Lou Trunk named recipient of 2025 Jim Jaryszak Laneman Award
July 24, 2025
ARLINGTON, Texas – Las Vegas’ Lou Trunk has been named the 2025 recipient of the Jim Jaryszak Laneman Award.
The award recognizes a person for their behind-the-scenes work as a laneman and is selected by the United States Bowling Congress Equipment Specifications and Certifications team from submitted nominations.
In the case of Trunk, the term “laneman” has a different meaning as Trunk has nothing to do with the actual application of oil on the lanes, which is what most people associate with a laneman.
“I have nothing to do with oil, and I haven’t touched a lane machine hardly ever,” Trunk said during an interview to talk about the honor. “My job has to do with everything underneath the oil – the lane itself. Lane installations, lane topography, lane leveling. “I’m ‘The Under the Oil Guy.’”
Trunk, 71, was born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and worked at the local bowling center starting at the age of 10. He says he was “a good bowler who loved to bowl and bowled all the time,” and even owns a 300 game at the USBC Open Championships in the doubles event (1996). But he knew he wasn’t good enough to be a professional bowler.
Trunk worked as an independent contractor for AMF (later QubicaAMF) beginning in 1977 and remained in that capacity until his retirement just a couple of years ago. Working for AMF, he was involved in the lane installation process for the 1987 American Bowling Congress Championships (now the USBC Open Championships).
Shortly thereafter, USBC brought Trunk in as its quality control manager (also as an independent contractor) for the lane installation process for both the USBC Open and Women’s Championships.
“I have devoted my entire life to installing lanes and have done so for USBC since just after that 1987 event at all the Open and Women’s Championships that haven’t been in bowling centers or the National Bowling Stadium or South Point,” Trunk said. “I was involved in quality control for every installation where lanes were installed and then taken out after the event.”
Trunk remained in that position for all USBC Open and Women’s Championships where lane installations took place until his recent retirement. The lane installation for this year’s Open Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, marked the first time Trunk has not been involved in the process since the late 80s.
It was under Trunk’s supervision that the standards were improved for these installations. USBC notes that Trunk dedicated himself to not just meeting the USBC standard of 40 thousandths cross tilt, but exceeding it. By 2015, the installations were 50% better than the standard, or 20 thousandths cross tilt.
In addition to his work with USBC on lane installations, Trunk immersed himself in learning more about lane topography and became an expert in that area, along with the related area of lane leveling.
“My first event in Niagara Falls in 1987 was the last wood installation ever for any ABC or USBC Open Championships,” Trunk noted. “Back in the days of predominantly wood lanes, they had to be resurfaced regularly to keep them flat (level). Now that synthetics are the dominant surface, there’s no resurfacing to keep them flat.”
Trunk knew he wanted to do something about this issue.
“One of my best friends was John Davis, the founder of Kegel,” said Trunk. “Back in the day, he would lament, ‘My machines put oil down perfectly, so how can Lane 5 hook four boards more than Lane 6?’ And, of course, it had to do with the other half of the equation – the lane topography.
“So, I started studying lane topography,” Trunk continued. “That showed me how the slightest depressions or crowns, even when within spec, affected ball motion.”
Armed with this knowledge, Trunk set about trying to figure out a way to document lane topography.
“Through my relationship with John (Davis), we decided to create a machine that would map out a lane’s topography,” Trunk said. “Something that would measure the slope on each board. If you’ve ever seen a seven-color slope graph, well, that’s me – I invented that.”
Trunk then noted he had a lot of help developing that graph.
“John’s brother Mark and an engineer named Herman Glenn, they helped modify their lane machines and created the LaneMapper® around 2008 and 2009,” Trunk said. “My input was the calculations that measured the slope per board. Ted Thompson, another longtime Kegel employee who knows a lot about oil patterns, he and I developed those graphs. Mark was the hardware guy for the mapping machine, and Dennis (Davis) was the software guy for the LaneMapper®. Ted and I did the reports. The data that got dumped into Dennis’ software from the machine, we developed the graphs from that.”
From there, that technology was incorporated into practical use by USBC.
“USBC agreed that the data from this machine was important information,” said Trunk. “So, they started having me and my team use this machine at USBC events, including short-term events like the U.S. Open and Masters, to make sure the lanes were fair across the house topography-wise. And, if they weren’t, we would then flatten (level) them and make sure they were within spec. And that’s been the case for at least the last 12 years or so.”
Trunk thinks it’s great that someone outside the scope of what is considered the “traditional” laneman was named this year’s award recipient.
“It’s gratifying to win this award so that people can understand that lanes are more than just oil application,” Trunk said. “There is a lot more to it when it comes to ball motion especially.”
The Jim Jaryszak Laneman Award is named in honor of the USBC Research Manager who passed away in late 2010. Jaryszak was instrumental in setting up the USBC Sport Bowling program and served as the point person when the PBA was updating its animal patterns.
Past recipients include names such as Sam Baca, the first Director of Lane Maintenance for the PBA, and the aforementioned Kegel founder – John Davis.
For a complete list of past recipients and to learn more about the Jim Jaryszak Laneman Award, click here.
The award recognizes a person for their behind-the-scenes work as a laneman and is selected by the United States Bowling Congress Equipment Specifications and Certifications team from submitted nominations.
In the case of Trunk, the term “laneman” has a different meaning as Trunk has nothing to do with the actual application of oil on the lanes, which is what most people associate with a laneman.
“I have nothing to do with oil, and I haven’t touched a lane machine hardly ever,” Trunk said during an interview to talk about the honor. “My job has to do with everything underneath the oil – the lane itself. Lane installations, lane topography, lane leveling. “I’m ‘The Under the Oil Guy.’”
Trunk, 71, was born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and worked at the local bowling center starting at the age of 10. He says he was “a good bowler who loved to bowl and bowled all the time,” and even owns a 300 game at the USBC Open Championships in the doubles event (1996). But he knew he wasn’t good enough to be a professional bowler.
Trunk worked as an independent contractor for AMF (later QubicaAMF) beginning in 1977 and remained in that capacity until his retirement just a couple of years ago. Working for AMF, he was involved in the lane installation process for the 1987 American Bowling Congress Championships (now the USBC Open Championships).
Shortly thereafter, USBC brought Trunk in as its quality control manager (also as an independent contractor) for the lane installation process for both the USBC Open and Women’s Championships.
“I have devoted my entire life to installing lanes and have done so for USBC since just after that 1987 event at all the Open and Women’s Championships that haven’t been in bowling centers or the National Bowling Stadium or South Point,” Trunk said. “I was involved in quality control for every installation where lanes were installed and then taken out after the event.”
Trunk remained in that position for all USBC Open and Women’s Championships where lane installations took place until his recent retirement. The lane installation for this year’s Open Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, marked the first time Trunk has not been involved in the process since the late 80s.
It was under Trunk’s supervision that the standards were improved for these installations. USBC notes that Trunk dedicated himself to not just meeting the USBC standard of 40 thousandths cross tilt, but exceeding it. By 2015, the installations were 50% better than the standard, or 20 thousandths cross tilt.
In addition to his work with USBC on lane installations, Trunk immersed himself in learning more about lane topography and became an expert in that area, along with the related area of lane leveling.
“My first event in Niagara Falls in 1987 was the last wood installation ever for any ABC or USBC Open Championships,” Trunk noted. “Back in the days of predominantly wood lanes, they had to be resurfaced regularly to keep them flat (level). Now that synthetics are the dominant surface, there’s no resurfacing to keep them flat.”
Trunk knew he wanted to do something about this issue.
“One of my best friends was John Davis, the founder of Kegel,” said Trunk. “Back in the day, he would lament, ‘My machines put oil down perfectly, so how can Lane 5 hook four boards more than Lane 6?’ And, of course, it had to do with the other half of the equation – the lane topography.
“So, I started studying lane topography,” Trunk continued. “That showed me how the slightest depressions or crowns, even when within spec, affected ball motion.”
Armed with this knowledge, Trunk set about trying to figure out a way to document lane topography.
“Through my relationship with John (Davis), we decided to create a machine that would map out a lane’s topography,” Trunk said. “Something that would measure the slope on each board. If you’ve ever seen a seven-color slope graph, well, that’s me – I invented that.”
Trunk then noted he had a lot of help developing that graph.
“John’s brother Mark and an engineer named Herman Glenn, they helped modify their lane machines and created the LaneMapper® around 2008 and 2009,” Trunk said. “My input was the calculations that measured the slope per board. Ted Thompson, another longtime Kegel employee who knows a lot about oil patterns, he and I developed those graphs. Mark was the hardware guy for the mapping machine, and Dennis (Davis) was the software guy for the LaneMapper®. Ted and I did the reports. The data that got dumped into Dennis’ software from the machine, we developed the graphs from that.”
From there, that technology was incorporated into practical use by USBC.
“USBC agreed that the data from this machine was important information,” said Trunk. “So, they started having me and my team use this machine at USBC events, including short-term events like the U.S. Open and Masters, to make sure the lanes were fair across the house topography-wise. And, if they weren’t, we would then flatten (level) them and make sure they were within spec. And that’s been the case for at least the last 12 years or so.”
Trunk thinks it’s great that someone outside the scope of what is considered the “traditional” laneman was named this year’s award recipient.
“It’s gratifying to win this award so that people can understand that lanes are more than just oil application,” Trunk said. “There is a lot more to it when it comes to ball motion especially.”
The Jim Jaryszak Laneman Award is named in honor of the USBC Research Manager who passed away in late 2010. Jaryszak was instrumental in setting up the USBC Sport Bowling program and served as the point person when the PBA was updating its animal patterns.
Past recipients include names such as Sam Baca, the first Director of Lane Maintenance for the PBA, and the aforementioned Kegel founder – John Davis.
For a complete list of past recipients and to learn more about the Jim Jaryszak Laneman Award, click here.