is what every great bowler needs to be.

           These two players are arguably the greatest players in PBA history.  The reason is because they have done it all in professional bowling. 

Mike Aulby – 29 Titles

• 1979 Rookie of the Year
• 1985 PBA Player of the Year
• 1994 Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award
• 1995 Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award
• 1995 High Average Award
• 1995 PBA Player of the Year
• 1996 PBA Hall of Fame
• 2001 USBC Hall of Fame

Norm Duke – 37 Titles

• 1991 George Young High Average
• 1994 George Young High Average
• 1994 PBA Player of the Year
• 2000 PBA Player of the Year
• 2005-2006 Harry Smith point leader
• 2006-2007 George Young High Average
• 2002 USBC Hall of Fame
• 2009 PBA Hall of Fame

Father and Son Duo in PBA Hall of Fame

by Josh Hyde

             Both Pete and Dick Weber were great bowlers. They both are in the PBA Hall of Fame and the USBC Hall of Fame. Both have four U.S. Open titles. These two bowlers know how to get 10 pins down in one shot. This is what it takes to be a great bowler.

            Dick Weber was the first superstar of the PBA. He paved the way for bowlers to make a living by throwing a bowling bowl. Weber was the first bowler to win a title in five different decades. This shows how great he really was. In his PBA career, Weber had one Player of the Year award and one High Average award. He became the first bowler to win three tournaments in-a-row. However, they were in two different seasons. Still, he won, which is more than anyone else could say.

            Dick Weber was an intimidating player on the lanes. He was one of the first players to hook the ball. In his era, nobody could do this better than Weber. In the earlier years of the PBA,
many PBA members would leave a lot of 5-pins—except Dick Weber, who figured out how to knock it down. Players would be envious of Weber, because it looked like Weber would not have a chance, but then he would strike. This is another area a great bowler like Weber can excel in. To become a great bowler, you must take advantage of the breaks that you receive, which is what Weber did.

            Pete Weber was a bowler like his father, but he was not Dick Weber. At first, bowling fans were reluctant because of his antics on the lanes. However, he could still get the job done. He is one
of the best bowlers on today’s PBA tour. He is best bowler without a PBA Player of the Year to his credit. With four U.S. Open titles, no one can debate that Weber is a great bowler. He became just the third bowler to win the Triple Crown, which consists of the U.S. Open, the PBA World Championship, and the Tournament of Champions. To have all three of these titles is something to be proud of. Only six bowlers have accomplished that feat.

           After he tied his father with 26 titles, during his interview Dick Weber called and congratulated him. In his quest for the Triple Crown, Pete Weber’s first title toward the Triple Crown was the Tournament of Champions. To have that be the first title is hard to do. Weber can certainly strike.  

          Dick and Pete Weber are the best father-son combination the PBA has ever seen. These
bowlers know how to strike in the hardest tournaments the PBA has to offer. Both bowlers know how to double in the tenth to win a title. This makes the Webers two of the PBA’s top bowlers in history.

 Dick Weber

The Two Greatest Bowlers of All Time

by Josh Hyde

            In 2008, the PBA came up with the 50 greatest bowlers in PBA history. Bowling fans could only guess between five and twenty bowlers. We knew that Earl Anthony, Walter Ray Williams, Jr., and Dick Weber were going to be at the top. What we did not know what order these greats would fall in. These three greats know how to get the job done to win a PBA title. The top two bowlers of all-time came from different eras. The sport of bowling was going through an evolution during that time, with much of that change being in equipment and lane changes.  Walter Ray may have been the best at adapting his game to these changes.  Here are some reasons why Earl and Walter Ray are the best two bowlers in the history of the PBA.

           Anthony was the first to make $1 million in career earnings and was the first bowler to
make $100,000 in one year on the tour.  When he won a major, he won the title twice.  During his career, he made the television show 15 times in two different seasons. One of his major accomplishments is that he won a title every year for 15 consecutive years.  Indeed, he was definitely one of the best in professional bowling.

           Williams is the first bowler to win over the $2, $3, and $4 million in career earnings.  Though some suspected that Williams’ career was done as he entered the new millennium, in his 2002-2003 season, he set another record by earning the most money in one season and two majors—the US Open andthe PBA World Championship. Williams set a tour record by converting every single-pin spare (475-for-475) in 2005-06, unheard of for any bowler. In the 2006 PBA World Championship, he tied Anthony with 41 titles. At the beginning of the 2006-07 season, he beat Pete Weber at the Japan Cup to surpass Anthony with 42 titles. Ironically, no player has had more 300 games bowled against them than Williams has. Petraglia, Hoskins, and Duke all bowled perfect games on TV against Williams.

           Anthony and Williams know how to strike, and they are the best bowlers that the PBA has
ever seen. Williams is the better of the two because he had to adapt to a greater variety of equipment changes in the game. Anthony had very little equipment adaptation that he had to face in his bowling career; however, he was still one of the great bowlers of his era. Both of these bowlers know how to double in the tenth to win a PBA Tour title, but Walter Ray Williams, Jr. is the greatest bowler to throw a bowling ball.