Pro Bowlers Tour - 1979 Long Island Open highlights

Top seed Earl Anthony meets Cliff McNealy in the final match of the 1979 Long Island Open. It would be Anthony's first title since his heart attack on June 20th, 1978. Earlier in the telecast (not seen here), Tom Baker makes his first national TV appearance, defeating Joe Berardi, before falling to 3 seed Cliff McNeely, who goes on to defeat 2 seed Mark Roth to advance to the final. This telecast also came days after Nelson Burton, Jr. and Dave Soutar had been voted into the PBA Hall of Fame. Chris Schenkel on play-by-play. Nelson Burton, Jr. on color. Garden City Bowl, Garden City, NY. March 31, 1979

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• PBA
• Pro Bowlers Tour
• bowling
• Earl Anthony
• Cliff McNealy
• Chris Schenkel
• Nelson Burton

[BowlingOldies]

@tvtimetravel : "That jazzy song at :30" is "Breezin'" by George Benson.

[20alphabet]

Earl had averaged 241 for 42 games that week in 1979. Quite a remarkable achievement with a plastic ball in 1979, even if it was a yellow-dot like it appears he's using. However, Barry Asher had set the record nine years earlier in Indiana with a hard rubber ball of 247 for 41 games. Not until the BPAA controlled USBC began approving rogue equipment was the record broken by a urethane ball against double-voided pins. Easy to see why professional bowling and bowling in general has gone to seed.

[misterbillylicious]

anthony cheats his opponent by getting up when oppenent is bowling did he have a heart attack at 40 ?

[misterbillylicious]

anthony cheats his opponent by getting up when oppenent is bowling

[tvtimetravel]

What's the name of that soft jazzy song at :30?

[tvtimetravel]

@carbon4me RIP Chris Schenkel too.

[MikeHL78]

241 for the tournament? Under those conditions? Yikes!

[carbon4me]

Earl was smooth, under control and consistent. He was the best.

I am making the one hour drive to Dublin, Ca. tomorrow to watch the Earl Anthony memorial tournament at the bowling center he owned.

RIP Earl.

Saratoga, Ca.

[pinboyjorf]

like i said THE HUMAN ROBOT BOWLING MACHINE. THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME. EARL THE PEARL.

[MikeHL78]

Earl Anthony = The Terminator. Anyone who ever saw him who didn't think it was exciting to watch him doesn't really like the sport that much from where I sit.

[rstp354]

The tornado was Earl's ball going through the pins!

[NYDanno85]

They very well could be; AMF owns Garden City Lanes now and the place could use some TLC. It's one of the last AMF properties on Long Island that hasn't.

[Tata996]

I see. Perhaps the sideboards are spent!

[NYDanno85]

Dont' know if it's so much AMF pin action - McNeely was playing pretty deep, so that would dull some of the pin action.

Garden City is kind of odd - they have sort of shallow flat gutters, and you can pop the corner pins well. The sideboards are not terribly lively, so you really have to be throwing it well to sling pins around.

[rollingchild4]

Was there a special weather bulletin on 3:06 about a tornado warning for the following counties and what abc affiliate call letters is on channel 8?

[meanboy2000]

back in 1979, msrp for a fully load Z28 was under 7k

[rstp354]

$70,000 prize fund with only $8000 for 1st??? El Cheapo Open!

[Tata996]

AMF pin-action always looks dead! Brunswick was #1

[mrwrister]

241 average for the week. THE best bowler of all time. Not that Walter Ray guy.

[dunnzo228]

This was really the golden age of bowling. Keep it up, BowlingOldies!

[rstp354]

Earl as confident as ever, backswing a little higher than before the heart attack. Earl always bowled well at Budy Russell's lanes.