My bowling shirts

Figured I’d post today to show off a little from my bowling past. I’ve kept the score sheets from my notable performances (personal best games and series, the tournament win), but most of those are on old overhead transparencies, which are now creased from being stuffed in a manila envelope and difficult to keep flat on a scanner, and some of them are done in yellow scoring pencil, which may not show up on a scan in any case. The next best thing, then, I feel, is to post some pics of me in my bowling shirts. I have two of them, a red shirt I had done by the old pro shop which has my ABC award patches (the ABC was the American Bowling Congress, which governed men’s ten-pin bowling in the US until the merger with the Women’s International Bowling Congress (WIBC) and Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) to form today’s USBC), and the black trophy shirt I received for my LBT win, which I’ll post first…

Front view of the shirt…a small version of this picture will also go on the “About” page (which is why this post also appears in the “Administravia” category…I’ll be updating that page when I finish with this post).

Back view of same shirt…

This is me in the red shirt. The red patch on the pocket (as well as on the other shirt) is an Amateur Bowlers Tour patch, which was (and probably still is) required by bowlers participating in ABT events.

Back view; I liked the black-on-red color scheme because those are Brockton High School’s colors.

A couple of closeups now…first, the 150-over-average series award patch…

I was awarded this patch for a 605 series I shot in April of 1989 (my first of 3 600+ series), about 6 months before my LBT win. I was averaging 145 at the time, and the series was paced by a 244 first game, which almost won me the patch I’ll show next. The 605 helped me earn the most improved bowler honors in my league for that season.

I received this patch for the 268 game I shot in November of 1990. I remember having two bad games that night, but I figured out the pair and got into a groove, getting the first 8 in a row (ESPN’s Rob Stone might call that a “double hambone” now…hehehehe!) before leaving a 3-6 in the 9th frame, which I converted. I finished up with a strike on the first ball in the 10th, then left the 3-6 again with the second ball, which I again made. I was averaging 157 going into that night.

Hope no one minds me reminiscing. BTW, you might’ve guessed I forgot to close the bathroom door b4 taking these, but I was hoping the bathroom wouldn’t show in these photos…I wanted a white background for these. Thanks to my best friend Ed for obliging me by taking these photos with my digital camera.