A Closer Look at the USBC Hall of Fame Class of 2025
April 30, 2025
Randy’s Revenge
USBC Hall of Fame nod is a reminder that 13-time PBA Tour champ
and longtime color analyst is much more than a bad break 30 years ago.
By Johnny Campos
A few hours before the TV finals of the 1995 Bayer/Brunswick Touring Players Championship, Randy Pedersen was gathering his thoughts at the indoor track facility at Robert Morris College, just outside Pittsburgh.
“I was walking around the track, just trying to get in the zone and collect my thoughts,” he said.
The TV finals were going to be held on special lanes that had been installed in the Sewall Center, located close to the indoor track facility on the college campus.
Then Pedersen found himself in a scene reminiscent of the one in the movie “Rocky II.”
“Growing up, I went to a Catholic grammar school and high school,” Pedersen recalled. “I was Catholic growing up — you know, church and mass, and all that.
“Well, I walked by this door, and it said Father so-and-so. The door was cracked, so I knocked on the door and hear, ‘Yeah, come in.’ I go in and there’s the priest. I had like this Rocky flashback, right? Before his big fight, Rocky yells up at the priest and has him throw down a blessing on him.”
Pedersen entered the office and told the priest about the big event that would be happening in a few hours.
“I asked him if he could, you know, throw down a little prayer for me,” he said.
“We get down on our knees, he holds my hand, says a prayer . . . and then I solid-8 that night! Which goes to show you that God always answers, but sometimes it’s not, ‘Yes.’ How screwed up is that? ‘Hey, Father, can you bless me?’ ‘Yes, here you go, Randy, here’s a blessing. Solid-8. You’ll be remembered forever!’”
Pedersen was referring to, of course, the 10th frame of the title match of that tournament, when he needed a strike to beat Ernie Schlegel. Pedersen rolled the ball flush into the 1-3 pocket and left a solid 8 pin to lose the match by a pin.
The scene tied for 10th place on the list of the PBA’s 60th Anniversary Most Memorable Moments, revealed in 2018.
“It’s not something you want to be remembered for, but it’s still remembered,” Pedersen said. “What a way to be remembered some 30 years later. If I hadn’t left the 8-pin and won the tournament, nobody would have remembered who won that tournament. When I got up on the approach, I was totally confident. I aced the shot, and then that happened. If you go back and you look at it, I literally collapsed on the approach like somebody shot me. And it was a big tournament for me because it was a Brunswick-sponsored event, I’m on the Brunswick staff. It was just devastating, and it actually started to be the kind of downside of my career after that.”
But there was plenty of upside to Pedersen’s career, which is why he will be inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame this year.
Winning Ways
He was one of the most successful bowlers in the history of the Professional Bowlers Association whenever he reached a championship round. Pedersen was on the PBA telecasts 34 times, reached the title match 17 of those, and won 13 titles — a winning percentage of 76.5 percent.
By comparison, if Walter Ray Williams Jr. had put up those same numbers in his 95 career appearances in title matches, he would have won 72 titles.
“I was like a real roller-coaster wave kind of guy,” said Pedersen, a California native now living in Florida. “When I had it, I was really, really good. When I would lose it, it took me a long time to figure out what it was to get it back. And once I got it back, then I would ride that wave for a bit. I just couldn’t hold on to that piece of that puzzle.
“I was one of those guys that had to practice a ton, and I was always practicing and working on something and trying things. But when I had it, my confidence was through the roof. It was like, ‘I can’t lose.’”
Pedersen did make some telecasts even when he wasn’t at his best. But the results were predictable.
“It’s a bad feeling, because you’re in the 10th frame and you need a hit, you don’t know how you’re going to throw it,” said Pedersen, who was just 3-15 on TV finals when he didn’t reach the title match. “That’s kind of a scary thing. If you look at the Ernie match, for example. I need the first strike, and I solid 8. I knew I was going to ace it. I just knew it. I was a real streaky kind of player.”
The fact that Pedersen was so tough when it came to making clutch shots in the TV finals was no accident. He developed his mental toughness and focus away from the lanes at a very young age — in a totally different environment.
Mental Edge
His opponents didn’t know it, but Pedersen was probably a few moves ahead of them when making his adjustments in the TV finals.
“People talk about my focus on television and wonder where that came from and why I was so good under pressure. It started when I was 4 years old when my grandfather taught me how to play chess,” he recalled. “At 6, I started entering chess competitions. I was a chess champion throughout my grade school years. I won the Southern California grade school chess championship six straight years.
“I had a rating. I would go down to the beach in Venice, where we lived, and play chess outdoors. I’ve played speed chess. I’ve played in tournaments with grown men. That’s where my focus came from — being able to process in those extreme situations. I was able to just get that locked in.”
Pedersen believes that the mental aspect of bowling is too often overlooked.
“I don’t see anybody out there working on the mental aspect of your craft,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it’s your brain that allows your body to perform the way you trained it. And if you don’t understand that part of it, how are you going to be successful?
“For me, the mental part was the part that enabled me to perform at the highest of levels. Without that, you don’t become a champion. When I was very young, the chess built a very high level of focus and concentration in me. I wasn’t the most gifted player. I was not one of those guys where you said, ‘Oh, my God, he throws it great!’ It wasn’t like people were standing behind me saying that if there is a player I want to emulate, it’s that guy.”
Second Career
Of course, some people might not even remember how good Pedersen was when he was a full-time pro. All they see now is that he has been the color commentator for PBA telecasts for 26 years — longer than anybody has held that position.
“I was competing so many years ago, and I think a lot of people lose sight of that part because of 26 years on television,” he said. “But out of those 26 years, I was still competing at the same time for probably six or seven of those years. It was OK, but towards the end, it was time. The writing was on the wall, and I was like, ‘Man, I can’t beat these guys anymore.’ Then I just decided, ‘Let’s just go fulltime with this and just focus our efforts on just doing the broadcast.’”
Pedersen won six titles on the main PBA Tour and one PBA50 event after taking over in the booth.
“When I got the job, I was still competing fairly well,” he remembered. “So, it was like, ‘OK, I’ll just double dip and see how that goes.’ Then eventually, the bowling part came to an end. But it was never like, ‘OK, this is my fallback or safety net, so, I’m going into broadcasting.’ What to do after my bowling career was over was never really on my radar.”
Pedersen didn’t go into the TV job cold. He had a little experience with a mic.
“I had done some sideline work before with ABC, and I did a college game show, which I called ‘Bowling on Ecstasy,’ because I can’t remember what it was called,” he said. “I think people saw that I had a little bit of personality, so I thought that maybe I had a shot at doing that.
“Bo Burton (one of his predecessors) always used to tell me that he knew that I would be his successor. But when the new owners took over, they had an audition to take Marshall’s job.”
Marshall Holman had been a color analyst on several ESPN and ESPN2 PBA championship rounds for a few years before Pedersen got the job.
“It was me, Bryan Goebel and Brian Voss who auditioned for it, and I got it,” Pedersen said. “I somehow won them over, and, who knows why, but I’m still doing it.”
Sidekick
Some of that might have to do with his special relationship with Rob Stone, his on-and-off partner in the booth for about 20 years.
“Rob Stone is like a brother. He’s a pretty amazing guy, and I’ve never met a person that doesn’t like Rob Stone,” Pedersen said. “He is so infectious, so smart, so witty, so funny, so good, and he’s one of those people where he enters a room and the whole room lights up.
“He’s a pretty special talent, and we started together back at ESPN. He loves the bowling. It’s fun for him. He loves the guys, and you can tell by his enthusiasm on the shows. He’s a one-of-a-kind guy.”
Stone, however, was not very familiar with bowling when he first started working with Pedersen. But they meshed right away in the booth.
“Randy took me under his wing right away, because I was thrust into this sport and I didn’t have a background in it,” Stone said. “We did a crash course together in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I kind of went in with the attitude of I’m not going to stress out about this. I’m going to let my analyst analyze and talk the bowling, and I’m just going to do what I see and what I can cover.
“So that was a nice little relationship where he knew I wasn’t here to take his job and step on his toes. And our personalities are very similar. We enjoy each other’s company. We’re always laughing and smiling.”
And while Stone learned about bowling from Pedersen, Randy learned about working in the booth from his new partner.
“I learned tons from Rob,” Pedersen said. “I would lean on him about everything, from the on-camera open to just about everything else. And he would lean on me about the nuances of the sport. Collectively, all you’ve got to do is just follow along. We talk once a week, once every two weeks.”
They even have developed their own little “inside jokes.”
“One of our threads is the song by the Fixx, ‘Red Skys at Night.’ It lends itself back to the Walter Ray Williams Jr. days where he would throw a red ball up 5,” Pedersen said. “And that’s what you saw every week that he made the show, which seemed to be every week. So, when that song ‘Red Skys at Night’ would come on, Rob would sing, ‘Red Ball Up 5.’
“Last week, he’s in his car and he takes a screen shot of his screen, which is showing his playlist. And on the screen is ‘Red Skys at Night.’ No message, no nothing. Just a picture of that. That’s just his way.”
Stone, now one of the key commentators at Fox, is not doing as many PBA telecasts with Pedersen as he used to.
“He’s such a big deal at Fox now,” Pedersen says. “When we got on Fox, he was our guy for every show. As we continued on, his role at Fox got bigger with the other sports, and so he had to cut back on his work at bowling telecasts. Now he’s just going to do like the Big Fox live shows.”
Since moving over to Fox, Stone has been the lead studio host for soccer, college football, and college basketball. He also has done some major league baseball, and even some WWE.
So, that has limited his availability for all of the Fox bowling telecasts.
“I absolutely enjoy coming out here every time,” Stone said prior to this year’s U.S. Open finals. “I look forward to it. It’s fun seeing some of these new faces, but it’s also great to see the veterans. Like when we let Bill O’Neill know that he was going into the PBA Hall of Fame. It was pretty cool, and it gave me a moment of pause where like, ‘Oh, I remember when Billy was just a kid, and I was also kind of a kid out on the Tour. And here he is going into the PBA Hall of Fame.’ I’ve seen his journey. A feeling of pride kind of washed over me. And it made me reflect, like, ‘Wow, you’ve been around for a while.’”
Stone said he is not at all surprised that Pedersen is going into the USBC Hall of Fame. After all, Randy was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2011.
“It’s long overdue if you ask me,” he said. “I would argue that Randy should go back into the PBA Hall of Fame as a broadcaster.”
The Long Wait is Over
Pedersen was on the ballot for the USBC Hall of Fame for a few years before getting elected for this year’s class. He said it didn’t really bother him that it took so long, but he did wonder why.
“I don’t really dwell on it. I’m getting in and, honestly, it’s very special to me,” he said. “I don’t really know what the agenda was. It just seemed like for whatever reason there were some folks that had it out for me. I did have some opinions on certain things that were being handed down from USBC.
“There were some things that I didn’t really agree with. It wasn’t like I came out and blasted them on social media. But somebody somewhere had it out for me and didn’t want me in. That shows that it is a flawed process. Are you voting on personality or are you voting on accomplishments?”
He certainly had the credentials to be elected in the performance category.
His one major win, the 1987 PBA National Championship, was his second title, and the championship round featured Pedersen alongside a Who’s Who of PBA/USBC Hall of Fame bowlers in the stepladder finals: Pete Weber, David Ozio, Marshall Holman, and top-seeded Amleto Monacelli, a two-time PBA Player of the Year from Venezuela.
Holman was the key match, because he had been one of Pedersen’s idols growing up. And their first meeting in match play had not gone well for Randy.
“The year before, I had made match play at the Showboat,” Pedersen said. “It was packed and I’m bowling Marshall for the first time ever! I was like, ‘I’m so going to kick your ass!’
“Marshall gets up first and leaves a pocket 7-10. I’m like, ‘That’s great! You are so done!’ Then he gets up and makes it! We’re in the middle of the house and it seemed like the entire building saw it. It was deafening. Marshall turns around, looks at me, and you know how he liked to put both fists up? He looks at me and screams. I was sitting on the bench, and a little pee came out. He promptly kicked the crap out of me.”
Things went a little better for him at the PBA National.
“I start out with a double and Marshall starts out pocket 7-10, Greek Church,” Pedersen said. “I throw the front 10 at him and shoot 289. Then I double in the 10th to beat Amleto for the title.
In fact, Pedersen beat Monacelli, a sometimes roommate on tour, three times in title matches.
Last Licks
He beat Monacelli to win the Dayton Classic — the first PBA50 event he ever bowled, shortly before his 51st birthday in 2013.
“I was in Dayton working a Junior Pepsi event for Storm,” Pedersen recalled. “The proprietor of the center told me that the PBA50 event was up next and that I should bowl in it. I hadn’t bowled anything for six or seven years, so I said I was not ready to bowl.
“He offered to pay for my room at the Hilton, so I called the PBA to see if I could still get in. They still had spots.”
Now, Pedersen had to get in tournament shape.
“I got with Steve Todd, who was the area rep for Storm, and we get some equipment drilled. I bowl the practice session and it was like bowling league. They were pretty easy.”
But after an opening 147 game, Pedersen was dead last.
“The pair is really goofy, and I’m thinking, ‘This is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made,’” he said. “Next thing you know, I make the cut, then I make the next cut, then I make the top 4. I beat Mike Edwards, Bob Learn Jr., and then Amleto for the title. That was that. From worst to first in my first senior event.”
The following year, Pedersen’s PBA50 success continued. He had a stretch when he finished second, fifth, second, and third.
“The next year I think I bowled one event, the Senior U.S. Open,” he said. “I ripped my thumb to shreds and I was done. That was the last one I bowled.”
Memory Lane
After winning the PBA National in 1987, Pedersen went back-to-back winning the Fair Lanes Open the following week.
In 1989 he won the AC-Delco Classic at Gable House in Torrance, California, and the Budweiser Classic in Miami three weeks apart.
“I was a streaky kind of player,” Pedersen said.
One of his favorite memories happened in his first AC-Delco Classic win.
“Gen. Chuck Yeager was AC-Delco’s spokesman, and the cool thing about it was that he presented me with the trophy,” Pedersen said. “There’s a black and white photo of him doing that.”
Pedersen, now 62, will go over that and many other memories from his career while preparing for the USBC induction ceremony.
“This journey has been almost 50 years in the making, and this is like the final bow in my career” he said. “For me, I think the only other thing I could win would be an Emmy. What else is there to win in this sport? I asked somebody how many double Hall of Famers there were. I think the number was 53. That’s pretty frickin’ cool.
“I haven’t made a fortune, but I’ve seen the world and met some amazing people. The hardest part for me at this stage is how fast it’s gone by.”
And he’s done more than enough to be remembered for much more than just leaving a solid 8 pin in 1995.
Lucky 13
Though Pedersen hasn’t shoed up for a pro tournament since shredding his thumb at the last PBA50 Tour stop he bowled about a decade ago, by then he had amassed a competitive record stout enough to solidify his place among the immortals of pro bowling even without his 26 years in color commentary.
With 13 PBA Tour titles overall including one major, Pedersen’s winning percentage of 76.5 in TV matches make clear that, however much he may clown around in the booth or away from it, there is plenty of knowledge and experience from which he draws his analysis from show to show.
Here is a rundown of the 13 PBA Tour titles that inform the expertise Pedersen has brought to the booth for the better part of three decades…
~ Gianmarc Manzione
Late Bloomer
How extreme frugality and a lot of hard work eventually
helped Bryan Gobel find his path to the USBC Hall of Fame.
By Johnny Campos
Bryan Goebel quietly built one of the most impressive résumés on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour: 10 titles including a major, the Tournament of Champions; more than $1 million in career earnings; and a staggering 10-2 record in title matches.
Yet, when the PBA celebrated its 50th anniversary by naming its Top 50 players in the organization’s first 50 years, Goebel’s name was nowhere to be found.
At the time, only 40 players in PBA history had won more titles than Goebel. And he is currently tied for 48th in all-time PBA wins.
Despite achievements that placed him among the sport’s elite, he remained one of the most underrated stars of his era.
‘The Greatest Generation’
“I remember I was sad when I wasn’t in the Top 50, but I can’t complain too much,” Goebel said. “They did put me in the PBA Hall of Fame (in 2017).”
And it was a well-served honor.
Goebel was tough in the clutch whenever he got to TV title matches. His only two losses in championship games were to Norm Duke and Walter Ray Williams Jr.
He went 2-2 against Duke, 2-0 against Pete Weber, 2-1 against Amleto Monacelli, and 1-1 against Williams in TV matches. And he won his titles in what Goebel considers one of the greatest eras in PBA history.
“If you look at the Hall of Famers that came out between around ’78 to ’98, you can just start naming players: Walter Ray, Pete, Duke, Parker, Amleto, Aulby, Voss, David Ozio, Danny Wiseman,” he said. “It's hard to say that wasn’t the greatest generation. I think most of those guys learned to do more things with the ball.”
Goebel also seemed to make telecasts against many of those bowlers.
“I bowled Parker twice, Amleto three times, Steve Hoskins three times, Ricky Ward three times and Mark Williams twice,” he said. “And I never lost to lefties (4-0) in title matches.”
Goebel beat Wiseman to win his 10th title in 2003, which turned out to be a very important victory. It made him PBA Hall-eligible.
“Winning my first title (in Tucson in 1990) was huge, and the major was a big win,” he said. “But the PBA changed its requirements for the Hall of Fame. I thought I would get in with nine titles and a major. But they changed it to 10 titles or two majors. So I wasn’t going to get in without that last win.”
In His Prime
He won three of his titles at Golden Pin Lanes in Tucson (now closed) and two more in Southern California.
“I have always bowled well when I have a warm, humid feel to my thumb,” he said. “For some reason, every year we bowled at Golden Pin Lanes, I always seemed to have a great feel on my bowling ball.”
In 1994, Goebel came within one strike of earning a $200,000 bonus in the 1994 True Value Open in chilly Peoria, Illinois.
He had already beaten top-seeded Duke (who had bowled a PBA-record 280 losing game) for the $43,000 top prize by throwing the first 11 strikes of the title match. He needed another strike to collect the bonus offered by True Value for anyone rolling a 300 game on their PBA telecast.
Goebel’s final shot went high, leaving the 3-6-9-10 for a 296. It was voted the 40th most memorable moment in the PBA’s first 60 years.
“On my first shot on that show, I left the 3-6-9-10 and missed it,” he said. “In the title match, every shot I told myself to stay aggressive. On that last shot, I just didn’t think about it.”
A Style All His Own
Goebel developed his Hall-of-Fame career by mastering a unique six-step approach that seemed to encompass those of several of his PBA idols growing up. His slow, methodical style made Goebel appear to be in slow motion on the approach, and his wingspan seemed to get longer in his final few steps.
“Everything I did was from watching guys on TV,” he said. “Gary Dickinson had a nice, slow approach. It seemed like Mark Roth took about 20 steps. And Marshall Holman looked like he ran up to the line. I pretended to be all those guys.”
Goebel now has a 6-foot frame, but was only 5-6 when he was 15.
“As a kid, I started at the back of the approach, took two normal steps, and then picked up the speed,” he said. “I always kept the ball up by my head, so, in the third step, I would begin to drop the ball. Once the ball got down to the bottom of my swing, I would be going into four and everything would accelerate for the last three steps.
“As I grew taller, I shortened my steps and kept six steps. I was pretty athletic, and I could do just about anything I wanted with a bowling ball walking up to the line like that. I could slow it down, plant, and hit the crap out of it, or throw it harder at spares. By the time I was 19, I couldn’t pick up spares, but I was a pretty good bowler.”
Spare-Shooting Woes
His spare game improved with the help of longtime friend and PBA Hall of Famer Bob Glass.
“We were in a PBA regional doubles tournament in Springfield, Illinois, in 1985 and were bowling Randy Lightfoot and Leroy Bornhop for third and fourth,” Goebel recalled. “The difference in prize money was $800. Bob was a better bowler, but they had me at anchor. I need a mark in the 10th for us to finish third. I left a 10-pin. I looked back, and Bob had covered his face with both hands. I missed the spare,
“It was about a 5 1/2-hour drive home. I kept apologizing to him. It was that tournament that made me determined to become a better spare shooter.”
If at First You Don’t Succeed
It took Goebel a couple of tries on Tour before he found any kind of success.
He took a year off from his time at the University of Kansas to give the Tour a shot, but ended up going back to school. There he met his future wife, Kelly.
“She graduated from KU in ’84, a year ahead of me, and took a job with AT&T in Kansas City,” said Goebel, who lives in Shawnee, Kansas, with his wife of 40 years. “She was a computer analyst and went right in as management. For 1984, she was making really good money. I graduated in 1985, and then we got married.”
They spent three years building up a nest egg, and then Goebel decided to try the Tour again in 1989.
“If Kelly wouldn’t have had the job or the money, I wouldn’t have been able to even go out,” he said. “We saved up enough money to at least let me go out and try it again.”
But Goebel had a rough start, going 1-for-8 in the Winter Tour.
“I was thinking about quitting,” he said. “But Kelly said to go practice, then bowl the three spring stops and see what happens. I began practicing five days a week for three hours every day. I couldn’t do that working, and she had the job. But at that point, we were a little worried, because we didn’t want to zap our savings.
“I went out on those three spring stops, went 3-for-3, then went 5-for-6 in the summer with two shows, and then did pretty well after that.”
Bowling on his own dime, Goebel also mastered the business side of the Tour. The man could stretch a dollar.
“In my first year on Tour, I averaged spending $449 a week — that’s including entry, hotel, gas, food, and everything,” Goebel said. “I can still remember some of the dumps I stayed in."
Getting ready for his USBC Hall induction, Goebel, 63, now can reflect on some of the better memories on the lanes as well.
“I never felt like a huge star,” he said. “So, I was surprised to find out I’m going into the USBC Hall. I didn’t think I would ever get in. It’s a great honor.”
And some well-deserved recognition.
I Did It My Way
It was not easy, but it is not meant to me. Goebel’s path to PBA Tour glory was paved by “dump” motels he stayed in to survive the rigors of the road by staying as frugal as possible, a spare game that left plenty to be desired at first but smoothed out thanks to a lot of hard work, and a staggered, halting approach to the foul line the likes of which are not likely to be seen again on the PBA Tour. It certainly can be said that Bryan Goebel did it his way, but he did it, as these 10 PBA Tour titles he amassed over a pro career that spanned more than a decade attest…
~ Gianmarc Manzione
The Right Stuff
Grit. Faith. Perseverance. A killer instinct. Shannon O’Keefe has it all,
and now the sport gives her its all with election to USBC Hall of Fame.
By Jason Thomas
It is an unseasonably cool, late-spring Monday morning in Gates, New York, just outside of Rochester. Being a Monday, the assembled crowd on hand inside ABC Gates Bowl for the start of the final day of the 2023 U.S.
Women’s Open is light, and the mood in the building is sleepy. The athletes and staff mirror this feeling, for the U.S. Open is a long and grueling marathon contested on the most demanding conditions in bowling, providing further wear on everyone involved. The event is now seven days into its merciless grind.
As the athletes warm up for the penultimate round of match play, a buzz begins to develop behind the black pipe-and-drape curtain that separates the competition lanes from the practice range. There is news of a potential withdrawal, which begins to percolate among the staff, necessitating some last-minute changes to the event logistics.
Colombia’s Juliano Franco has officially pulled out of the event, citing a thumb injury. There may be one more as well, but the athlete in question — as well as the potential reason for the withdrawal — is not yet being disclosed.
As the lead producer for BowlTV, as well as the following day’s CBS Sports Network finals, I walk over to the practice range to find out what is happening. I find Shannon O’Keefe in tears, talking with her husband Bryan. I ask PWBA Brand Manager Robyn Graves what is happening, and she says, “Shannon is having issues throwing shots without stopping. I think she is about to withdraw.”
The magnitude of this news is utterly mind-boggling. O’Keefe is one of the mentally toughest athletes in the history of the sport, not to mention coming off a PWBA Player-of-the-Year season in which she never finished lower than ninth despite bowling through a nagging hip injury that gave her excruciating pain during every tournament.
At this point in the U.S. Open, she is currently among the top five who will advance to the televised finals, and still well within striking distance of the top seed. The U.S. Open also happens to be the sport’s most lucrative event (with a $60,000 top prize), an event she’s come close to winning numerous times. It is the title she wants more than any other.
When I finally get a chance to talk with her, she is slumped against a pool table in the makeshift tournament office, head down, tears still crisscrossing her face.
As I walk over, she looks up, red-eyed and defeated, grabs me in a full embrace, and sobs uncontrollably. When she finishes, I simply let her know that we will not disclose the reason for her withdrawal, and that it would be up to her if, and when, that information is ever communicated.
Almost two years later, O’Keefe has still not thrown another ball in PWBA competition.
Road to the Top
If a movie were to be made about Shannon O’Keefe’s life, she would no doubt be played by Emma Stone (after Stone put in a grueling six months of training to get in tip-top shape for the part, of course). At 46, O’Keefe possesses the bubbly and youthful demeanor of the award-winning actress. Similarly, she also possesses a vast intelligence and fierce determination behind that veneer of warmth, which is what drives her awesome competitive desire and obsessive need to achieve greatness. That side usually only comes out with her closest confidantes after a loss — or really any performance that did not meet her incredibly high standards — and it is shockingly biting when contrasted with the ebullient optimism and sense of unwavering faith she conveys publicly.
Although average in stature, O’Keefe’s strict diet and fitness regimen make it clear that she is in tip-top physical condition, and the distended veins running up both her biceps give the intimidating impression that she just knocked out several sets of preacher curls.
The sport in which O’Keefe first achieved great success was not bowling, but softball. She played the sport growing up and, when she was 15, made it to the final round of cuts for Team USA to determine the 1996 Olympic team. A few years later, she went on to star as a freshman at Portland State University, playing center field and batting .411 on her way to first-team all-American honors, before an injury ended her career and she decided to focus on bowling.
She joined the PWBA Tour in 1998 and was named runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 1999. When the tour ceased operations in 2003, she was still yet to win a title, and was not a significant factor week to week. After regaining her amateur status, she worked diligently (some would even say obsessively) on her game, and soon realized her dream of qualifying for bowling’s Team USA in 2005, beginning an 18-year run as one of the key members of the national team before retiring from the program in 2022.
In the years prior to the PWBA Tour’s relaunch in 2015, O’Keefe continued to compete in the annual USBC Queens and U.S. Women’s Open events, finishing in the top five in the latter in 2007, 2011 and 2012. She even rolled a 299 game during the televised finals of the 2007 event, before losing to Liz Johnson in the final.
She won her first PWBA title during that initial 2015 comeback season, but it was a heartbreaking one-pin loss (again, to Liz Johnson) at the U.S. Women’s Open that sticks in her mind most from that season.
“That loss really broke me,” said O’Keefe. “I bowled so well all week long and felt so strongly like that tournament was mine. It took a really long time to get over it and, at the time, I wasn’t sure I ever would. I just felt like I let myself, and a lot of other people down.”
A Formative Rivalry
For O’Keefe, the great Liz Johnson (who was also O’Keefe’s good friend and long-time Team USA teammate) was the one obstacle standing in the way of her becoming the best in the world. When the PWBA relaunched in 2015, O’Keefe was one of the top players, but no one could match the greatness of Johnson, who earned Player of the Year honors in each of the first three seasons.
O’Keefe’s one-pin loss to Johnson at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open was yet another stinging setback in her climb up the mountain of greatness. But rather than shying away from the loss, she followed the unlikely advice of the Professional Bowlers Association’s greatest player at the time, Jason Belmonte, and ended up revisiting the brutal setback to examine the cause, and hopefully, unearth a solution.
“He told me that no matter how painful it was, I needed to go back and watch the tape, so I did. What I noticed was that when I needed a good shot in the 10th frame to close out the match, everything was fast — my breathing, my pre-shot routine, my tempo, and ultimately the speed on the ball. I threw it close to where I wanted to, but the extra speed caused the ball to go way too long and miss the headpin, and I left a washout. It didn’t help that I got a terrible break on the conversion by wrapping the headpin around the 10, but the damage was really caused by my lack of control on the first shot. And of course, Liz took full advantage.”
Two years and a few standard-event titles later, O’Keefe was again faced with her nemesis in the 2017 PWBA Tour Championship in an electric arena setting at Richmond Raceway in Virginia. Paired up in the semifinal match, O’Keefe was in control, but once again made a poor shot at a critical time to give Johnson an opening, which looked like it would cost her a chance to win her first major title. Johnson took advantage, but not quite enough to secure the win, leading to a tie and a nail-baiting one-ball roll-off to determine the winner.
“On the bench, I was angry with myself for giving Liz a chance, but I told myself that if she let me have one more opportunity, I wasn’t going to blow it again.”
With all eyes in the standing-room-only audience on her, O’Keefe, perched above the crowd on the gleaming white, specially constructed arena lanes, calmly aced the first shot of the roll-off for a strike, sending the fans into a frenzy. Johnson got up and threw her worst shot of the evening, but it went Brooklyn and carried the strike to keep things going.
O’Keefe refused to let the lucky break bother her and labelled another strike, which she punctuated with an emphatic, “YES!”, pumping her fist intensely as the crowd went wild again. Johnson got up and matched her, this time with a perfectly thrown strike. O’Keefe stepped up again and threw another carbon-copy-of-a-shot that would have knocked down 20 pins, hyping up the crowd to a fever pitch with an animated post-shot reaction. Once they settled, Johnson finally missed and, just like that, the match was over. O’Keefe went on to win the title over Kelly Kulick (another foil who had the upper hand over O’Keefe during the no-PWBA years), 222-203, for her first major victory, but the bigger effect was that she had finally overcome the giant, looming shadow of Johnson.
“That win completely validated in my mind that I could be the best bowler out here,” said O’Keefe, “After that, I knew that the only person who could stop me was me, and that’s when the wins really started coming.”
O’Keefe won twice (including the USBC Queens for her second major) and took home Player of the Year honors in 2018, then had one of the greatest seasons in the history of the PWBA in 2019, winning five times and becoming just the third bowler to win back-to-back Player of the Year awards, joining Johnson, Wendy Macpherson (who did it twice) and Leanne Hulsenberg.
After coming just a few points shy of making it three straight Player of the Year seasons in 2021, she would win the award again in 2022, during a campaign in which she fought through agonizing pain in her left hip, every week.
“I think my 2022 season was even better than what I did in 2019, because I honestly didn’t even think I’d be able to bowl at all,” said O’Keefe, “I just kept pushing through the pain, going through my pre- and post-round therapy and doing anything I could to keep the pain at bay, and I had to bowl so many games because I never finished out of the top 10.”
But despite her success, O’Keefe was still unable to close the deal at the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing third in 2019, sixth in 2021 and a heartbreaking third in 2022, when a shocking 5-count on her fill ball after securing a key double to give her what looked like a certain win to move on to bowl for the title, cost her the match against Erin McCarthy, who coasted to victory against tournament leader Danielle McEwan, who could only muster a 172 in the final.
“The conditions are so tough at the U.S. Open, it doesn’t take much to make a mistake. Unfortunately, I just got that last shot inside of target just a touch and that is all it took to cost me the match. I’d love to have that one back, but overall, it was still a great season, and I was proud of making it through the week with a chance to win, despite all the pain I was feeling.”
A Woman of Faith
One of the biggest things to which O’Keefe attributes her success is her faith in God. She often touts her faith in post-match interviews — win or lose — and has said that her understanding and acceptance of keeping her faith, even in difficult moments, led to one of the biggest turnarounds in her attitude, and her results, following the 2018 season.
In the final events of that season, O’Keefe almost lost the award because of a late onslaught by McEwan, combined with a building anxiety over the notion of winning it that caused her to slip up during the PWBA Players Championship, which was the second-to-last event of the season.
“I was really trying to control the outcome of everything, which my faith has taught me that you just can’t do,” said O’Keefe. “It’s a bit of a paradox in that we want something so much, but in order to get it, we have to trust in God’s plan that it will come; but sometimes, it doesn’t, so instead of fighting it, we have to be thankful and learn from those experiences and continue to grow. It’s a difficult thing to do, but once I embraced that, it allowed me to compete so much more freely, and also take the bad days or bad weeks so much more in stride.”
In 2022, O’Keefe also committed herself to reading as many self-help books as she could get her hands on and ended up finishing nearly three dozen different titles in twelve months to help both with her own game, as well as her coaching exploits at McKendree University (and now Jacksonville State, where her and husband Bryan launched the program in 2023). But the sheer volume of data contained in the books, and how to apply and assimilate it with her already successful approach to life, combined with the constant cacophony of social media feedback about her bowling – as well as the move to Jax State – was sometimes difficult to process, periodically led to anxiety, and ultimately boiled over into her bowling.
“I’m still working to figure out what is causing me to have to stop my approach. It’s like I get up there and, suddenly, every fiber of my being just yells out, ‘STOP!’, and I have to start over; but I still can’t exactly put my finger on what it is that is causing it,” said O’Keefe. “Through it all, my faith in God has never wavered. I know that He is guiding my steps, that He has a plan for my life – far greater than anything I can ever imagine – so, in fact, I thank Him for this struggle and pain, and continue to ask Him to use it to glorify Him.”
As I drive up the hilly road to the end of the street where Shannon and Bryan O’Keefe’s neat, new brick house sits at the end of the block in Jacksonville, Alabama, I see her pop outside, smiling and waving, wearing a red Jax State sweatshirt to ward off the cool winter air. I am there to film her United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame interview, an accolade she has recently received in her first year of eligibility for her stellar, superior performance in the sport.
Once the camera is rolling, we talk about her career, and she eloquently tells the amazing story of how it all came to be, stopping occasionally for some tears (O’Keefe is always good for a few tears — and they are always completely genuine, and often contagious). After the camera is off, we talk about what’s next for her, and whether she thinks she will ever bowl again on the PWBA Tour.
“I plan to bowl on tour again, because I still love to compete, but to be honest, there’s not much left for me to prove, so it’s really just a matter of deciding how much I want to bowl once I am ready,” said O’Keefe. “I’m very happy with the way my life is now, and I really enjoy getting to coach my girls and pass on what I have learned to them. That is my purpose now.”
Ultimately, the conversation goes back to God, and to the question of whether there is still some purpose in continuing to pursue her competitive career at this point — and whether that includes winning more PWBA titles, including that U.S. Women’s Open title that has eluded her for so long.
“I’d love to win again, because winning is fun, but I no longer need to win to feel fulfilled; that is something that was missing in the heart of what happened to me, and it is in God’s hands at this point. God never promised life would be easy, but He has promised that He would walk with us and that we’d never be alone. I know this world is temporary compared to eternity, and God is my strength.”
I suggest to her that it may still be worth it just to bowl out there again after all she’s been through, even if she never wins another title or gets another check, because she’s meant so much to so many, inspiring with her unbelievable success (O’Keefe has cashed in 91 of the 95 PWBA events she has entered since the relaunch, making it to 35 stepladder finals and winning 15 titles – an unparalleled benchmark of success), and her attitude.
“Maybe. My relationship with God is the most important thing to me. I pray daily that he will give me the opportunity to share my faith in hopes to reach someone far from Him, to help them build a relationship with Him so they can one day experience eternal salvation. Maybe He will reveal that the way for me to do that is to compete out there again and spread that message through my bowling. I do believe I will compete again.”
If she can find her way back onto the lanes of the PWBA Tour — even if she never wins another title — it would be one of the most inspiring things we have ever seen in the sport of bowling. God willing, it will happen, and countless fans, friends, and young girls (and boys for that matter) looking for inspiration to not only succeed, but to participate at the highest levels in life, will be the benefactors.
A Competitor Without Rival
In some circumstances, perhaps most, a professional athlete claiming she has “not much left to prove” would come across as a remark loaded with hubris and hutzpah. In the case of Shannon O’Keefe, who has amassed 15 titles overall including three majors in the mere decade of the relaunched PWBA Tour’s existence, the observation is plainly factual. She has, indeed, absolutely nothing left to prove. Anyone who gets a glimpse of the below rundown of her decade of dominance can surmise the intense and firey nature of the competitor who compiled that resume. Which is to say this: Doubt that the three-time PWBA Player of the Year will find something more to prove at your own peril…
~ Gianmarc Manzione
At Your Service
Keith Hamilton’s USBC Hall of Fame honor sees industry
giving back to a man who continues to give it all he has.
By Johnny Campos
Keith Hamilton remembers the day that Mort Luby Jr. told him about making a difference in the bowling industry.
At the time, Hamilton was working for the former publisher/owner of Luby Publishing, whose family had published Bowlers Journal International since 1913.
“I remember Mort telling me, ‘If you want to be a top publisher in this industry, as we are, you’ve got to do more than just be a publisher. You’ve got to give back to the industry,’” Hamilton said. “So, I said, ‘OK. I got it.’ Back then, it was very business for me.”
That piece of sound advice from one of his mentors has led Hamilton into a career of making a difference in the bowling industry as a leader on some high-profile industry groups.
“Bowling started out as a business for me,” he said. “But it turned into a love because of the people in it.”
Hamilton started his career at Luby in June of 1981 kind of by accident. After graduating from high school, he went to work cleaning a townhouse for Mort Luby Jr. to earn some spending money for college.
“They called me in the office the day after I started, and they wanted me to work on the Bowlers Journal tournament,” he said. “They ended up liking me in the office. I still did some work in the townhouse (for $4 an hour), and I also started working in the office. Then I would work there on every break.”
Luby also loaned Hamilton the funds to earn his MBA at the University of Notre Dame, with the stipulation that he would work in the advertising department at Luby for two years after graduation.
Hamilton ended up working for the company fulltime, eventually replacing one of his mentors there, Ed Daugherty, as the business manager.
When he was president of Luby Publishing, Hamilton created several magazines, including Bowling Center Management, which is the official publication of the Bowling Proprietors Association of America.
In 1994, Hamilton and another longtime Luby employee, Mike Panozzo, purchased the company, with an exact division of labor between the new owners.
“Mike was editorial and I was business,” said Hamilton, who was named president of the company with the acquisition.
Legacy of Service
His new position served him well on all of the boards of directors that he joined.
Hamilton was on the board for the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, and he was the Chairman and President from 2011 to 2014. He was on the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association (IBPSIA) Advisory Board, serving as Chairman from 2005 to 2009. And he was the President of the International Bowling Media Association (IBMA) from 2014 to 2018.
“I was on the Hall of Fame board for 20 years, and the proudest moments serving the industry came when we moved the facility from St. Louis to Arlington and built, at the time, a brand new, state-of-the-art museum and hall of fame,” he said.
Centennial
In 2013, as part of the 100th anniversary of Bowlers Journal, Hamilton appeared as a guest on the CBS Sunday Morning Show. But it didn’t go like he had planned.
The show sent well-known journalist Bill Geist to Chicago to conduct a 2 ½-hour interview with Hamilton.
“And they went to our archives, went with me to Pin Stripes Bowl in Oakbrook,” Hamilton said. “Then we went to Detroit for the PBA Tournament of Champions. There they talk with Salvino, who does his schtick. They spent 12 hours taping with us and talked to Carmen for 30 minutes, and I knew he was going to dominate the show.
“Sure enough, when it came out, Carmen was in there for about two minutes of the segment,” Hamilton laughed.
Shakeup
In 2014, Hamilton worked out a deal to help out the PBA by moving its operational headquarters to the Luby offices in Chicago.
“For six years, we ran the membership department of the PBA, and I did financial consulting,” he said. “And I was very involved in the three times that we tried to sell it to Bowlero. But it’s a weird feeling where you’re working on something that you know you’re going to lose your job on.”
After Bowlero purchased the PBA in 2019, COVID hit, which was bad news for bowling publications. Manufacturers had no reason to advertise because of the bowling shutdown. Also, the Bowlers Journal Tournament, which funds a great amount of the circulation revenue, was canceled in 2020.
Hamilton and Panozzo ended up selling Bowlers Journal and Pro Shop Operator to USBC and Bowling Center Management and Bowling Center Entertainment to BPAA.
Hamilton still continues to serve the industry, serving the Bowlers to Veterans Link (BVL) as a board member and treasurer.
Next Chapter
After a career in publishing, Hamilton was hired as the new Executive Director for the Illinois Bowling Proprietors Association in 2023. He replaced Bill Duff, who retired after working for the IBPA for 34 years, 27 of them as ED.
“Because of my board experience, I understood a lot of what an Executive Director is supposed to do, having worked with Executive Directors,” Hamilton said. “Even though my experience is that of a publisher, I didn’t come in blind to the position.”
After Hamilton accepted the job, Duff informed him of the IBPA’s 75th anniversary celebration that he had to organize.
“They let me run with it, because they knew I had the experience of the 75th edition of Bowlers Journal and what we did on the 100th anniversary of Bowlers Journal,” he said. “And it turned out pretty great.”
Mentors
Hamilton says he had a few mentors over the years, besides Luby and Daugherty, that helped him on his Hall of Fame journey.
“I saw how Remo Picchietti operated and how smooth he was,” Hamilton said. “How he loved bowling and understood the business side of it.”
He also got solid tutoring from Mike Gilmore, who worked at an ad agency for AMF, and Bob Reid, who worked in marketing for Ebonite.
“But my biggest mentor was my dad, George,” he said. “He was a great bowler and always used to bowl in the ABC Tournaments. He would really have loved this. That’s probably my one regret, that he won’t see me be inducted.”
The PBA Tour’s Ultimate Champion
Pro-bowling superfan, mad genius of formats, TV producer extraordinaire:
The many hats Tom Clark wore on his way into the USBC Hall of Fame.
By Johnny Campos
Growing up in the bowling-rich Syracuse area of Upstate New York, Tom Clark had a solid foundation for a career dedicated to bettering his favorite sport.
From writing about bowling for USA Today to shaping its future at the United States Bowling Congress and later doing the same with the Professional Bowlers Association, Clark has spent most of his career elevating the game.
“Syracuse was a great place to learn the game,” said Clark, whose father Thomas got him started in junior leagues. “He got me in my first league and took me to Saturday-morning bowing every week.
“I’d go and watch him bowl league, and he was really my hero. He loves bowling and has been a bowler his whole life. He’s 79, and he bowled a 300 and an 800 like two years ago. He’s still good. I was really happy last year when he went into the Central New York USBC Hall of Fame.”
A few of Clark’s ideas for TV shows and other innovations can be traced to his roots in Syracuse. The local NBC affiliate had a weekly bowling show called “Syracuse Bowls” and one for junior bowlers called “Challenge Bowling” — both held at specially constructed lanes at the TV studio.
“I was on that show a few times,” Clark said. “But the idea of doing all the TV in one location on one pair, I saw that growing up.”
So was the King of the Hill format that Clark introduced as a special event on the PBA Tour.
“I stole the whole format from when I was a kid in Syracuse,” he admitted. “So, Syracuse was a great place to learn the game, and I’ve taken ideas from there.”
A Fighter for Bowling
Clark was always trying to get more coverage for bowling when he was on the USA Today sports staff. And he picked up a lot of new concepts by talking to people from other sports.
Billie Jean King would talk with him about World Team Tennis. Clark also would talk with officials from the PGA, NFL, U.S. Open Tennis and, yes, bull riding.
“I learned a lot, and I was always interested in the business side of sports,” he said. “And I had incredible access to sports industry leaders. I wanted to bring a lot of those concepts to bowling.”
He took those ideas with him when he was hired by the United States Bowling Congress in 2005. During his time with USBC, Clark helped bring back women’s professional bowling and ran a few innovative telecasts, including Bowling’s Clash of Champions and the PBA Women’s Series — experiences that helped him discover his talent as a TV producer.
Creating the WSOB
But his biggest impact on the sport came when he was hired by the PBA in 2008. And none was bigger than starting the World Series of Bowling in his first year as Deputy Commissioner.
“I think that it’s basically defined my career with the PBA,” said Clark, who has been the PBA Commissioner since 2011. “It’s been the big event every year since 2009.”
The event also helped keep the PBA afloat during an economic crisis in 2008.
“A lot of our financial issues had a lot to do with cost of production, and, from a player’s perspective, the cost of traveling vs. the prize money that was available,” Clark said. “I worked up detailed plans with 10 different ways of how multiple event series could play out in the same location. The players would save on expenses, and the PBA would save on costs.
It was also an opportunity for the PBA to attract more international players.
“To me, the best players in the world need to be on the PBA Tour,” he said. “By creating this World Series that has the ability for international players to come, it really changed the culture of the Tour.”
The Belmo Effect
Convincing Australia’s Jason Belmonte to join the PBA, however, turned out to be tougher than expected.
When Clark first saw him bowl in the USBC Masters when it was in Milwaukee in 2006, he immediately felt that he needed to be on the PBA Tour.
“I met with Belmo, and he said he liked being a world traveler,” Clark said. “He didn’t feel like he needed the PBA. I even brought in Carmen Salvino, who gave him the PBA pitch. You have no choice after you talk to Carmen,” Clark added with a chuckle.
To further entice Belmonte, Clark gave him exemptions to two consecutive tournaments, which was met with some criticism. But it worked.
“Belmo didn’t do that well in the first one, and did OK in the second,” Clark said. “But he got the bug and wanted to win out there.”
Moments to Remember
Clark has had a front-row seat (literally) to some of the biggest moments in bowling. Among his favorite are Kelly Kulick’s win in the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions; Pete Weber’s famous, “Who do you think you are? I am!” rant after winning his fifth U.S. Open title; and the first win by Belmonte.
“A two-handed bowler won on the PBA Tour,” Clark said. “It’s when the revolution started. Now everybody was going to take it seriously and I think it’s going to change the game.”
Some his other contributions have mostly been in creating new events to widen the fan base, such as the Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational and the PBA League, or an effort to educate the fans: introducing colored oil, naming tournaments after oil patterns, partnering with Kegel to develop StrikeTrak on Fox, which displays information about the ball’s journey down the lane.
Clark also has adapted to the way the media has changed over the years by growing the PBA’s live digital coverage, advancing its social media and YouTube Channel.
Signing a new TV deal with Fox in 2018, earning rights fees for the PBA, was another big moment for Clark. But he knows his work is far from done.
‘There’s No Rest’
“I don’t feel like we’ve reached all our goals,” he said. “I feel happy that we’ve kept the PBA alive and opened the doors to have a chance to. To me, the prize money still needs to be higher. The awareness of our players needs to be higher. The venues where we go need to be bigger. There’s a lot of room to keep improving things. So there’s no rest.”
USBC Hall of Fame nod is a reminder that 13-time PBA Tour champ
and longtime color analyst is much more than a bad break 30 years ago.
By Johnny Campos
A few hours before the TV finals of the 1995 Bayer/Brunswick Touring Players Championship, Randy Pedersen was gathering his thoughts at the indoor track facility at Robert Morris College, just outside Pittsburgh.
“I was walking around the track, just trying to get in the zone and collect my thoughts,” he said.
The TV finals were going to be held on special lanes that had been installed in the Sewall Center, located close to the indoor track facility on the college campus.
Then Pedersen found himself in a scene reminiscent of the one in the movie “Rocky II.”
“Growing up, I went to a Catholic grammar school and high school,” Pedersen recalled. “I was Catholic growing up — you know, church and mass, and all that.
“Well, I walked by this door, and it said Father so-and-so. The door was cracked, so I knocked on the door and hear, ‘Yeah, come in.’ I go in and there’s the priest. I had like this Rocky flashback, right? Before his big fight, Rocky yells up at the priest and has him throw down a blessing on him.”
Pedersen entered the office and told the priest about the big event that would be happening in a few hours.
“I asked him if he could, you know, throw down a little prayer for me,” he said.
“We get down on our knees, he holds my hand, says a prayer . . . and then I solid-8 that night! Which goes to show you that God always answers, but sometimes it’s not, ‘Yes.’ How screwed up is that? ‘Hey, Father, can you bless me?’ ‘Yes, here you go, Randy, here’s a blessing. Solid-8. You’ll be remembered forever!’”
Pedersen was referring to, of course, the 10th frame of the title match of that tournament, when he needed a strike to beat Ernie Schlegel. Pedersen rolled the ball flush into the 1-3 pocket and left a solid 8 pin to lose the match by a pin.
The scene tied for 10th place on the list of the PBA’s 60th Anniversary Most Memorable Moments, revealed in 2018.
“It’s not something you want to be remembered for, but it’s still remembered,” Pedersen said. “What a way to be remembered some 30 years later. If I hadn’t left the 8-pin and won the tournament, nobody would have remembered who won that tournament. When I got up on the approach, I was totally confident. I aced the shot, and then that happened. If you go back and you look at it, I literally collapsed on the approach like somebody shot me. And it was a big tournament for me because it was a Brunswick-sponsored event, I’m on the Brunswick staff. It was just devastating, and it actually started to be the kind of downside of my career after that.”
But there was plenty of upside to Pedersen’s career, which is why he will be inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame this year.
Winning Ways
He was one of the most successful bowlers in the history of the Professional Bowlers Association whenever he reached a championship round. Pedersen was on the PBA telecasts 34 times, reached the title match 17 of those, and won 13 titles — a winning percentage of 76.5 percent.
By comparison, if Walter Ray Williams Jr. had put up those same numbers in his 95 career appearances in title matches, he would have won 72 titles.
“I was like a real roller-coaster wave kind of guy,” said Pedersen, a California native now living in Florida. “When I had it, I was really, really good. When I would lose it, it took me a long time to figure out what it was to get it back. And once I got it back, then I would ride that wave for a bit. I just couldn’t hold on to that piece of that puzzle.
“I was one of those guys that had to practice a ton, and I was always practicing and working on something and trying things. But when I had it, my confidence was through the roof. It was like, ‘I can’t lose.’”
Pedersen did make some telecasts even when he wasn’t at his best. But the results were predictable.
“It’s a bad feeling, because you’re in the 10th frame and you need a hit, you don’t know how you’re going to throw it,” said Pedersen, who was just 3-15 on TV finals when he didn’t reach the title match. “That’s kind of a scary thing. If you look at the Ernie match, for example. I need the first strike, and I solid 8. I knew I was going to ace it. I just knew it. I was a real streaky kind of player.”
The fact that Pedersen was so tough when it came to making clutch shots in the TV finals was no accident. He developed his mental toughness and focus away from the lanes at a very young age — in a totally different environment.
Mental Edge
His opponents didn’t know it, but Pedersen was probably a few moves ahead of them when making his adjustments in the TV finals.
“People talk about my focus on television and wonder where that came from and why I was so good under pressure. It started when I was 4 years old when my grandfather taught me how to play chess,” he recalled. “At 6, I started entering chess competitions. I was a chess champion throughout my grade school years. I won the Southern California grade school chess championship six straight years.
“I had a rating. I would go down to the beach in Venice, where we lived, and play chess outdoors. I’ve played speed chess. I’ve played in tournaments with grown men. That’s where my focus came from — being able to process in those extreme situations. I was able to just get that locked in.”
Pedersen believes that the mental aspect of bowling is too often overlooked.
“I don’t see anybody out there working on the mental aspect of your craft,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it’s your brain that allows your body to perform the way you trained it. And if you don’t understand that part of it, how are you going to be successful?
“For me, the mental part was the part that enabled me to perform at the highest of levels. Without that, you don’t become a champion. When I was very young, the chess built a very high level of focus and concentration in me. I wasn’t the most gifted player. I was not one of those guys where you said, ‘Oh, my God, he throws it great!’ It wasn’t like people were standing behind me saying that if there is a player I want to emulate, it’s that guy.”
Second Career
Of course, some people might not even remember how good Pedersen was when he was a full-time pro. All they see now is that he has been the color commentator for PBA telecasts for 26 years — longer than anybody has held that position.
“I was competing so many years ago, and I think a lot of people lose sight of that part because of 26 years on television,” he said. “But out of those 26 years, I was still competing at the same time for probably six or seven of those years. It was OK, but towards the end, it was time. The writing was on the wall, and I was like, ‘Man, I can’t beat these guys anymore.’ Then I just decided, ‘Let’s just go fulltime with this and just focus our efforts on just doing the broadcast.’”
Pedersen won six titles on the main PBA Tour and one PBA50 event after taking over in the booth.
“When I got the job, I was still competing fairly well,” he remembered. “So, it was like, ‘OK, I’ll just double dip and see how that goes.’ Then eventually, the bowling part came to an end. But it was never like, ‘OK, this is my fallback or safety net, so, I’m going into broadcasting.’ What to do after my bowling career was over was never really on my radar.”
Pedersen didn’t go into the TV job cold. He had a little experience with a mic.
“I had done some sideline work before with ABC, and I did a college game show, which I called ‘Bowling on Ecstasy,’ because I can’t remember what it was called,” he said. “I think people saw that I had a little bit of personality, so I thought that maybe I had a shot at doing that.
“Bo Burton (one of his predecessors) always used to tell me that he knew that I would be his successor. But when the new owners took over, they had an audition to take Marshall’s job.”
Marshall Holman had been a color analyst on several ESPN and ESPN2 PBA championship rounds for a few years before Pedersen got the job.
“It was me, Bryan Goebel and Brian Voss who auditioned for it, and I got it,” Pedersen said. “I somehow won them over, and, who knows why, but I’m still doing it.”
Sidekick
Some of that might have to do with his special relationship with Rob Stone, his on-and-off partner in the booth for about 20 years.
“Rob Stone is like a brother. He’s a pretty amazing guy, and I’ve never met a person that doesn’t like Rob Stone,” Pedersen said. “He is so infectious, so smart, so witty, so funny, so good, and he’s one of those people where he enters a room and the whole room lights up.
“He’s a pretty special talent, and we started together back at ESPN. He loves the bowling. It’s fun for him. He loves the guys, and you can tell by his enthusiasm on the shows. He’s a one-of-a-kind guy.”
Stone, however, was not very familiar with bowling when he first started working with Pedersen. But they meshed right away in the booth.
“Randy took me under his wing right away, because I was thrust into this sport and I didn’t have a background in it,” Stone said. “We did a crash course together in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I kind of went in with the attitude of I’m not going to stress out about this. I’m going to let my analyst analyze and talk the bowling, and I’m just going to do what I see and what I can cover.
“So that was a nice little relationship where he knew I wasn’t here to take his job and step on his toes. And our personalities are very similar. We enjoy each other’s company. We’re always laughing and smiling.”
And while Stone learned about bowling from Pedersen, Randy learned about working in the booth from his new partner.
“I learned tons from Rob,” Pedersen said. “I would lean on him about everything, from the on-camera open to just about everything else. And he would lean on me about the nuances of the sport. Collectively, all you’ve got to do is just follow along. We talk once a week, once every two weeks.”
They even have developed their own little “inside jokes.”
“One of our threads is the song by the Fixx, ‘Red Skys at Night.’ It lends itself back to the Walter Ray Williams Jr. days where he would throw a red ball up 5,” Pedersen said. “And that’s what you saw every week that he made the show, which seemed to be every week. So, when that song ‘Red Skys at Night’ would come on, Rob would sing, ‘Red Ball Up 5.’
“Last week, he’s in his car and he takes a screen shot of his screen, which is showing his playlist. And on the screen is ‘Red Skys at Night.’ No message, no nothing. Just a picture of that. That’s just his way.”
Stone, now one of the key commentators at Fox, is not doing as many PBA telecasts with Pedersen as he used to.
“He’s such a big deal at Fox now,” Pedersen says. “When we got on Fox, he was our guy for every show. As we continued on, his role at Fox got bigger with the other sports, and so he had to cut back on his work at bowling telecasts. Now he’s just going to do like the Big Fox live shows.”
Since moving over to Fox, Stone has been the lead studio host for soccer, college football, and college basketball. He also has done some major league baseball, and even some WWE.
So, that has limited his availability for all of the Fox bowling telecasts.
“I absolutely enjoy coming out here every time,” Stone said prior to this year’s U.S. Open finals. “I look forward to it. It’s fun seeing some of these new faces, but it’s also great to see the veterans. Like when we let Bill O’Neill know that he was going into the PBA Hall of Fame. It was pretty cool, and it gave me a moment of pause where like, ‘Oh, I remember when Billy was just a kid, and I was also kind of a kid out on the Tour. And here he is going into the PBA Hall of Fame.’ I’ve seen his journey. A feeling of pride kind of washed over me. And it made me reflect, like, ‘Wow, you’ve been around for a while.’”
Stone said he is not at all surprised that Pedersen is going into the USBC Hall of Fame. After all, Randy was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2011.
“It’s long overdue if you ask me,” he said. “I would argue that Randy should go back into the PBA Hall of Fame as a broadcaster.”
The Long Wait is Over
Pedersen was on the ballot for the USBC Hall of Fame for a few years before getting elected for this year’s class. He said it didn’t really bother him that it took so long, but he did wonder why.
“I don’t really dwell on it. I’m getting in and, honestly, it’s very special to me,” he said. “I don’t really know what the agenda was. It just seemed like for whatever reason there were some folks that had it out for me. I did have some opinions on certain things that were being handed down from USBC.
“There were some things that I didn’t really agree with. It wasn’t like I came out and blasted them on social media. But somebody somewhere had it out for me and didn’t want me in. That shows that it is a flawed process. Are you voting on personality or are you voting on accomplishments?”
He certainly had the credentials to be elected in the performance category.
His one major win, the 1987 PBA National Championship, was his second title, and the championship round featured Pedersen alongside a Who’s Who of PBA/USBC Hall of Fame bowlers in the stepladder finals: Pete Weber, David Ozio, Marshall Holman, and top-seeded Amleto Monacelli, a two-time PBA Player of the Year from Venezuela.
Holman was the key match, because he had been one of Pedersen’s idols growing up. And their first meeting in match play had not gone well for Randy.
“The year before, I had made match play at the Showboat,” Pedersen said. “It was packed and I’m bowling Marshall for the first time ever! I was like, ‘I’m so going to kick your ass!’
“Marshall gets up first and leaves a pocket 7-10. I’m like, ‘That’s great! You are so done!’ Then he gets up and makes it! We’re in the middle of the house and it seemed like the entire building saw it. It was deafening. Marshall turns around, looks at me, and you know how he liked to put both fists up? He looks at me and screams. I was sitting on the bench, and a little pee came out. He promptly kicked the crap out of me.”
Things went a little better for him at the PBA National.
“I start out with a double and Marshall starts out pocket 7-10, Greek Church,” Pedersen said. “I throw the front 10 at him and shoot 289. Then I double in the 10th to beat Amleto for the title.
In fact, Pedersen beat Monacelli, a sometimes roommate on tour, three times in title matches.
Last Licks
He beat Monacelli to win the Dayton Classic — the first PBA50 event he ever bowled, shortly before his 51st birthday in 2013.
“I was in Dayton working a Junior Pepsi event for Storm,” Pedersen recalled. “The proprietor of the center told me that the PBA50 event was up next and that I should bowl in it. I hadn’t bowled anything for six or seven years, so I said I was not ready to bowl.
“He offered to pay for my room at the Hilton, so I called the PBA to see if I could still get in. They still had spots.”
Now, Pedersen had to get in tournament shape.
“I got with Steve Todd, who was the area rep for Storm, and we get some equipment drilled. I bowl the practice session and it was like bowling league. They were pretty easy.”
But after an opening 147 game, Pedersen was dead last.
“The pair is really goofy, and I’m thinking, ‘This is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made,’” he said. “Next thing you know, I make the cut, then I make the next cut, then I make the top 4. I beat Mike Edwards, Bob Learn Jr., and then Amleto for the title. That was that. From worst to first in my first senior event.”
The following year, Pedersen’s PBA50 success continued. He had a stretch when he finished second, fifth, second, and third.
“The next year I think I bowled one event, the Senior U.S. Open,” he said. “I ripped my thumb to shreds and I was done. That was the last one I bowled.”
Memory Lane
After winning the PBA National in 1987, Pedersen went back-to-back winning the Fair Lanes Open the following week.
In 1989 he won the AC-Delco Classic at Gable House in Torrance, California, and the Budweiser Classic in Miami three weeks apart.
“I was a streaky kind of player,” Pedersen said.
One of his favorite memories happened in his first AC-Delco Classic win.
“Gen. Chuck Yeager was AC-Delco’s spokesman, and the cool thing about it was that he presented me with the trophy,” Pedersen said. “There’s a black and white photo of him doing that.”
Pedersen, now 62, will go over that and many other memories from his career while preparing for the USBC induction ceremony.
“This journey has been almost 50 years in the making, and this is like the final bow in my career” he said. “For me, I think the only other thing I could win would be an Emmy. What else is there to win in this sport? I asked somebody how many double Hall of Famers there were. I think the number was 53. That’s pretty frickin’ cool.
“I haven’t made a fortune, but I’ve seen the world and met some amazing people. The hardest part for me at this stage is how fast it’s gone by.”
And he’s done more than enough to be remembered for much more than just leaving a solid 8 pin in 1995.
Lucky 13
Though Pedersen hasn’t shoed up for a pro tournament since shredding his thumb at the last PBA50 Tour stop he bowled about a decade ago, by then he had amassed a competitive record stout enough to solidify his place among the immortals of pro bowling even without his 26 years in color commentary.
With 13 PBA Tour titles overall including one major, Pedersen’s winning percentage of 76.5 in TV matches make clear that, however much he may clown around in the booth or away from it, there is plenty of knowledge and experience from which he draws his analysis from show to show.
Here is a rundown of the 13 PBA Tour titles that inform the expertise Pedersen has brought to the booth for the better part of three decades…
| Year | Tournament | Location | Opponent |
| 2002 | PBA Pepsi Open | Springfield, Pa. | Chris Barnes |
| 1999 | Indianapolis Open | Indianapolis | Erik Forkel |
| 1995 | Ebonite Kentucky Classic | Louisville, Ky. | Mark Williams |
| 1994 | Greater Harrisburg Open | Mechanicsburg, Pa. | Bob Vespi |
| 1993 | Fresno Open | Fresno, Calif. | David Ozio |
| 1990 | Quaker State Open | Grand Prairie, Texas | Don Genalo |
| 1989 | Oronamin C Japan Cup | Tokyo | Amleto Monacelli |
| 1989 | Budweiser Classic | Miami | Dave Ferraro |
| 1989 | AC-Delco Classic | Torrance, Calif. | Parker Bohn III |
| 1988 | Senior/Pro Doubles (w/Carmen Salvino) | Cheektowaga, N.Y. | Ron Palombi Jr./Billy Walden |
| 1987 | Fair Lanes Open | Washington D.C. | Rowdy Morrow |
| 1987 | PBA National Championship (Major) | Toledo, Ohio | Amleto Monacelli |
| 1986 | AC-Delco Classic | Union City, Calif. | Dennis Jaques |
~ Gianmarc Manzione
Late Bloomer
How extreme frugality and a lot of hard work eventually
helped Bryan Gobel find his path to the USBC Hall of Fame.
By Johnny Campos
Bryan Goebel quietly built one of the most impressive résumés on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour: 10 titles including a major, the Tournament of Champions; more than $1 million in career earnings; and a staggering 10-2 record in title matches.
Yet, when the PBA celebrated its 50th anniversary by naming its Top 50 players in the organization’s first 50 years, Goebel’s name was nowhere to be found.
At the time, only 40 players in PBA history had won more titles than Goebel. And he is currently tied for 48th in all-time PBA wins.
Despite achievements that placed him among the sport’s elite, he remained one of the most underrated stars of his era.
‘The Greatest Generation’
“I remember I was sad when I wasn’t in the Top 50, but I can’t complain too much,” Goebel said. “They did put me in the PBA Hall of Fame (in 2017).”
And it was a well-served honor.
Goebel was tough in the clutch whenever he got to TV title matches. His only two losses in championship games were to Norm Duke and Walter Ray Williams Jr.
He went 2-2 against Duke, 2-0 against Pete Weber, 2-1 against Amleto Monacelli, and 1-1 against Williams in TV matches. And he won his titles in what Goebel considers one of the greatest eras in PBA history.
“If you look at the Hall of Famers that came out between around ’78 to ’98, you can just start naming players: Walter Ray, Pete, Duke, Parker, Amleto, Aulby, Voss, David Ozio, Danny Wiseman,” he said. “It's hard to say that wasn’t the greatest generation. I think most of those guys learned to do more things with the ball.”
Goebel also seemed to make telecasts against many of those bowlers.
“I bowled Parker twice, Amleto three times, Steve Hoskins three times, Ricky Ward three times and Mark Williams twice,” he said. “And I never lost to lefties (4-0) in title matches.”
Goebel beat Wiseman to win his 10th title in 2003, which turned out to be a very important victory. It made him PBA Hall-eligible.
“Winning my first title (in Tucson in 1990) was huge, and the major was a big win,” he said. “But the PBA changed its requirements for the Hall of Fame. I thought I would get in with nine titles and a major. But they changed it to 10 titles or two majors. So I wasn’t going to get in without that last win.”
In His Prime
He won three of his titles at Golden Pin Lanes in Tucson (now closed) and two more in Southern California.
“I have always bowled well when I have a warm, humid feel to my thumb,” he said. “For some reason, every year we bowled at Golden Pin Lanes, I always seemed to have a great feel on my bowling ball.”
In 1994, Goebel came within one strike of earning a $200,000 bonus in the 1994 True Value Open in chilly Peoria, Illinois.
He had already beaten top-seeded Duke (who had bowled a PBA-record 280 losing game) for the $43,000 top prize by throwing the first 11 strikes of the title match. He needed another strike to collect the bonus offered by True Value for anyone rolling a 300 game on their PBA telecast.
Goebel’s final shot went high, leaving the 3-6-9-10 for a 296. It was voted the 40th most memorable moment in the PBA’s first 60 years.
“On my first shot on that show, I left the 3-6-9-10 and missed it,” he said. “In the title match, every shot I told myself to stay aggressive. On that last shot, I just didn’t think about it.”
A Style All His Own
Goebel developed his Hall-of-Fame career by mastering a unique six-step approach that seemed to encompass those of several of his PBA idols growing up. His slow, methodical style made Goebel appear to be in slow motion on the approach, and his wingspan seemed to get longer in his final few steps.
“Everything I did was from watching guys on TV,” he said. “Gary Dickinson had a nice, slow approach. It seemed like Mark Roth took about 20 steps. And Marshall Holman looked like he ran up to the line. I pretended to be all those guys.”
Goebel now has a 6-foot frame, but was only 5-6 when he was 15.
“As a kid, I started at the back of the approach, took two normal steps, and then picked up the speed,” he said. “I always kept the ball up by my head, so, in the third step, I would begin to drop the ball. Once the ball got down to the bottom of my swing, I would be going into four and everything would accelerate for the last three steps.
“As I grew taller, I shortened my steps and kept six steps. I was pretty athletic, and I could do just about anything I wanted with a bowling ball walking up to the line like that. I could slow it down, plant, and hit the crap out of it, or throw it harder at spares. By the time I was 19, I couldn’t pick up spares, but I was a pretty good bowler.”
Spare-Shooting Woes
His spare game improved with the help of longtime friend and PBA Hall of Famer Bob Glass.
“We were in a PBA regional doubles tournament in Springfield, Illinois, in 1985 and were bowling Randy Lightfoot and Leroy Bornhop for third and fourth,” Goebel recalled. “The difference in prize money was $800. Bob was a better bowler, but they had me at anchor. I need a mark in the 10th for us to finish third. I left a 10-pin. I looked back, and Bob had covered his face with both hands. I missed the spare,
“It was about a 5 1/2-hour drive home. I kept apologizing to him. It was that tournament that made me determined to become a better spare shooter.”
If at First You Don’t Succeed
It took Goebel a couple of tries on Tour before he found any kind of success.
He took a year off from his time at the University of Kansas to give the Tour a shot, but ended up going back to school. There he met his future wife, Kelly.
“She graduated from KU in ’84, a year ahead of me, and took a job with AT&T in Kansas City,” said Goebel, who lives in Shawnee, Kansas, with his wife of 40 years. “She was a computer analyst and went right in as management. For 1984, she was making really good money. I graduated in 1985, and then we got married.”
They spent three years building up a nest egg, and then Goebel decided to try the Tour again in 1989.
“If Kelly wouldn’t have had the job or the money, I wouldn’t have been able to even go out,” he said. “We saved up enough money to at least let me go out and try it again.”
But Goebel had a rough start, going 1-for-8 in the Winter Tour.
“I was thinking about quitting,” he said. “But Kelly said to go practice, then bowl the three spring stops and see what happens. I began practicing five days a week for three hours every day. I couldn’t do that working, and she had the job. But at that point, we were a little worried, because we didn’t want to zap our savings.
“I went out on those three spring stops, went 3-for-3, then went 5-for-6 in the summer with two shows, and then did pretty well after that.”
Bowling on his own dime, Goebel also mastered the business side of the Tour. The man could stretch a dollar.
“In my first year on Tour, I averaged spending $449 a week — that’s including entry, hotel, gas, food, and everything,” Goebel said. “I can still remember some of the dumps I stayed in."
Getting ready for his USBC Hall induction, Goebel, 63, now can reflect on some of the better memories on the lanes as well.
“I never felt like a huge star,” he said. “So, I was surprised to find out I’m going into the USBC Hall. I didn’t think I would ever get in. It’s a great honor.”
And some well-deserved recognition.
I Did It My Way
It was not easy, but it is not meant to me. Goebel’s path to PBA Tour glory was paved by “dump” motels he stayed in to survive the rigors of the road by staying as frugal as possible, a spare game that left plenty to be desired at first but smoothed out thanks to a lot of hard work, and a staggered, halting approach to the foul line the likes of which are not likely to be seen again on the PBA Tour. It certainly can be said that Bryan Goebel did it his way, but he did it, as these 10 PBA Tour titles he amassed over a pro career that spanned more than a decade attest…
| Year | Tournament | Location | Opponent |
| 2003 | PBA Medford Open | Medford, Ore. | Danny Wiseman |
| 1998 | Tournament of Champions | Overland Park, Kan. | Steve Hoskins |
| 1996 | Tucson Open | Tucson, Ariz. | Ricky Ward |
| 1995 | Tucson Open | Tucson, Ariz. | Bob Belmont |
| 1994 | Mixed Doubles (w/Aleta Sill) | Reno, Nev. | Bob Spaulding |
| 1994 | Greater Detroit Open | Taylor, Mich. | Eric Forkel |
| 1994 | Active West Open | Ontario, Canada | Steve Hoskins |
| 1994 | True Value Open | Peoria, Ill. | Norm Duke |
| 1991 | Kessler Classic | Riverside, Calif. | Mark Williams |
| 1990 | Miller Lite Challenge | Tucson, Ariz. | Joe Salvemini |
~ Gianmarc Manzione
The Right Stuff
Grit. Faith. Perseverance. A killer instinct. Shannon O’Keefe has it all,
and now the sport gives her its all with election to USBC Hall of Fame.
By Jason Thomas
It is an unseasonably cool, late-spring Monday morning in Gates, New York, just outside of Rochester. Being a Monday, the assembled crowd on hand inside ABC Gates Bowl for the start of the final day of the 2023 U.S.
Women’s Open is light, and the mood in the building is sleepy. The athletes and staff mirror this feeling, for the U.S. Open is a long and grueling marathon contested on the most demanding conditions in bowling, providing further wear on everyone involved. The event is now seven days into its merciless grind.
As the athletes warm up for the penultimate round of match play, a buzz begins to develop behind the black pipe-and-drape curtain that separates the competition lanes from the practice range. There is news of a potential withdrawal, which begins to percolate among the staff, necessitating some last-minute changes to the event logistics.
Colombia’s Juliano Franco has officially pulled out of the event, citing a thumb injury. There may be one more as well, but the athlete in question — as well as the potential reason for the withdrawal — is not yet being disclosed.
As the lead producer for BowlTV, as well as the following day’s CBS Sports Network finals, I walk over to the practice range to find out what is happening. I find Shannon O’Keefe in tears, talking with her husband Bryan. I ask PWBA Brand Manager Robyn Graves what is happening, and she says, “Shannon is having issues throwing shots without stopping. I think she is about to withdraw.”
The magnitude of this news is utterly mind-boggling. O’Keefe is one of the mentally toughest athletes in the history of the sport, not to mention coming off a PWBA Player-of-the-Year season in which she never finished lower than ninth despite bowling through a nagging hip injury that gave her excruciating pain during every tournament.
At this point in the U.S. Open, she is currently among the top five who will advance to the televised finals, and still well within striking distance of the top seed. The U.S. Open also happens to be the sport’s most lucrative event (with a $60,000 top prize), an event she’s come close to winning numerous times. It is the title she wants more than any other.
When I finally get a chance to talk with her, she is slumped against a pool table in the makeshift tournament office, head down, tears still crisscrossing her face.
As I walk over, she looks up, red-eyed and defeated, grabs me in a full embrace, and sobs uncontrollably. When she finishes, I simply let her know that we will not disclose the reason for her withdrawal, and that it would be up to her if, and when, that information is ever communicated.
Almost two years later, O’Keefe has still not thrown another ball in PWBA competition.
Road to the Top
If a movie were to be made about Shannon O’Keefe’s life, she would no doubt be played by Emma Stone (after Stone put in a grueling six months of training to get in tip-top shape for the part, of course). At 46, O’Keefe possesses the bubbly and youthful demeanor of the award-winning actress. Similarly, she also possesses a vast intelligence and fierce determination behind that veneer of warmth, which is what drives her awesome competitive desire and obsessive need to achieve greatness. That side usually only comes out with her closest confidantes after a loss — or really any performance that did not meet her incredibly high standards — and it is shockingly biting when contrasted with the ebullient optimism and sense of unwavering faith she conveys publicly.
Although average in stature, O’Keefe’s strict diet and fitness regimen make it clear that she is in tip-top physical condition, and the distended veins running up both her biceps give the intimidating impression that she just knocked out several sets of preacher curls.
The sport in which O’Keefe first achieved great success was not bowling, but softball. She played the sport growing up and, when she was 15, made it to the final round of cuts for Team USA to determine the 1996 Olympic team. A few years later, she went on to star as a freshman at Portland State University, playing center field and batting .411 on her way to first-team all-American honors, before an injury ended her career and she decided to focus on bowling.
She joined the PWBA Tour in 1998 and was named runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 1999. When the tour ceased operations in 2003, she was still yet to win a title, and was not a significant factor week to week. After regaining her amateur status, she worked diligently (some would even say obsessively) on her game, and soon realized her dream of qualifying for bowling’s Team USA in 2005, beginning an 18-year run as one of the key members of the national team before retiring from the program in 2022.
In the years prior to the PWBA Tour’s relaunch in 2015, O’Keefe continued to compete in the annual USBC Queens and U.S. Women’s Open events, finishing in the top five in the latter in 2007, 2011 and 2012. She even rolled a 299 game during the televised finals of the 2007 event, before losing to Liz Johnson in the final.
She won her first PWBA title during that initial 2015 comeback season, but it was a heartbreaking one-pin loss (again, to Liz Johnson) at the U.S. Women’s Open that sticks in her mind most from that season.
“That loss really broke me,” said O’Keefe. “I bowled so well all week long and felt so strongly like that tournament was mine. It took a really long time to get over it and, at the time, I wasn’t sure I ever would. I just felt like I let myself, and a lot of other people down.”
A Formative Rivalry
For O’Keefe, the great Liz Johnson (who was also O’Keefe’s good friend and long-time Team USA teammate) was the one obstacle standing in the way of her becoming the best in the world. When the PWBA relaunched in 2015, O’Keefe was one of the top players, but no one could match the greatness of Johnson, who earned Player of the Year honors in each of the first three seasons.
O’Keefe’s one-pin loss to Johnson at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open was yet another stinging setback in her climb up the mountain of greatness. But rather than shying away from the loss, she followed the unlikely advice of the Professional Bowlers Association’s greatest player at the time, Jason Belmonte, and ended up revisiting the brutal setback to examine the cause, and hopefully, unearth a solution.
“He told me that no matter how painful it was, I needed to go back and watch the tape, so I did. What I noticed was that when I needed a good shot in the 10th frame to close out the match, everything was fast — my breathing, my pre-shot routine, my tempo, and ultimately the speed on the ball. I threw it close to where I wanted to, but the extra speed caused the ball to go way too long and miss the headpin, and I left a washout. It didn’t help that I got a terrible break on the conversion by wrapping the headpin around the 10, but the damage was really caused by my lack of control on the first shot. And of course, Liz took full advantage.”
Two years and a few standard-event titles later, O’Keefe was again faced with her nemesis in the 2017 PWBA Tour Championship in an electric arena setting at Richmond Raceway in Virginia. Paired up in the semifinal match, O’Keefe was in control, but once again made a poor shot at a critical time to give Johnson an opening, which looked like it would cost her a chance to win her first major title. Johnson took advantage, but not quite enough to secure the win, leading to a tie and a nail-baiting one-ball roll-off to determine the winner.
“On the bench, I was angry with myself for giving Liz a chance, but I told myself that if she let me have one more opportunity, I wasn’t going to blow it again.”
With all eyes in the standing-room-only audience on her, O’Keefe, perched above the crowd on the gleaming white, specially constructed arena lanes, calmly aced the first shot of the roll-off for a strike, sending the fans into a frenzy. Johnson got up and threw her worst shot of the evening, but it went Brooklyn and carried the strike to keep things going.
O’Keefe refused to let the lucky break bother her and labelled another strike, which she punctuated with an emphatic, “YES!”, pumping her fist intensely as the crowd went wild again. Johnson got up and matched her, this time with a perfectly thrown strike. O’Keefe stepped up again and threw another carbon-copy-of-a-shot that would have knocked down 20 pins, hyping up the crowd to a fever pitch with an animated post-shot reaction. Once they settled, Johnson finally missed and, just like that, the match was over. O’Keefe went on to win the title over Kelly Kulick (another foil who had the upper hand over O’Keefe during the no-PWBA years), 222-203, for her first major victory, but the bigger effect was that she had finally overcome the giant, looming shadow of Johnson.
“That win completely validated in my mind that I could be the best bowler out here,” said O’Keefe, “After that, I knew that the only person who could stop me was me, and that’s when the wins really started coming.”
O’Keefe won twice (including the USBC Queens for her second major) and took home Player of the Year honors in 2018, then had one of the greatest seasons in the history of the PWBA in 2019, winning five times and becoming just the third bowler to win back-to-back Player of the Year awards, joining Johnson, Wendy Macpherson (who did it twice) and Leanne Hulsenberg.
After coming just a few points shy of making it three straight Player of the Year seasons in 2021, she would win the award again in 2022, during a campaign in which she fought through agonizing pain in her left hip, every week.
“I think my 2022 season was even better than what I did in 2019, because I honestly didn’t even think I’d be able to bowl at all,” said O’Keefe, “I just kept pushing through the pain, going through my pre- and post-round therapy and doing anything I could to keep the pain at bay, and I had to bowl so many games because I never finished out of the top 10.”
But despite her success, O’Keefe was still unable to close the deal at the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing third in 2019, sixth in 2021 and a heartbreaking third in 2022, when a shocking 5-count on her fill ball after securing a key double to give her what looked like a certain win to move on to bowl for the title, cost her the match against Erin McCarthy, who coasted to victory against tournament leader Danielle McEwan, who could only muster a 172 in the final.
“The conditions are so tough at the U.S. Open, it doesn’t take much to make a mistake. Unfortunately, I just got that last shot inside of target just a touch and that is all it took to cost me the match. I’d love to have that one back, but overall, it was still a great season, and I was proud of making it through the week with a chance to win, despite all the pain I was feeling.”
A Woman of Faith
One of the biggest things to which O’Keefe attributes her success is her faith in God. She often touts her faith in post-match interviews — win or lose — and has said that her understanding and acceptance of keeping her faith, even in difficult moments, led to one of the biggest turnarounds in her attitude, and her results, following the 2018 season.
In the final events of that season, O’Keefe almost lost the award because of a late onslaught by McEwan, combined with a building anxiety over the notion of winning it that caused her to slip up during the PWBA Players Championship, which was the second-to-last event of the season.
“I was really trying to control the outcome of everything, which my faith has taught me that you just can’t do,” said O’Keefe. “It’s a bit of a paradox in that we want something so much, but in order to get it, we have to trust in God’s plan that it will come; but sometimes, it doesn’t, so instead of fighting it, we have to be thankful and learn from those experiences and continue to grow. It’s a difficult thing to do, but once I embraced that, it allowed me to compete so much more freely, and also take the bad days or bad weeks so much more in stride.”
In 2022, O’Keefe also committed herself to reading as many self-help books as she could get her hands on and ended up finishing nearly three dozen different titles in twelve months to help both with her own game, as well as her coaching exploits at McKendree University (and now Jacksonville State, where her and husband Bryan launched the program in 2023). But the sheer volume of data contained in the books, and how to apply and assimilate it with her already successful approach to life, combined with the constant cacophony of social media feedback about her bowling – as well as the move to Jax State – was sometimes difficult to process, periodically led to anxiety, and ultimately boiled over into her bowling.
“I’m still working to figure out what is causing me to have to stop my approach. It’s like I get up there and, suddenly, every fiber of my being just yells out, ‘STOP!’, and I have to start over; but I still can’t exactly put my finger on what it is that is causing it,” said O’Keefe. “Through it all, my faith in God has never wavered. I know that He is guiding my steps, that He has a plan for my life – far greater than anything I can ever imagine – so, in fact, I thank Him for this struggle and pain, and continue to ask Him to use it to glorify Him.”
As I drive up the hilly road to the end of the street where Shannon and Bryan O’Keefe’s neat, new brick house sits at the end of the block in Jacksonville, Alabama, I see her pop outside, smiling and waving, wearing a red Jax State sweatshirt to ward off the cool winter air. I am there to film her United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame interview, an accolade she has recently received in her first year of eligibility for her stellar, superior performance in the sport.
Once the camera is rolling, we talk about her career, and she eloquently tells the amazing story of how it all came to be, stopping occasionally for some tears (O’Keefe is always good for a few tears — and they are always completely genuine, and often contagious). After the camera is off, we talk about what’s next for her, and whether she thinks she will ever bowl again on the PWBA Tour.
“I plan to bowl on tour again, because I still love to compete, but to be honest, there’s not much left for me to prove, so it’s really just a matter of deciding how much I want to bowl once I am ready,” said O’Keefe. “I’m very happy with the way my life is now, and I really enjoy getting to coach my girls and pass on what I have learned to them. That is my purpose now.”
Ultimately, the conversation goes back to God, and to the question of whether there is still some purpose in continuing to pursue her competitive career at this point — and whether that includes winning more PWBA titles, including that U.S. Women’s Open title that has eluded her for so long.
“I’d love to win again, because winning is fun, but I no longer need to win to feel fulfilled; that is something that was missing in the heart of what happened to me, and it is in God’s hands at this point. God never promised life would be easy, but He has promised that He would walk with us and that we’d never be alone. I know this world is temporary compared to eternity, and God is my strength.”
I suggest to her that it may still be worth it just to bowl out there again after all she’s been through, even if she never wins another title or gets another check, because she’s meant so much to so many, inspiring with her unbelievable success (O’Keefe has cashed in 91 of the 95 PWBA events she has entered since the relaunch, making it to 35 stepladder finals and winning 15 titles – an unparalleled benchmark of success), and her attitude.
“Maybe. My relationship with God is the most important thing to me. I pray daily that he will give me the opportunity to share my faith in hopes to reach someone far from Him, to help them build a relationship with Him so they can one day experience eternal salvation. Maybe He will reveal that the way for me to do that is to compete out there again and spread that message through my bowling. I do believe I will compete again.”
If she can find her way back onto the lanes of the PWBA Tour — even if she never wins another title — it would be one of the most inspiring things we have ever seen in the sport of bowling. God willing, it will happen, and countless fans, friends, and young girls (and boys for that matter) looking for inspiration to not only succeed, but to participate at the highest levels in life, will be the benefactors.
A Competitor Without Rival
In some circumstances, perhaps most, a professional athlete claiming she has “not much left to prove” would come across as a remark loaded with hubris and hutzpah. In the case of Shannon O’Keefe, who has amassed 15 titles overall including three majors in the mere decade of the relaunched PWBA Tour’s existence, the observation is plainly factual. She has, indeed, absolutely nothing left to prove. Anyone who gets a glimpse of the below rundown of her decade of dominance can surmise the intense and firey nature of the competitor who compiled that resume. Which is to say this: Doubt that the three-time PWBA Player of the Year will find something more to prove at your own peril…
| Year | Tournament | Location | Opponent |
| 2022 | Twin Cities Open | Eagan, Minn. | Missy Parkin |
| 2021 | Bowlers Journal Classic | Arlington, Texas | Danielle McEwan |
| 2019 | PWBA Tour Championship | Richmond, Va. | Dasha Kovalova |
| 2019 | Twin Cities Open | Eagan, Minn. | Verity Crawley |
| 2019 | Tucson Open | Tucson, Ariz. | Maria Jose Rodriquez |
| 2019 | Hartford Open | East Hartford, Conn. | Birgit Poppler |
| 2019 | Orlando Open | Orlando, Fla. | Danielle McEwan |
| 2018 | USBC Queens | Reno, Nev. | Bryanna Cote |
| 2018 | Sonoma County Open | Rohnert Park, Calif. | Verity Crawley |
| 2017 | PWBA Tour Championship | Richmond, Va. | Kelly Kulick |
| 2017 | St. Petersburg-Clearwater Open | Seminole, Fla. | Clara Guerrero |
| 2016 | Lincoln Open | Lincoln, Neb. | Clara Guerrero |
| 2016 | Sonoma County Open | Rohnert Park, Calif. | Kelly Kulick |
| 2016 | SABC Mixed Doubles (w/Bill O'Neill) | Houston | NA |
| 2015 | SABC Mixed Doubles (w/Bill O'Neill) | Houston | NA |
~ Gianmarc Manzione
At Your Service
Keith Hamilton’s USBC Hall of Fame honor sees industry
giving back to a man who continues to give it all he has.
By Johnny Campos
Keith Hamilton remembers the day that Mort Luby Jr. told him about making a difference in the bowling industry.
At the time, Hamilton was working for the former publisher/owner of Luby Publishing, whose family had published Bowlers Journal International since 1913.
“I remember Mort telling me, ‘If you want to be a top publisher in this industry, as we are, you’ve got to do more than just be a publisher. You’ve got to give back to the industry,’” Hamilton said. “So, I said, ‘OK. I got it.’ Back then, it was very business for me.”
That piece of sound advice from one of his mentors has led Hamilton into a career of making a difference in the bowling industry as a leader on some high-profile industry groups.
“Bowling started out as a business for me,” he said. “But it turned into a love because of the people in it.”
Hamilton started his career at Luby in June of 1981 kind of by accident. After graduating from high school, he went to work cleaning a townhouse for Mort Luby Jr. to earn some spending money for college.
“They called me in the office the day after I started, and they wanted me to work on the Bowlers Journal tournament,” he said. “They ended up liking me in the office. I still did some work in the townhouse (for $4 an hour), and I also started working in the office. Then I would work there on every break.”
Luby also loaned Hamilton the funds to earn his MBA at the University of Notre Dame, with the stipulation that he would work in the advertising department at Luby for two years after graduation.
Hamilton ended up working for the company fulltime, eventually replacing one of his mentors there, Ed Daugherty, as the business manager.
When he was president of Luby Publishing, Hamilton created several magazines, including Bowling Center Management, which is the official publication of the Bowling Proprietors Association of America.
In 1994, Hamilton and another longtime Luby employee, Mike Panozzo, purchased the company, with an exact division of labor between the new owners.
“Mike was editorial and I was business,” said Hamilton, who was named president of the company with the acquisition.
Legacy of Service
His new position served him well on all of the boards of directors that he joined.
Hamilton was on the board for the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, and he was the Chairman and President from 2011 to 2014. He was on the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association (IBPSIA) Advisory Board, serving as Chairman from 2005 to 2009. And he was the President of the International Bowling Media Association (IBMA) from 2014 to 2018.
“I was on the Hall of Fame board for 20 years, and the proudest moments serving the industry came when we moved the facility from St. Louis to Arlington and built, at the time, a brand new, state-of-the-art museum and hall of fame,” he said.
Centennial
In 2013, as part of the 100th anniversary of Bowlers Journal, Hamilton appeared as a guest on the CBS Sunday Morning Show. But it didn’t go like he had planned.
The show sent well-known journalist Bill Geist to Chicago to conduct a 2 ½-hour interview with Hamilton.
“And they went to our archives, went with me to Pin Stripes Bowl in Oakbrook,” Hamilton said. “Then we went to Detroit for the PBA Tournament of Champions. There they talk with Salvino, who does his schtick. They spent 12 hours taping with us and talked to Carmen for 30 minutes, and I knew he was going to dominate the show.
“Sure enough, when it came out, Carmen was in there for about two minutes of the segment,” Hamilton laughed.
Shakeup
In 2014, Hamilton worked out a deal to help out the PBA by moving its operational headquarters to the Luby offices in Chicago.
“For six years, we ran the membership department of the PBA, and I did financial consulting,” he said. “And I was very involved in the three times that we tried to sell it to Bowlero. But it’s a weird feeling where you’re working on something that you know you’re going to lose your job on.”
After Bowlero purchased the PBA in 2019, COVID hit, which was bad news for bowling publications. Manufacturers had no reason to advertise because of the bowling shutdown. Also, the Bowlers Journal Tournament, which funds a great amount of the circulation revenue, was canceled in 2020.
Hamilton and Panozzo ended up selling Bowlers Journal and Pro Shop Operator to USBC and Bowling Center Management and Bowling Center Entertainment to BPAA.
Hamilton still continues to serve the industry, serving the Bowlers to Veterans Link (BVL) as a board member and treasurer.
Next Chapter
After a career in publishing, Hamilton was hired as the new Executive Director for the Illinois Bowling Proprietors Association in 2023. He replaced Bill Duff, who retired after working for the IBPA for 34 years, 27 of them as ED.
“Because of my board experience, I understood a lot of what an Executive Director is supposed to do, having worked with Executive Directors,” Hamilton said. “Even though my experience is that of a publisher, I didn’t come in blind to the position.”
After Hamilton accepted the job, Duff informed him of the IBPA’s 75th anniversary celebration that he had to organize.
“They let me run with it, because they knew I had the experience of the 75th edition of Bowlers Journal and what we did on the 100th anniversary of Bowlers Journal,” he said. “And it turned out pretty great.”
Mentors
Hamilton says he had a few mentors over the years, besides Luby and Daugherty, that helped him on his Hall of Fame journey.
“I saw how Remo Picchietti operated and how smooth he was,” Hamilton said. “How he loved bowling and understood the business side of it.”
He also got solid tutoring from Mike Gilmore, who worked at an ad agency for AMF, and Bob Reid, who worked in marketing for Ebonite.
“But my biggest mentor was my dad, George,” he said. “He was a great bowler and always used to bowl in the ABC Tournaments. He would really have loved this. That’s probably my one regret, that he won’t see me be inducted.”
The PBA Tour’s Ultimate Champion
Pro-bowling superfan, mad genius of formats, TV producer extraordinaire:
The many hats Tom Clark wore on his way into the USBC Hall of Fame.
By Johnny Campos
Growing up in the bowling-rich Syracuse area of Upstate New York, Tom Clark had a solid foundation for a career dedicated to bettering his favorite sport.
From writing about bowling for USA Today to shaping its future at the United States Bowling Congress and later doing the same with the Professional Bowlers Association, Clark has spent most of his career elevating the game.
“Syracuse was a great place to learn the game,” said Clark, whose father Thomas got him started in junior leagues. “He got me in my first league and took me to Saturday-morning bowing every week.
“I’d go and watch him bowl league, and he was really my hero. He loves bowling and has been a bowler his whole life. He’s 79, and he bowled a 300 and an 800 like two years ago. He’s still good. I was really happy last year when he went into the Central New York USBC Hall of Fame.”
A few of Clark’s ideas for TV shows and other innovations can be traced to his roots in Syracuse. The local NBC affiliate had a weekly bowling show called “Syracuse Bowls” and one for junior bowlers called “Challenge Bowling” — both held at specially constructed lanes at the TV studio.
“I was on that show a few times,” Clark said. “But the idea of doing all the TV in one location on one pair, I saw that growing up.”
So was the King of the Hill format that Clark introduced as a special event on the PBA Tour.
“I stole the whole format from when I was a kid in Syracuse,” he admitted. “So, Syracuse was a great place to learn the game, and I’ve taken ideas from there.”
A Fighter for Bowling
Clark was always trying to get more coverage for bowling when he was on the USA Today sports staff. And he picked up a lot of new concepts by talking to people from other sports.
Billie Jean King would talk with him about World Team Tennis. Clark also would talk with officials from the PGA, NFL, U.S. Open Tennis and, yes, bull riding.
“I learned a lot, and I was always interested in the business side of sports,” he said. “And I had incredible access to sports industry leaders. I wanted to bring a lot of those concepts to bowling.”
He took those ideas with him when he was hired by the United States Bowling Congress in 2005. During his time with USBC, Clark helped bring back women’s professional bowling and ran a few innovative telecasts, including Bowling’s Clash of Champions and the PBA Women’s Series — experiences that helped him discover his talent as a TV producer.
Creating the WSOB
But his biggest impact on the sport came when he was hired by the PBA in 2008. And none was bigger than starting the World Series of Bowling in his first year as Deputy Commissioner.
“I think that it’s basically defined my career with the PBA,” said Clark, who has been the PBA Commissioner since 2011. “It’s been the big event every year since 2009.”
The event also helped keep the PBA afloat during an economic crisis in 2008.
“A lot of our financial issues had a lot to do with cost of production, and, from a player’s perspective, the cost of traveling vs. the prize money that was available,” Clark said. “I worked up detailed plans with 10 different ways of how multiple event series could play out in the same location. The players would save on expenses, and the PBA would save on costs.
It was also an opportunity for the PBA to attract more international players.
“To me, the best players in the world need to be on the PBA Tour,” he said. “By creating this World Series that has the ability for international players to come, it really changed the culture of the Tour.”
The Belmo Effect
Convincing Australia’s Jason Belmonte to join the PBA, however, turned out to be tougher than expected.
When Clark first saw him bowl in the USBC Masters when it was in Milwaukee in 2006, he immediately felt that he needed to be on the PBA Tour.
“I met with Belmo, and he said he liked being a world traveler,” Clark said. “He didn’t feel like he needed the PBA. I even brought in Carmen Salvino, who gave him the PBA pitch. You have no choice after you talk to Carmen,” Clark added with a chuckle.
To further entice Belmonte, Clark gave him exemptions to two consecutive tournaments, which was met with some criticism. But it worked.
“Belmo didn’t do that well in the first one, and did OK in the second,” Clark said. “But he got the bug and wanted to win out there.”
Moments to Remember
Clark has had a front-row seat (literally) to some of the biggest moments in bowling. Among his favorite are Kelly Kulick’s win in the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions; Pete Weber’s famous, “Who do you think you are? I am!” rant after winning his fifth U.S. Open title; and the first win by Belmonte.
“A two-handed bowler won on the PBA Tour,” Clark said. “It’s when the revolution started. Now everybody was going to take it seriously and I think it’s going to change the game.”
Some his other contributions have mostly been in creating new events to widen the fan base, such as the Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational and the PBA League, or an effort to educate the fans: introducing colored oil, naming tournaments after oil patterns, partnering with Kegel to develop StrikeTrak on Fox, which displays information about the ball’s journey down the lane.
Clark also has adapted to the way the media has changed over the years by growing the PBA’s live digital coverage, advancing its social media and YouTube Channel.
Signing a new TV deal with Fox in 2018, earning rights fees for the PBA, was another big moment for Clark. But he knows his work is far from done.
‘There’s No Rest’
“I don’t feel like we’ve reached all our goals,” he said. “I feel happy that we’ve kept the PBA alive and opened the doors to have a chance to. To me, the prize money still needs to be higher. The awareness of our players needs to be higher. The venues where we go need to be bigger. There’s a lot of room to keep improving things. So there’s no rest.”