Earl Anthony
| Earl Anthony | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Earl Roderick Anthony April 27, 1938 Tacoma, Washington |
| Died | August 14, 2001 (aged 63) New Berlin, Wisconsin |
| Other names | Earl the Pearl, Square Earl, The Doomsday Stroking Machine |
| Occupation | Ten Pin Bowler, Bowling Broadcaster |
| Years active | 1963–97 |
| Spouse(s) | Susie |
Earl Roderick Anthony (April 27, 1938 – August 14, 2001) was a left-handed American professional bowler who amassed records of 43 titles and six Player of the Year awards on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. For over two decades, his career title count was listed as 41. The count was amended to 43 in 2008, when the PBA chose to retroactively award PBA titles for ABC Masters championships if won by a PBA member at the time. He is widely credited (along with Dick Weber) for having increased bowling's popularity in the United States. He was the first bowler to earn over $100,000 in a season (1975), and the first to reach $1,000,000 in lifetime PBA earnings (1982). His ten professional major titles—six PBA National Championships, two Firestone Tournament of Champions titles, and two ABC Masters (now USBC Masters) titles—are tied with Pete Weber for the most by any bowler.
Never brash or flashy in a crew-cut and plastic-frame "marshwood" style eyewear (which he abandoned for more modern frames later in his career), Anthony was dubbed "Square Earl" by fellow pro bowlers.
Anthony won the first of his 43 PBA titles on June 7, 1970, when he defeated Allie Clarke at the Heidelberg Open in Seattle, Washington. His final PBA title was a major — the 1983 Toledo Trust PBA National Championship. Six of his titles were achieved by a pair of improbable "three-peats" in the PBA National Championship, the first three from 1973–75 and the other three from 1981-83. Earl also finished runner-up to fellow lefty Mike Aulby in the 1979 PBA National Championship.
After a nine-month layoff, Anthony won his second ABC Masters tournament in 1984, which at the time was not part of the PBA Tour. Anthony had also won the Masters in 1977. The PBA later added ABC Masters titles as PBA titles, giving Anthony at least one PBA title in 15 consecutive seasons (1970–84). He joined the Senior Tour in 1988 and accumulated another seven titles there.
By 1988 Anthony had 25 career 300 games. Sadly, not one was on television in the United States; he did, however, bowl 2 televised 299 games, leaving a solid 9-pin on the last shot in one and a 6 pin on the other. Although he didn't drop to the floor like Don Johnson, Anthony would remark about the 9-pin on a PBA telecast years later, "to this day, I can't believe that pin stood." Earl Anthony did shoot a televised 300 game on national TV in a PBA Tournament in Japan in front of over 50 million viewers.
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