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TONY FRANKLIN
Owner/Publisher [email protected] Tony bowled for the University of Texas-Arlington collegiate bowling team in 1989. Franklin was a member of Professional Bowlers Association from 1991 – 2003 and the owner of 8 PBA Regional titles in the Southwest Region. He won his first PBA Regional event at the age of 19 as an amateur. In 1994, Franklin won $50,000 first place prize in the US National Scratch Tournament in San Antonio, TX. Franklin is currently an IT Recovery Manager for PepsiCo and has worked there for 20 years, but in August 2009, he and his wife Genie became proud owners of The Bowling News. He married his wife, Genie in 1999, and 4 months later added their dog, Reese to the family. It only took another 7 years for his beautiful daughter Tori to come along. Sometimes the best things in life are worth waiting for. His fondest bowling memories include working for Bruce Rowe at his Pro Shop at Showplace-Euless. He started working there as a Junior in High School and learned about the bowling business, life lessons, and most importantly how NOT to be the fish in a card game. Tony is a Member of the Texas State USBC Hall of Fame. #159 |
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GENIE FRANKLIN
Owner/Publisher [email protected] Genie bowled for the West Texas A&M collegiate bowling team and graduated from the University of Texas - Arlington in 1997 with a BA in Advertising. She bowled the PWBA SW Region tour and has 2 regional titles and was PWBA SW Region Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. Genie is currently busy as the owner of The Bowling News, co-owner of Kameleon Sportswear and a real estate agent at Keller Williams. She loves watching her daughter, Tori, play softball and bowl on Saturday mornings. When Genie isn't home on the weekends, you can find her on the lanes with her friends, Lusha's Ladies. Genie is a Member of the Texas State USBC Hall of Fame. #156 |
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MARK LONDON
Just Paying Attention [email protected] If bowling were a major sport, this is how one writer covers it. Mark London, a longtime PBA Regional bowler with professional media experience, was asked to write a regular column for a south suburban Chicago bowling newspaper. It would be like other regular newspaper columns by established columnists, but with a bowling angle. There were ideas brought up that had never before appeared in print, like show and announcer critiques, marketing and television ratings breakdowns of the pro tours, a link to its virtually ignored television past, thought provoking interviews, and of course, a few personal observations. Since February 1998 and in The Bowling News since October 2012, London and his "eight regular readers," referring to the small but loyal legion of readers, have taken on the task of enjoying professional and experienced coverage to a sport relegated to the compost heap in the mid 90's. London's national exposure came as the ABC publication, Bowling, as well as Bowlers Journal International (BJI), each published a version of the famous Top 25 TV Bowling Moments list, Bowling in 1998 (the third JPA ever). BJI featured an updated list in its 100 th Anniversary Edition in 2013. Using his radio and television experience in the 1980's and 90's, London is one of the few to commentate on all four major live stream services (PBA XtraFrame, BowlTV.com, InsideBowling.com, and BowlStreamTV), and Sam Houston State University's athletic department live stream service, as well as local cable telecasts of PBA Midwest Regional finals. See for yourself as this one of a kind column appears every week in The Bowling News. |
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BUBBA FLINT
Lane Laughter Bubba Flint has been a Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist for 30 years for numerous publications. He is a book illustrator, comic strip artist and avid painter. You can see some of his work at area comic strip and gaming conventions. Flint is a Life Long bowler! His bowling game is like a really fun extreme roller coaster - up and down and all around, a little bumper and a whole lot of fun!!!! Flint has been drawing Lane Laughter for The Bowling News for over 35 years!!!! Maybe one day, we will publish a Lane Laughter book?! |
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SUSIE MINSHEW
Up Your Average [email protected] Susie started bowling when she was 38 (because someone asked her) and when she saw she wasn't going to get any better without some help, found a coach, his name was Bill Harris. Minshew was having a great time learning and started helping him with his classes. Understanding that she was hooked and wanting to teach others about this wonderful sport, she attended the first open Bronze Coaching class offered by USA Bowling in Hartford, Connecticut in March 1992, the first Silver Coaching Class in April 1994, and received Gold Coach status in 2000. Minshew has been a coach with our national team, Team USA, as well as the coach for the Republic of Panama for the 1995 World Championships. She served two terms on the IBPSIA Board of Directors, one as the first coach and first woman to be elected President. She has been a presenter at the International Coaching Summit 10 times and was fortunate to be on the Selection Committee for Team USA four times. Minshew was the first two-time USOC Bowling Coach of the Year. Susie won the Joyce Deitch Trailblazer Award and won 'Best Coach in the Nation' in a poll on bowl.com. |
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DAVE WILLIAMS
Dave's Corner [email protected] Some of you might remember Dave Williams, who often visited Texas in a marketing capacity, first for AMF Bowling Centers, and later in his career with American Recreation Centers and Triangle Bowling Centers. Now a resident of New Jersey, Williams recently visited the “Bowling for Peanuts” exhibit at the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame in Arlington, Texas, and presented a framed “Ten Pin Tales” newsletter for the exhibit. Williams grew up in Sebastopol, California, where Joyce and Charles M. Schulz, the famed creator of the Peanuts comic strip, were his first youth bowling coaches. Every week the members of the L & L Lanes Junior and Bantam Leagues would receive a mimeographed report of the previous weeks scores. “Thankfully my Mom never threw away the newsletters,” stated Williams. The particular issue that Dave chose to present to the Museum was most appropriate, as it captures the reception desk of L & L Lanes through the eyes of Schulz. There’s a “bum” telling proprietor Louie Headrick, “Here’s what you otta’ do with this place… expand! Push back the walls! Spruce the joint up! Bring in a ten piece orchestra! Put in a piano bar and get some dancing girls!” A youngster reminiscent of Charlie Brown is walking by the counter and grumbling to himself, “I don’t know why I ever learned to bowl.” Another youngster hanging onto the counter asks, “Louie, I rolled a 36 game, ‘kin I get a trophy?” Williams was an accomplished bowler at an early age and earned the title of “Mr. 300” for his high scores throughout the state of California, and later Oregon and New York. He was tied for second on the all time list of 300 games with his childhood hero, Dick Weber, before technology and the limited distance dressing rule forever changed the definition of high scores in the 1980’s. Dave will soon be contributing articles to The Bowling News, so you can be on the lookout for his commentary on a number of bowling topics in the near future. |