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24-692: Prior to 2002, the tournament was called the PBA National Championship . The PBA National Championship was first contested on November 28, 1960, then called the First Annual National Championship; the winner was PBA Hall of Famer Don Carter . Tournament champions currently win the Earl Anthony Trophy , named in honor of the late PBA legend who won this title a record six times (1973–75 and 1981–83). The World Championship has occasionally offered

48-688: A $ 100,000 top prize, and as much as $ 150,000 in 2020 . The National Championship and World Championship have been contested over the years using a variety of formats. Currently, the PBA World Championship format is different from normal PBA Tour events. Since the 2009–10 season, the initial qualifying scores for the World Championship have come from other stand-alone tournaments at the PBA World Series of Bowling , which celebrated its 13th anniversary in 2022. Thus,

72-554: A 1994 interview: "I didn't just want to go out there and show up. I wanted to win. If I couldn't win, I didn't want to compete. My knees made it so I couldn't practice and hardly could complete a tournament." Major titles in bold type . Carter enlisted in the United States Navy in 1944, and spent two years as a radarman in the South Pacific . He was a baseball player in high school, and played AAU baseball with

96-496: A 754 series. Ray Bluth, Dick Weber , Tom Hennessey, and Pat Patterson were also on that 1958 team. Said teammate Bluth, "Don was the greatest bowler of his era (and) was the star of the Budweisers. He was our leadoff man. He wasn’t too gung-ho about that role, but he kept getting strikes and so did the rest of us, so he stayed there." Unlike most bowlers who keep their arm straight on the backswing as they are about to release

120-467: A PBA first. Currently (as of the 2021 WSOB XII ), combined scores from the 30 games of qualifying (10 games each) on three different animal oil patterns determine the top 30 for the cashers round of the PBA World Championship. These 30 players then bowl ten more games (two five-game blocks) on the Earl Anthony 43 oil pattern, which is named after the six-time winner of this event. The cashers field

144-423: A live televised stepladder final on April 21. The tournament had a $ 503,200 prize fund. The top 35 players cashed, with the champion earning $ 100,000. The number 4 seed E. J. Tackett defeated top seed Matt Russo 225–194 in the final match to successfully defend his 2023 PBA World Championship title. This was Tackett's 23rd PBA Tour title, fifth major, and the third World Championship title in his career. + Due to

168-601: A pro tour to a number of players at the 1958 ABC Open Championships in Syracuse, New York . Carter was one of 33 bowlers who each donated $ 50 to get the PBA started, and Elias would later become Carter's business manager. Although the PBA was not formed until Carter was 32 years old, he still won seven PBA titles, including two majors: the inaugural PBA National Championship in 1960 and the ABC Masters in 1961 . He also made

192-640: A team bowler, Carter helped the Pfeiffer Beer team of Detroit , Michigan , win the 1953 ABC Open Championships before he moved back to St. Louis. Carter was then part of the "Budweisers" Bowling Team that won the National Team Match Games title four times in five years (1956, 1957, 1959, 1960). On March 12, 1958, this team established an ABC league series record for a five-man team (3,858 pins) that stood for more than 35 years. Carter rolled games of 266, 253 and 235 in that session for

216-512: Is subsequently cut to 16 players for two eight-game, roundrobin match play rounds. Total pinfall from all 56 qualifying games, including 30 bonus pins for head-to-head match play wins, determines the five players that advance to the televised finals. The Earl Anthony 43 oil pattern is also used for the match play and championship rounds. The 2024 PBA World Championship was contested April 6–20 at Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Michigan , with

240-457: The Dyno-Thane brand, and Track International , which produces the popular line of Track bowling balls. Dynothane and Track had been owned by Columbia, and were transferred to Ebonite when the latter purchased the former. On November 15, 2019, the company announced that its assets and patents had been sold to Brunswick Bowling Products, LLC . However, the purchase agreement did not include

264-519: The U.S. Open ) between 1952 and 1960, Carter won four times in eight events (he withdrew one year due to injury) and never finished lower than fourth. He won five World Invitational events in a six-year span (1957 to 1962), finishing second the only year he did not win. He also won one ABC Masters title in 1961. Carter also won four tournaments during the 1950s in the ABC Open Championships Classic Division. As

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288-539: The 2012–13 "Super Season" running from November 2012 to December 2013, there were two PBA World Championship events: one in November 2012 and one in November 2013. Don Carter (bowler) Donald James Carter (July 29, 1926 – January 5, 2012) was a right-handed American professional bowler. Born in St. Louis, Missouri , he learned the game while working a childhood job as a pinsetter , and went on to become one of

312-719: The CtD Education Center, owned by Ronald Hickland Jr., a former Ebonite ball core designer. In addition to Ebonite-branded bowling balls, Ebonite International has also owned the Hammer -branded line of balls since 2002. In February 2007, Ebonite announced that it had acquired one of the industry's leading manufacturers, Columbia Industries . Since the acquisition, they have produced that company's signature Columbia 300 line of balls. That acquisition also resulted in Ebonite gaining control of Dynothane Inc., which produced

336-525: The Pfeiffer Beer team in Detroit, where his bowling career reached high momentum. Carter married professional bowler LaVerne Haverly (née Thompson) in 1953. The two divorced in 1964. His second marriage, to Pat Hardwick in 1966, ended in a 1972 divorce. In 1973, Carter married professional bowler Paula Sperber, who had won the 1971 U.S. Women's Open and had an outstanding pro bowling career. Carter's first and third wives, Haverly and Sperber, are both in

360-579: The WIBC (now USBC ) Hall of Fame. Don remained married to Paula until his death in 2012. For a few seasons, the PBA held a mixed doubles tournament called the Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles Championship . Beginning in 1978, Carter appeared in selected TV commercials for Miller Lite beer, which had begun using athletes and celebrities in its ad campaigns a few years prior. Carter died on January 5, 2012, from complications of both emphysema and pneumonia . He

384-546: The Year . In 1964, he signed a $ 1,000,000 multi-year deal to endorse Ebonite bowling products, at the time the highest single deal of its kind. By that time, Carter was already grossing more than $ 100,000 a year ($ 957,000 in 2022 dollars) between bowling tournaments, exhibitions and other endorsements. Carter was the PBA's first president, and served four years overall in that capacity. Recurring knee problems forced him to retire from competitive bowling in 1972. Said Carter in

408-559: The ball, Carter kept his elbow bent, never straightening his arm. With the format for bowling (a single player at a time on a stationary lane) lending itself well to early two-camera live television setups, prominent players like Carter began to be seen on TV sets across the United States. He appeared regularly on bowling shows like Bowling Stars , Championship Bowling , Jackpot Bowling and Make That Spare . With Carter's encouragement, lawyer/businessman Eddie Elias proposed

432-522: The current tournament is open to any PBA member who also enters the World Series of Bowling. For the 2009–10 season, the PBA World Championship was part of the World Series of Bowling held in Allen Park, Michigan , and was contested in a split format. The qualifying rounds of the tournament were contested August 31 – September 4, with the televised finals being broadcast live on ESPN December 13, 2009. The PBA's second World Series of Bowling in 2010

456-495: The finals of the 1962 PBA National Championship, but finished runner-up to Carmen Salvino . Carter won four titles and $ 49,000 in prize money in 1962 alone ($ 469,000 in 2022 dollars). That year, he also made 18 top-five finishes (still a PBA record), including seven straight top-five finishes (a feat matched only by Dick Weber since), and he was named the Bowling Writers Association of America's Bowler of

480-636: The legends of ten-pin bowling and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) in 1958. He was six-time bowler of the year, a 10-time All-American, and became known simply as "Mr. Bowling." Carter and fellow St. Louis native Dick Weber are widely regarded as professional bowling's first superstars. He was voted the Greatest Bowler of All-Time in a 1970 Bowling Magazine poll, and ranked #1 among 20th Century bowlers by Bowlers Journal in 1999. At

504-475: The likes of Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola . He signed a minor-league contract with the Philadelphia Athletics in the fall of 1946. After one minor league season, he hung up his baseball spikes and returned to St. Louis to take a job at Golden Eagle Lanes. Working as an alley man, bartender and janitor, he bowled as often as he could during his time off. In 1951, he was invited to bowl for

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528-420: The vanguard of celebrity endorsement , he capitalized on his fame during televised bowling's most popular period to become the first athlete of any kind to earn $ 1,000,000 in a single endorsement deal, for Ebonite International . Prior to the PBA being formed, Carter was known as a dominant bowler in major tournaments of the 1950s, as well as in team play. In the nine BPAA All-Star tournaments (predecessor to

552-499: Was 85. His first wife LaVerne would die only two months later. Carter was known for a number of bowling "firsts": Ebonite International Ebonite International was a parent company that oversaw the manufacture of bowling balls and bowling equipment. Their headquarters and primary manufacturing facility was located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky before closing on November 15, 2019. The manufacturing plant now houses

576-462: Was contested in Las Vegas, Nevada , and was again used as qualifying for the 2010–11 PBA World Championship. This time, the 60-game qualifying scores for the five "animal pattern" championships held at the World Series were used to determine the 8-bowler TV field for the PBA World Championship finals. The World Championship finals were televised live over three consecutive days (January 14–16, 2011),

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