E-dition No. 987 • Thursday, February 1, 2018
Editor: Bob Johnson (bjibob@aol.com)
New Splitsville Opens at Disneyland Resort
The newest location of Splitsville Luxury Lanes has opened for business at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif.
The two-story venue — which features lanes in six different settings, including the section shown here — opened its doors on Monday in Disneyland’s Downtown Disney restaurant and entertainment district. It’s located in a footprint formerly occupied by a House of Blues club.
According to a company official, the new Splitsville will be open 365 days per year, and has seating for 650 people. There are two full bars and two kitchens churning out creative cocktails and food.
Randy Thompson Officially Nominated for BPAA President
The Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America Nominating Committee com
pleted the process of selecting candidates for the BPAA Board of Directors at the conclusion of the BPAA Bowling Summit in Tempe, Ariz.
The committee, chaired by past president Jack Moran of Canandaigua, N.Y., recommended the following individuals to serve as officers of the association:
* Randy Thompson (Plaza Lanes, Des Moines, Iowa), President
* Jim Decker (Double Decker Lanes, Rohnert Park, Calif.), Vice President
* Kevin Krauss (Seminole Lanes, Seminole, Fla.), Secretary
* Mark Voight (Community Bowling Centers, Livonia, Mich.), Treasurer
The committee also recommended the following to serve as At-Large Directors:
* Tom Hubbard (Sarasota Lanes, Sarasota, Fla.)
* Don MacBrayne (Performance Entertainment, Centennial, Colo.)
* Roger Nyquist (Lakeshore Lanes, Albany, Ore.)
The BPAA’s Annual Membership Meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 18, at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, during which members will vote on these recommendations. All terms begin July 1. Officer terms are one year in length, while at-large director terms are two years.
A provision of the BPAA bylaws allows individuals interested in an officer or at-large director position to submit an application outside the nominating process, and allows for their name to be on the ballot. The bylaw states such applications must be received at least 60 days before the annual meeting, which in 2018 would be April 19.
Questions concerning this process may be emailed to Moran at jackmoran@fltg.net or Laurie Clower, BPAA Staff Liaison to the Nominating Committee, at laurie@bpaa.com. Application forms are available on the BPAA website.
Derrin Davis to Lead Kegel Technical Support
Kegel has promoted Derrin Davis to the position of Technical Support Coordinator.
Davis has grown up in the world of bowling and has a strong understanding of Kegel and its core values. His father, Mark Davis, is one of the original members of the Kegel team and currently is Kegel’s Executive VP of Mechanical Product Development and Support.
Through his childhood, Derrin was a bowler in Kegel’s Youth League. In 2000, he began working for Kegel in the Chemical Division. Since then, Derrin has built lane machines in the Manufacturing Department and worked in Quality Control, testing lane machines.
With his strong technical knowledge, he joined Kegel’s Tech Support Team in 2008, providing support for customers on the phone and also handling in-house lane machine rebuilds.
In his new role as Technical Support Coordinator, he will be responsible for the daily operations of the Technical Support Team. He also will be teaching all levels of lane machine training for both customers and distributors.
“Derrin has grown up in this company and acquired the knowledge and passion necessary to lead an important department like Kegel Tech Support. It’s in his blood,” said Chris Chartrand, CEO of Kegel. “The care and follow-up he has demonstrated to our customers continuously meets our high standards of support.
“Derrin also focuses on the strategic growth of our support team, and we believe his initiative to improve the department will only increase in his new role as Technical Support Coordinator.”
Noted Davis: “Our Tech Support Team is strong, and my goal is to maintain our position on top. I’m excited for the opportunity to lead this team, deliver the best support possible, and to find more ways to share our technical expertise with our customers worldwide.”
Columbia 300 Adds Sandra Gongora to Pro Staff
Columbia 300 has added Sandra Gongora to its pro staff of “youthful, highly energized competitors,” the company said in an announcement today.
Gongora is a two-time Mexican national champion and is a long-time member of Mexico’s national team. In college, she bowled at Wichita State, where she was named 2009 Collegiate MVP and Bowler of the Year.
Some of her other bowling achievements include a silver medal (Masters) and a bronze medal (team) at the 2016 PABCON Women’s Championships, a bronze medal (team) at the 2014 PABCON Championships, a bronze medal (mixed doubles) at the 2013 World Games, and a silver medal (team) and a bronze medal (trios) at the 2012 PABCON Championships.
She also has numerous gold, silver and bronze medals in events prior to 2012.
“I’m very, very excited to be part of Columbia 300,” Gongora said. “I’ve been working very hard and I’m very committed, so I just want to be with Columbia 300 because I know I can keep growing.
“My goals have never changed,” she added. “For this coming [PWBA] year I want to have fun and win titles.”
Rob Gotchall, Columbia 300’s Marketing Manager for Players, Promotions and Events, said he is excited to add Gongora to the brand’s team.
“Sandra is one of the most physically talented players in the world,” he said. “She has power, versatility and is an extremely fierce and fiery competitor. I feel that by adding Sandra to our team, with the assets we have in place here at Ebonite International, we can ultimately help her to reach her goal of becoming a PWBA champion.”
Gotchall also said putting her alongside Columbia 300 teammate Clara Guerrero will enable the brand to expand its commitment to the Latin market, working to teach and grow the game in that market segment.
Gongora currently resides in Monterrey, Mexico.
Before the Super Bowl, Watch Some Bowling
Houston Rockets All-Star guard and tournament host Chris Paul will try to defend his doubles title with a new partner in the 9th State Farm CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational Presented by Go Bowling! on Super Bowl Sunday.
The telecast will air at 2 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, providing a welcome respite from the hours of Super Bowl pre-game programing.
Paul will be joined by several celebrities and PBA Tour stars in the multi-format event, contested at Bowlero The Woodlands in Conroe, Texas, and benefiting the Chris Paul Family Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting youth, education, health, sports and s
ocial responsibility.
In addition to Paul, who is the defending champion of the doubles event (with PBA partner Chris Barnes), other participating celebrities include former NFL All-Pro and former Celebrity Invitational winner, Terrell Owens; Boston Red Sox All-Star outfielder, Mookie Betts; and Paul’s All-Star Rockets teammate, James Harden.
The alternate ball doubles format event will feature the following teams:
* Paul, bowling with PBA Hall of Famer and 38-time Tour winner, Norm Duke.
* Betts, bowling with and eight-time Tour winner, Bill O’Neill.
* Owens, bowling with PBA Hall of Famer and 37-time Tour winner, Pete Weber.
* Harden, bowling with and 2016 PBA Player of the Year, E.J. Tackett.
Betts bowled a 300 game in the Pepsi PBA Scorpion Championship Presented by GoBowling!, which was part of the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling IX in November.
The telecast also will include a Baker-format team competition. Paul, Harden, Houston Rockets forward Trevor Ariza, two-time Tour winner D.J. Archer and fellow Texas PBA star Dino Castillo will make up the Houston Strong team. Betts, Owens, 12-time Tour winner Sean Rash, and 2017 Teen Masters representatives Hannah Diem and Logan Harvey will comprise the Bowlero All-Stars team.
In the third event of the telecast, all of the celebrities, plus actor/comedian Oscar Nunez and Rockets guard Bobby Brown, take part in the Go Bowling! Celebrity Super Clash, a one-ball sudden-death shootout in which the player with the lowest pinfall in each frame is eliminated.
PBA’s “Big February” continues on ESPN with three consecutive live Go Bow
ling! PBA Tour Sunday telecasts at 1 p.m. Eastern, beginning with the PBA Tournament of Champions on Feb. 11, the Go Bowling! 60th Anniversary Classic on Feb. 18, and the Barbasol PBA Players Championship on Feb. 25.
For coverage of the CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational, see the February issue of Bowlers Journal International, which is in the mail now.
Lou Holtz to Provide Keynote Address at Bowl Expo
Lou Holtz, one of the most successful college football coaches of all time, will be the keynote speaker at BPAA’s 2018 International Bowl Expo, set for June 17-21 at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Holtz, one of the most sought-after speakers in America, will discuss overco
ming impossible challenges by setting goals and working to achieve them. Holtz has built a reputation as a motivator, a demanding disciplinarian and someone who relishes challenges and hard work.
Holtz is the only coach in the history of college football to take six different teams to a bowl game, win bowl games with five different teams, and have four different college teams ranked in the end-of-season Top 20 poll. Despite never inheriting a winning team, he compiled a 243-127-7 career record, and has 12 career bowl game victories, fifth on the all-time list.
When Holtz took over as Notre Dame’s 25th head football coach in 1985, he brought with him a sterling reputation for turning pretenders into contenders, and for taking football programs and elevating them. Nowhere did he do this as impressively as he did at Notre Dame.
In his 11 seasons in South Bend, Ind., Holtz chalked up more victories than Ara Parseghian, Knute Rockne or Frank Leahy had in their first 11 years on the job, which included the consensus national championship in 1988. He posted a 23-game winning streak that ranks as the longest in Notre Dame history, and an overall 100-30-2 mark during those 11 years positioned him alongside those Fighting Irish coaching legends.
When Notre Dame met Florida in the 1996 Orange Bowl, it was the ninth consecutive year Holtz had taken the team to a traditional January post-season bowl game: the Cotton Bowl in 1988, 1993 and 1994; Fiesta Bowl in 1989 and 1995; Orange Bowl in 1990, 1991 and 1996; and Sugar Bowl in 1992. This is something that no other coach in the country has matched.
After his departure from Notre Dame following the 1996 season, H
oltz joined CBS Sports’ College Football Today for two seasons as a sports analyst, and was with United States Filter as a customer relations spokesman. From there, he went on to be head coach at the University of South Carolina for six seasons (1999-2004), where he led the Gamecocks to back-to-back Jan. 1 bowl games for the first time in the history of the school, and defeated Ohio State in consecutive bowl appearances.
Until 2014, Holtz was a college football studio analyst on ESPN. He appeared on ESPNews, ESPN College Game Day programs and SportsCenter, and served as an on-site analyst for college football games. He currently is in his second year with Sirius XM Radio as a co-host for two sports programs, a golf show broadcast throughout the year entitled “Holtz in One” and two weekly college football programs.
Holtz has authored three New York Times best-selling books, and produced four highly acclaimed motivational videos. At Bowl Expo, he will present his “Game Plan for Success” on Wednesday, June 20, sponsored by Brunswick.
Eight Companies Renew Sponsor Deals With USBC
Eight companies have renewed sponsorship agreements with the United States Bowling Congress, and Kegel has renewed its agreement to handle lane maintenance for USBC events.
Brunswick, Columbia 300, Ebonite, Hammer, Kegel, Roto Grip and Sto
rm will be Gold sponsors, while Motiv and Track renewed their three-year partnership deals at the Silver level.
Columbia 300, Hammer and Storm have been Gold partners since the levels of partnership were launched in 2015, while Brunswick, Ebonite and Roto Grip are upgrading after three years as Silver partners.
Kegel also is a Gold partner in addition to its agreement as Official Lane Maintenance Provider of USBC.
To read USBC Executive Director Chad Murphy’s recap of 2017, go to: https://bowl.com/2017Recap2018Preview/.
Don’t Miss the New BJI Podcast With Carmen Salvino
When the legendary Carmen Salvino joined BJI Editor Gianmarc Manzione for the latest edition of the BJI Podcast, the inimitable 17-time PBA Tour champion pulled no punches — both figuratively and literally — as you will hear in some of the stories he tells.
Salvino bowled in the first-ever PBA Tour stop, the 1959 Empire State Open, which was won by “Wrong Foot” Lou Campi. Salvino also is going to bowl in the PBA’s 60th Anniversary Classic in Indianapolis this month, establishing a distinction that, as the PBA noted in a Jan. 11 release, will never be matched.
Salvino isn’t showing up in Indy just for the fun of it. He says he has been lifting weights and working on his game. His wife of 61 years, Ginny, has been taking pictures of him bowling to help him see his game and make changes. And he has some tough words for the kids on tour who think he’s going to be an easy target out there at age 84.
Salvino is a character, and he uses some language reflective of that colorful character at times in this interview. So, as they say in TV land, “parental discretion is advised.” You can listen to the podcast here: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/bji-podcast-a-wildly-entertaining-conversation-with-the-legendary-carmen-salvino/.
Business Briefs…
- Ricky Bourgeois, Vice President of Malco Movie Theatres and that company’s Premier Lanes bowling chain, has been honored with the Distinguished Service Award for his decade-and-a-half of work with the Louisiana High School Athletic Association bowling tournament. “I was pleasantly surprised,” Bourgeois told The Advocate newspaper. “When they told me they were doing this to represent bowling as a statewide honor, I was overwhelmed.” Read more here: http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/high_schools/article_eb46ab58-0201-11e8-88fa-5f4442e46c6a.html.
* In Cyber Report #986, an editing error in the story about Denise Richter’s passing made it seem as if Richter’s sister, Diane Mallow, also had passed away. Mallow is alive and well and overseeing the two centers in Watertown, Wis., that the sisters co-owned. We regret the error.
Other News You Can Use…
* Shirley Garms, a USBC Hall of Fame member from Island Lake, Ill., passed away on Jan. 24. She was 94. Garms was one of the top
bowlers in the nation during the 1960s. She was named Bowling Writers Association of America Woman Bowler of the Year in 1961 and 1962. A founding member of the PWBA, she was a charter member of the PWBA Hall of Fame in 1995. She also is a member of the World Bowling Hall of Fame (1971), the Illinois Bowling Hall of Fame (1975) and the Chicago Bowling Hall of Fame (1985). A funeral service is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. Central at Friedrichs Funeral Home, 320 W. Central Rd., Mount Prospect, Ill. More: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/shirley-garms-usbc-hall-of-fame-member-dies-at-age-94/.
* PBA fans have selected Jason Belmonte to try to end Wes Malott’s reign as PBA King of Bowling in a ground-breaking live streaming event on Facebook Live on Tuesday, Feb. 6, from AMF Riviera Lanes in Fairlawn, Ohio. The match will kick off PBA Tournament of Champions week as the tournament returns to the historic center in suburban Akron. More: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/belmonte-vs-malott-pba-king-of-bowling-match-set-for-facebook-live/.
* Three days of competition have been added to High Roller’s August Military Team Classic at the South Point resort in Las Vegas. With the addition of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 16-18, to the schedule, an additional 120 teams can be accommodated, as well as more mixed doubles teams. For further information, call 800-257-6179.
* The guest this week on Phantom Radio is Johnny Campos, who has quickly become a favorite among listeners with his stories from the days he worked for the PBA. To listen to the conversation, go to: https://kegel.squarespace.com/phantomblog/2018/1/31/johnny-campos-phantom-radio.
* CONTACT: Please send business news, event information, etc. to Bob Johnson at bjibob@aol.com. For breaking business news, visit bcmmag.com or bowlersjournal.com, and “Like” Bowling Center Management and Bowlers Journal International on Facebook. BJI Cyber Reports are now archived at bcmmag.com.
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