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• Museum's Reichert Center will help educate people of all ages about bowling

  12/16/09

  By Mark Miller
  USBC Communications

  

  Leaving the Bowling Reaches Out section of the new International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, visitors will have a special place to learn all about the sport while honoring one of its true pioneers.
  
  The Jack Reichert Education and Learning Center will be where school children, high school and college students and historians of any age will quietly be able to discover the history of bowling through a variety of printed and visual research tools.
  
  "There will be books, videos and computer desks available for schools to teach the history of the sport," said IBM/HF Executive Director Bill Supper. "We'll have places for people to sit and do research like at a library. And there will be a work table, two computer stations and a LCD projector for schools to do PowerPoints or videos."
  
  Reichert, a member of the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame since 1998 and Professional Bowlers Association Hall of Fame since 1992, was the longtime chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Brunswick Corporation. In addition to providing leadership to guide his company's growth in the bowling and recreation industry, he led the effort to promote bowling as a medal sport in the Olympics. He later served on the boards of directors of Strike Ten Entertainment and the Professional Bowlers Association until his death in 2004.
  
  The Reichert Education and Learning Center is being made possible by a grant from the Reichert Family.
  
  "The room originally was going to be called the Jack Reichert Library but in line with the Jack Reichert Foundation being all about education and learning, we changed the name," Supper said. "This will be far more than just a library.
  
  "It will not just be for young kids. High school and college students will be able to do their papers and thesis in it."
  
  A large, rounded wall that serves as the back part of the Hall of Fame section is expected to include a wide-angle photo of the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev. Reichert and former Brunswick vice-president Jim Bennett were instrumental in that facility being built.
  
  The Reichert Library is scheduled to open Jan. 25 with the rest of the IBM/HF.

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  Tom Smallwood: An interview with the rags-to-riches PBA World Champion

  

  Tom Smallwood's world has gotten much larger than the one he knew last December when, just two days before Christmas, he felt the fate of so many workers in the auto industry when he lost his job at a General Motors plant. It might have been difficult to convince him at the time that that twist of fate would be the start of the greatest run of fortune he has ever known, but after securing a PBA Tour exemption at the Tour Trials in Detroit just months later, a profile in USA Today, and making his first title a major at the PBA World Championship on Dec. 13, that is precisely the fairytale that Tom Smallwood is living today. Having just defeated reigning PBA Player of the Year Wes Malott for the $50,000 top prize and two-year exemption that was at stake at the PBA World Championship, Tom Smallwood sat down to chat with BOWL.com about his incredible journey from the fate of an unemployed assembly line worker to the top of the bowling world.

   

  What is going through your mind knowing your first title on tour is a major and you won it in front of your family after getting laid off by GM earlier this year?
  
  TS: It is pretty unbelievable. A lot of people are asking about the tenth frame and how nervous I was. I was already so nervous that I don't think it was possible to get any more nervous. I told myself 'You waited your whole life for this shot,' and 'Have fun, it's only bowling, so put your best effort into it. You can't take a shot back so do what you can do on every shot. Be committed to your shot before you throw it.'
  
  It is a wild ride, it is an unbelievable ride. I am enjoying every second. I mean I never did any radio shows in my life, and I done have 5 or 6 radio shows now. It is crazy. I am a quiet person, I don't talk at all. I enjoy doing it but I am not a talker, and I am just enjoying the ride.
  
  You were also featured in a USA Today profile recently-what was it like to get that kind of major media exposure?
  
  TS: It was just unbelievable. We went there three weeks ago and Tom Clark, Wes Malott, Bill O'Neill and Rhino Page just kind of had a little session and I didn't know what was going on. We did some photos, and then they called me back into the room and they said they wanted to do a story on me. Everything has just been unbelievable. I have bowled for 15 years and the biggest paper I have been in is the Saturday Night News.
  
  You had many family members in attendance today, all of whom were very emotional after you clinched the title. What is your family's response to your success?
  
  TS: Yeah, my wife, my mom and dad, two sisters, my brother and my brother-in-law were all there. My wife keeps me on key, and my Dad's come to me and told me 'You're as good as anyone out there, go bowl!' And he is not a bowler so it's kind of funny to listen to him.
  
  There were lots of tears and I was trying to hold them back myself, but yeah they're probably more in awe than I am. I am so cloud-nine right now and they are realizing it and I haven't yet. If you weren't asking me questions right now there'd be nothing going through my mind-I'm just lost in it all right now.
  
  Is the fact that you defeated the reigning PBA Player of the Year and King of Bowling, Wes Malott, another added bonus for you?
  
  TS: Well, I am not being arrogant when I say this, I think everyone would say the same thing. It doesn't matter to me. It is a one-game match, anything can happen. A best-of-seven is different, but in a one-game match you throw eight, nine or 10 good shots you're as good as anyone. He is gonna throw it great anyway, but when he got the break in the ninth I thought it was over. I figured it was probably over, he will finish me. Then he left a ten pin in tenth.
  
  What was going through your mind when you saw that he left the door open with that nine-count in the tenth?
  
  TS: The whole time I was just thinking 'Let me have a chance,' and you know like I said on that lane I was pretty comfortable and already nervous. The six or seven previous shots on that lane I was very nervous.
  
  What are your plans for the $50,000 top prize?
  
  TS: My wife probably already has it spent. We just got a new house, so we'll probably put some into that, and that's about it. I don't know.
  
  I understand that GM recently called with an offer to bring you back, is that correct?
  
  TS: Yes, I said 'No thanks.' They were surprised and asked why. I told them I was a pro bowler and she was like 'Whatever.' I wasn't offended, I said 'Actually I'll be on ESPN on Sunday. The girl next to her was a bowler and I talked to her for a while.

  

   

  Did it feel good to turn them down?
  
  TS: Oh, absolutely! It felt good to turn them down, and it is such a cool thing to say you're a professional bowler.
  
  Around the time you were laid off by GM last December, did you see it coming given all the uncertainty in the auto industry or was it a surprise?
  
  TS: We knew about a month ahead of time. There were so many rumors, so you don't put stock in any of them. You never know. First they said they would be laying off 600, and I survived that. Then they said 1, 200 and I knew I wasn't safe then, and I was right.
  
  When did you start considering the PBA tour as a possible next career move?
  
  TS: Just before I got laid off. That's one of those things where I wasn't too upset. Honestly I assumed I'd rather have worked instead of trying tour trials. I enjoy being home with my family. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. But if you'd have asked me 13 months ago 'Do you want be a pro bowler or work for GM I'd have stayed with GM.
  
  It is unbelievable the way things came together. I told my wife that the day I turn 30 I am done bowling for real, done ever attempting to do tour trials. I always had a decent job and I said I am too old to do it. After 30 you're not going to start a career in bowling. We agreed. I am not really into signs or that things were meant to happen for you but it just worked out so unbelievable that the Tour Trials were going to be held in Detroit so close to where I live, along with all the World Series of Bowling events - at that time they had just announced the location of the World Series events - my wife agreed 100%, so I bowled Tour Trials and we said if that doesn't work out we will figure out what we will do. Fortunately she has a decent job, it was never life or death. She carries our insurance. Without her job we'd have been hurting.
  
  What does your wife do?
  
  TS: She works for two radio stations as the traffic manager.
  
  By the time Tour Trials got started this past summer, how difficult had things gotten for you and your family since the layoff?
  
  TS: I was fortunate. I had a good year bowling amateur stuff, so that helped out. I had a great January and February some big local stuff around and I won a bunch of it. If I would have struggled through those it would have been a very different story. I started practicing big time every day, two to three hours a day. I bowled as much as I could, practiced every day and bowled tournaments every weekend. I went straight to Vegas and made money in the high roller, won some money with the ABTs.
  
  So you went into Tour Trials with quite a bit of confidence after these successes on the amateur circuit.
  
  TS: Yes, absolutely. Plus I bowled three stops on the regular tour last year and finished 12th, 14th and 60th and I thought I bowled bad. I finished 12th at the Masters this year where I lost to John Nolen in match play.
  
  When you got your exemption at tour trials this year how much of a relief was it for you personally and financially?
  
  TS: It was a huge relief. That was the most emotional thing for me. I could just feel the relief. I had a decent lead the last day. Scores were low and they were tough. I had a 200-pin lead on 9th place and the whole time you're thinking 'Don't bowl yourself out of this.' And then about game seven I realized that I can go 120-120 and still make it. So at the end it wasn't as emotional.
  
  I think Tour Trials is so hard and such a craps shoot. I don't think it necessarily shows your real talent and even if you make it you're not sure about yourself. It's hard for you to buy stock in the idea that you bowled good one week and because of that you deserve to be out here. But honestly if I go through the locker room and someone says I'm terrible it doesn't bother me. I am not trying to prove myself at all, I am just trying to make money for my family.

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  ITRC will have capacity to bring live televised bowling broadcasts to the masses

  12/11/09

  By Gene Kanak
  USBC Communications

  This Sunday, bowling fans will have the opportunity to watch Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour bowlers Wes Malott, Bill O'Neil, Rhino Page and Thomas Smallwood battle for a major title during the finals of the PBA World Championship, which will be broadcast live from Northrock Lanes in Wichita, Kan., at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN.
  
  What these fans probably don't know is that, in the near future, this type of exciting bowling action will be sent their way directly from the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas. That's because the International Training and Research Center, one of the campus's most highly-anticipated features, has been designed to host live televised finals broadcasts of select bowling events.
  
  At least six of the ITRC's 20 lanes will be called upon during various stages of tournament play, but lanes seven and eight have been designated the championship pair; that designation was based on the pair's Brunswick Pro Lane surface and the ability to surround it with ample seating for spectators.    
  
  Currently, the ITRC is scheduled to serve as host for the televised finals of the 2010 U.S. Women's Open, PBA Women's Series Showdown and PBA Experience Showdown, but, according to USBC Vice President of Media Pete Tredwell, that is just the beginning.
  
  "Right now, we have three outstanding events on the ITRC broadcast schedule, but we certainly do not plan on stopping there,” Tredwell said. "Going forward, we will look to take advantage of every reasonable opportunity to host and broadcast events from the ITRC.
  
  "The International Bowling Campus will be the launch site that directs the bowling industry into the future. It's only fitting that the sport's greatest events are contested and greatest champions crowned on these grounds."

  For more information on the International Training and Research Center, visit bowlingitrc.com.

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  USBC VP of Media on the Phantom Radio show

  12/09/09

  

  Pete Tredwell, USBC Vice President of Media, is this week's guest on Phantom Radio. In his interview with the Phantom, Tredwell discusses a variety of topics including:
  
  · The new BOWL.com and reasons behind changes to the site.
  
  · USBC's broadcast television schedule on ESPN2 for 2010.
  
  · Plans for the 2010 USBC Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Arlington.
  
  · The PBA Experience Showdown.
  
  Click Here to listen to the interview.

  Permlink to USBC VP of Media on the Phantom Radio show

  
  

  Museum's Bowling Reaches Out section honors special groups, people

  12/8/09

  By Mark Miller
  USBC Communications

  Some of bowling's most special organizations and competitors will be among the highlights of the final part of the modern era section at the new International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame.
  
  Called Bowling Reaches Out, the section includes four areas: Bowling Charities, Everyone Can Bowl Hometown Heroics and Route 66 mini-lanes.
  
  "This area will show that everybody has the opportunity to bowl and that it doesn't matter if you are in a wheelchair or blind or physically challenged," said Ross Edwards, design director for Dallas' Museum Arts and the lead designer for the IBM/HF. "You don't have to be a pro or physically fit. Anyone who wants the challenge can bowl."
  
  Bowling Charities will talk about the major causes bowling supports such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure that includes the United States Bowling Congress' Bowl for the Cure and the Bowlers to Veterans Link. The latter will feature carpet bowling lanes and plastic pins and balls like those provided to overseas troops.
  
  The Everyone Can Bowl exhibit will include artifacts, memorabilia and graphics telling the story of wheelchair bowling, Special Olympics and blind bowling. This will give visitors a taste of the many special bowling programs available for the disabled.
  
  Next is a more modern version of perhaps the most popular exhibits from the previous IBM/HF in St. Louis. In Hometown Heroics, people will again be able to look up 300 games and 800 series rolled by bowlers, family and friends. And they'll be able to look up anyone who is a member of a local and state association hall of fame.
  
  "Hometown Heroics gives everyone the opportunity to find someone special in their family or among their friends who had great scores or groups of great scores plus those who have been elected to their local or state halls of fame," Edwards said.
  
  The final part of this area will be two Route 66 mini-lanes available for visitor use. This will give people, especially youth, a chance for some fun rolling the small balls at the small pins. That may help them picture themselves as the hall of famers they are about to meet.

   

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