BATON ROUGE, La. – Thomas Corbett of Maple Grove, Minnesota, has seen a lot during his 50 years of participation at the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships, and his moment in the spotlight Tuesday at the Raising Cane’s River Center helped him reflect on his journey at the event.

The 69-year-old right-hander was accompanied by his wife, Verna, for his march out to the lanes to receive his plaque, chevron and diamond lapel pin to commemorate the honor of reaching 50 years on the championship lanes.

“I have been looking forward to this for a long time,” said Corbett, who made his debut at the 1974 tournament in Indianapolis and has been to each event since 1976. “Through the years, you see other teammates and friends reach this milestone and you think to yourself, ‘Man, I really want to get to experience that moment for myself.’”

As part of The Lakers group (formerly Linds Lakers) out of central Minnesota, Corbett has been along for the ride for many memorable performances with his close friends and continues to lead the group as their squad organizer each year.

“I have been bowling with many of these guys back home for 30-plus years, and we have had a lot of great success here on the tournament lanes as a group,” said Corbett, a member of the Minnesota State and Twin Cities (formerly Minneapolis USBC and St. Paul USBC) USBC Halls of Fame. “Any win that this group has had – whether it’s the Team All-Events titles or doubles titles – the guys have really made me feel like I was part of the win, and the win belongs to all of us.”

The two-team group competing alongside Corbett for his milestone appearance this week included a pair of USBC Hall of Famers in Sam Lantto and Todd Savoy, and the crew featured five Eagle winners (Lantto, Savoy, John Eiss, Gary Green and Chuck Vashaw).

Two additional members of the group in 2025 also made Corbett’s big week in Baton Rouge a special one by taking the lead in Regular Doubles on Wednesday. Joey Robillard and Robert Clements posted 1,494 at the River Center to secure the top spot.

To celebrate his 50th year on the lanes, the close-knit Lakers group donned jerseys with a younger image of Corbett on the sleeve to show some love for their captain.

“Yeah, it was funny to see my face on all of their shirts as we walked out, and then the folks in the crowd were waving cutouts of my head around,” Corbett said. “They did the same thing for John Eiss’ 50th last year and thought we would continue it this year.”

While there are too many memories to list, Corbett is thankful for the many years of being able to take this trip to bowl in a different city with his friends and wants to continue to do so well beyond 50 years.

“This is just one of many trips we take with a few of the friends and their wives within the group, and we always have a good time,” Corbett said. “We have been on many summer vacations together to go along with the yearly trip to nationals, and there’s too many memories to even begin to describe.”

Corbett has some goals he would like to achieve now that he has reached 50 years at the Open Championships but wants to remain realistic with his expectations.

“To get to 50 years is already an accomplishment, because you have to stay alive and be physically able to bowl the tournament,” Corbett said. “My end goal here is to make it to 65 years of bowling the tournament, and hopefully by then, I would have 100,000 pins knocked down as well.”

In his 50th appearance, Corbett rolled sets of 520 in team, 532 in doubles and 633 in singles for an all-events score of 1,685, raising his pinfall total at the tournament to 86,861 for a lifetime average of 193.

The Open Championships is celebrating its third trip to Baton Rouge in 2025 and scheduled to feature more than 58,000 bowlers and 11,600 five-player teams competing across 150 consecutive days at the River Center.

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