RIP Don Carter

Perhaps this could cross over to the trivia board thread: First athlete to sign a $1M endorsement contract (Ebonite International in 1964).

MIAMI (AP) — Bowling great Don Carter has died at 85.
The Professional Bowlers Association said Friday that Carter died at his home in Miami on Thursday night. He recently was hospitalized with pneumonia complicated by emphysema.

Edit to include this great Miller Lite commercial:

 

My Dad was a big bowler. We knew all of them. Carter and Dick Weber were our tops. Sad to hear.

 

Had a better average than Bob Uecker.

 

I don't think sports fans younger than 40 or maybe 50 realize how big bowling was on TV.

I remember spending Saturday afternoons with my mother watching Chris Schenkel and Bo Burton announce bowling on ABC.

 

thought this was the mavs' original owner when i saw thread title. glad it wasn't but still rip.

 

The big bowling alley (yes, bowling people it's an ALLEY) in my town is Don Carter's All-Star Lanes.

Never knew he was a "star" bowler. Until now.

 

If memory serves correct, you had ABC Wide World of Sports covering one season of bowling (fall maybe) and NBC Sportsworld covering the spring season. And yes, bowling was very big on Saturday afternoons back in the day, especially in the northeast in winter before college basketball got as big as it is.

 

Don Carter was one hell of a bowler. Still remember watching him on those decadent-looking Saturday afternoon telecasts. Don Carter ... Carmen Salvino ... Billy Welu ... all creating their own strikes rather than letting the polyurethane carry the ball into the pocket.

Want a piece of the past? Here.

 

I always enjoyed watching Schenkel and the PBA, and it was huge back then.

Tastes great! Less filling! (Great ads.)

 

God must have really needed someone to pick up a 7-10 split. RIP.

EDIT: In the 70s, ABC's Saturday afternoon PBA broadcast in the winter was huge. 3:30 p.m., followed by Wide World of Sports at 5. My mom worked for a few years at one of the alleys that was a stop on the tour and it was always fun watching the pros bowl on the same lanes we used in our junior leagues. College basketball was strictly a regional thing then and didn't take over Saturdays until the 80s.

 

My most exciting TV sports moment remains seeing Jim Stefanich roll a 300 game then collapse behind the line during a stepladder finals in 1974. Stefanich ended up losing the event, I believe.