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Bowling legend Don Carter dies

RJKarl

RJKarl

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He was 85.

From the 50s-70s, bowling was a mainstay on Saturday afternoon TV. Don Carter was one of their first superstars.

As bizarre as it may seem, bowlers were among the first to merchandise themselves and get into the business of their sport.

Carter, Dick Weber and others had their names on everything bowlers used and even sold their names to bowling alleys to use.
 
deacvision7 said:
Never heard of him.


RIP.
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That's a commentary on you, not him. You probably never heard of Muhammad Ali either.

I used to watch those bowling shows every Sat afternoon, even though I was never a bowler. They were strangely fascinating (and in those days, you did not have a lot of other sport viewing options, unlike the wall-to-wall games in everything available on cable/satellite/internet today).

Don Carter and Dick Weber, the Red Sox and Yankees of pro bowling.
 
Did somebody just compare the notoriety of Don Carter and Muhammad Ali?

An analagous person today would probably be Phil Hellmuth.
 
RJKarl said:
He was 85.

From the 50s-70s, bowling was a mainstay on Saturday afternoon TV. Don Carter was one of their first superstars.

As bizarre as it may seem, bowlers were among the first to merchandise themselves and get into the business of their sport.

Carter, Dick Weber and others had their names on everything bowlers used and even sold their names to bowling alleys to use.
Click to expand...

In the early '60s, the Greensboro Generals hockey team's top player, and most popular player was named Don Carter. As a kid there wasn't much to do here in the winter so the Generals were popular until the ABA Cougars came to town and took the fans with them. A man asked me when I was about 8 years old who my favorite athlete was. I said "Don Carter" and he gave me this shocked look and said, "The bowler?"

I said "the hockey player" and had to tell him about Don Carter our local hero hockey player. That's how I found out there was a great bowler named Don Carter. I can't recall seeing him bowl on TV but I remember Weber and watching those shows with Chris Schenkel on the call.
 
ChrisL68 said:
Did somebody just compare the notoriety of Don Carter and Muhammad Ali?

An analagous person today would probably be Phil Hellmuth.[/QUOTE]


You are dissing a living legend, winner of ELEVEN World Series of Poker tournaments!?!?!
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My day was a big bowler like a lot of people back in the 50s who were athletes- before golf, tennis and thigs like raquetball and squash opened to the masses. Bowling was big and Weber and Carter were household names form television at a time when there was one college football game televised on Saturday and maybe a pro game now and then on Sunday tv- and this was in the NY area where we were blessed with 5 tv stations. Golf head to head matches, homerun derby, bowling, and roller derby were the TV forerunners of Austrailian Rules football as filler on ESPN. Carter was a big name and I cared zero for bowling. Loved how the announcers whispered like it was church and not a bowling alley.
 
I hadn't heard of him either until PTI discussed him. Pretty crazy how popular he was.
 
FreeStateDeac said:
That's a commentary on you, not him. You probably never heard of Muhammad Ali either.
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HAHAHAHHA


Yes, these two people are clearly comparable. I mean, just switch them out easily, one for the other, in terms of impact on sports and the world.


Idiot.
 
I remember Earl Anthony (AKA Earl the Pearl, Square Earl, The Doomsday Stroking Machine) from my ABCWWofS Bowling Days.

Man, TV used to suck.
 
Never heard of him. I've heard of this Ali fellow though, even saw him in person one time. I've also heard of Clarence Clemons, FWIW.

RIP nonetheless.
 
He's one of my favorite bowlers. But the man is.....
GUPPY TROUP
 
FreeStateDeac said:
That's a commentary on you, not him. You probably never heard of Muhammad Ali either.
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I was a member of the junior bowlers tour playing in tournaments in 4 different states, started bowling when I was 2, and had a 200 sanctioned average while at Wake bowling 5x week (Intramurals + bowling class FTW). I'd never heard of him either.
 
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FreeStateDeac said:
That's a commentary on you, not him. You probably never heard of Muhammad Ali either.

I used to watch those bowling shows every Sat afternoon, even though I was never a bowler. They were strangely fascinating (and in those days, you did not have a lot of other sport viewing options, unlike the wall-to-wall games in everything available on cable/satellite/internet today).

Don Carter and Dick Weber, the Red Sox and Yankees of pro bowling.
Click to expand...


Seriously? That might be the dumbest thing I've ever read on these boards. And, there's a lot of dumb things posted on here. But, comparing Don Carter to Ali has to be number one.
 
Don Carter was the Arnold Palmer of bowling. He legitimized bowling and made it a national sport. I'm surprised everyone hasn't heard of him.
 
palmab03 said:
I was a member of the junior bowlers tour playing in tournaments in 4 different states, started bowling when I was 2, and had a 200 sanctioned average while at Wake bowling 5x week (Intramurals + bowling class FTW). I'd never heard of him either.
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I was bowling with a friend who bowled for the University Maryland club team (he's about mid-30's) now, and after a good shot, I said, "Wow, you looked like Don Carter on that shot", and he said, "Who's Don Carter?".
 
I'm gonna start pulling random obituaries from my local paper and posting them here
 
deac85 said:
I was bowling with a friend who bowled for the University Maryland club team (he's about mid-30's) now, and after a good shot, I said, "Wow, you looked like Don Carter on that shot", and he said, "Who's Don Carter?".
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Your friend isn't that well educated then about the sport. It's like him hitting a HR and you saying, "wow, you hit it just like Babe Ruth" and he goes "who?"....:D
 
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