BATON ROUGE - It has been happening for months at the Raising Canes River Center at the USBC Open Championships as bowlers have been honored for their longevity appearances in the event.

They are always welcomed back to the lanes, many coming to be with family and friends as they have been for years.

In the past week, two longtime Open Championship bowlers made their return in Baton Rouge and both were honored for special milestones.

Clinton Zavakos of Henderson, Nevada became just the fifth bowler in open championship history to bowl in 70 events. Amazingly, his total is 70 consecutive dating back to the 1955 event in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

He is now just the fifth bowler to make the 70-year mark joining Glenn Allison (72), William Doehrman (71), Joe Norris (71) and Sylvester Thiel (71).

Allison, who may have the most famous but unsanctioned 900 series in bowling history, bowled in 2024, but his family decided not to come from the west coast to Baton Rouge this year, but there is a chance he may try it again next year when the tournament returns to Reno if his health allows.

Interestingly, I interviewed Sylvester Thiel for our The Advocate coverage in 2005 when he was here for his 60th appearance in The Open and had the chance to visit with him when he bowled in 2012 here. His last appearance was in 2016. He told some great stores of his bowling back in the day.

Pro bowler Bill Lillard got his 65th at the River Center in 2012 and he was another delightful and interesting interview. After we celebrated his milestone and discussed his long professional career, he started asking about my bowling game and we had a better conversation just talking about the sport we both enjoyed.

Zavakos was happy to be back for his 70th event, although now having to throw the ball from a wheelchair. It was difficult, but when he was able to get pins down in the team event, the smile on his face and the wave of his fist said so much to those around him. It was a night when score really didn’t matter and his teammates were enjoying the night with him.

Earlier, Fairview, Texas’ Jamie Brooks entered the spotlight for his 65th time at the Open after bowling for the first time in 1957 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Brooks, at age 90, became the 17th bowler in 121-years of the Open Championships to reach the 65-year milestone.

“My first event was the year the American Bowling Congress used automatic pinsetters for the first time, and to see the changes our sport has gone through to get to where we are today with technology is incredible,” Brooks said in a USBC release.

In 2023, Brooks, who like Zavakos has crossed the 100,000-pins knocked down mark, was named to the USBC Hall of Fame for meritorious service through his contributions to the bowling community.

He has been a longtime proprietor and was the BPAA president in the 1980s and receive several honors from the proprietors and the USBC over his career.

It is a point that has to be remembered all the time about The Open. There are many great bowlers who have come through the doors of the River Center, but it is also about the everyday men and women who come year after year to spend time with family and friends to enjoy this wonderful sport.

A FEW OTHER NOTES

The tournament all comes to an end by the time we get together next Monday. Five full months of nearly constant bowling at the River Center will be settled with the final team shifts on Sunday and the final two doubles and singles squads on Monday, July 28. 

The tournament passed the 11,000-team mark bowled on Sunday which means we will see about another 500 or 600 teams compete this week to wrap things up.

The return after one year of the BTM event at All Star has been very successful and hopefully Rick Ramsey and his lovely Gayle can give it another go next year in Reno. That event ends this Friday.

By the way, congrats to Rick and the BTM bowlers which allowed a check for $4,060 to be presented to Camp Care, a local summer camp for kids dealing with cancer. A great impressive thank you for all that donated and local sponsors Republic Finance, Visit Baton Rouge and of course, host All Star Lanes

The Bowlers Journal event, which has been high-scoring and has had more 300 games since our story last Monday, will conclude on Sunday at All Star. So there are still some chances to bowl in those events before the curtain comes down.

There has been lots of things also going on in the local bowling scene with success on the Junior Gold circuit for some of the youth bowlers and the Baton Rouge ladies keeping the Bragging Rights of TNBA for another year. We’ll get to all of those stories in the coming weeks as we close the doors of the 2025 USBC Open one week from today.

Until then, good luck and good bowling,

                                Kent Lowe