Pro Bowlers Tour - 1978 Showboat Open highlights

[20alphabet]

First time in PBA history fake lanes were used and what d'ya know, twelve 300's and FOUR NON-CHAMPIONS placed in the top 5! That was WITHOUT loaded urethane balls and gymnastic pins. Look at bowling today as well as what passes for a professional bowler and it's not hard to see the cause. The proficient bowler suffers when technology reduces the need for skill and technique, whereas those less proficient benefit greatly as evidenced by the finalists. To quote numerous titleists, Bowling's dead.

[altfactor]

Although Chris Schenkel had a long career (at ABC alone, he did college football, NBA basketball, and several Olympics), he is best remembered as "The Voice Of Bowling".

[BIGGREENLEAF1]

The first synthetic lane to come on the market was made by G.E. yes G.E. not AMF or Brunswick, it was called Perma-Lane and had panels similar to today's synthetic lanes but instead of being screwed down and the head section being removed and another synthetic material is used such as "meddex". In those days they would first sand the lane and approach and start to glue them down one panel at a time. At least when screwing them down today you get another chance, and back then with glue, No way.

[multinationalhero]

Check out his expression on 1:41

[DaCaptain924]

I recall during the '87 LA Open telecast when Pete McCordic bowled his 300, that they said he'd only won one match on TV before. I guess this was it! ...and, boy that 7-pin took awhile to fall for him! lol

[sommerssmith]

Actually before Pete's 300, he own two matches. Here, and in 1984 during the summer tour.

[NYDanno85]

Neat. Did they switch back and forth to wood over the years, because the lanes definitely looked like wood in the years after this.

[deesyphrr]

Maybe these were overlays like Brunswick Lane Shield.

[BIGGREENLEAF1]

@NYDanno85 No, Synthetic lanes just became more advanced and started to look and play like real wood lanes more and more every year. The surprising thing is after all the advances in the lane, they have almost made no advances in the approach. The synthetic approach is so bad and inconsistant in 2010 as they were when the first came out circa 1978. (Not sure the exact year because in 78 I was 11 yrs. old) That we are now offered to use our wood approaches when buying synthetic lanes in 2010...