Pro Bowlers Tour
| Professional Bowlers Tour | |
|---|---|
Professional Bowlers Tour logo (1986–1988)
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| Genre | Sports, bowling |
| Presented by |
Chris Schenkel (1961–1997) Billy Welu (1961–1974) Nelson Burton Jr. (1975–1997) others... |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Release | |
| Original network |
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| Original release | January 27, 1962 – present |
The Professional Bowlers Tour, also known as Pro Bowlers Tour, is a broadcast of the Professional Bowlers Association that aired on ABC from 1962 to 1997. In the telecasts, sportscaster Chris Schenkel and the graphics displayed during the show would refer to the show as "The Professional Bowlers Tour", possibly to disambiguate from the NFL's use of the term "pro bowler" when referring to players who were selected for the Pro Bowl—an event also televised on ABC for many years.
The first-ever telecast was actually taped and aired at a later date. The original commentators were Chris Schenkel and bowling star Billy Welu. On May 16, 1974 Welu died suddenly of a heart attack. The search for his replacement included bowling legends Dick Weber and Dave Davis, but it was the young Nelson Burton Jr. who was ultimately selected for the analyst job in 1975. He remained Schenkel's broadcasting partner until the end of the series.
Bowling became extremely popular after ABC began airing it on Saturday afternoons in 1962 (it had previously dabbled in bowling with Make That Spare, a short-form series that had been airing on the network since 1960). The first Saturday afternoon telecast was the 1962 Empire State Open held at Redwood Lanes in Albany, New York, and was won by Fred Lening, 254–243, over J. Willard Sims. Chris Schenkel and Jack Buck called the action at that particular telecast. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Pro Bowlers Tour typically outdrew college football (then stifled by NCAA restrictions) and college basketball (still not a major television event) in the ratings. Many sports fans considered it a weekly tradition to watch bowling on Saturday afternoons, which was a lead-in to ABC's Wide World of Sports. The series generally aired in the winter and spring as other networks later covered the summer and fall portions of the PBA Tour. In the 1990s, ABC also made stops in the summer events.
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