Donald James Carter (July 29, 1926 – January 5, 2012) was a right-handed
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
professional bowler. Born in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
, he learned the game while working a childhood job as a
pinsetter
In bowling, a pinsetter or pinspotter is an automated mechanical device that sets bowling pins back in their original positions, returns bowling balls to the front of the alley, and clears fallen pins on the pin deck. Prior to the machine's ...
, and went on to become one of the legends of
ten-pin bowling
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...
and a founding member of the
Professional Bowlers Association
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the PBA membership consists of over 3,000 members worldwide. Member ...
(PBA) in 1958.
He was six-time bowler of the year, a 10-time All-American, and became known simply as "Mr. Bowling." Carter and fellow St. Louis native
Dick Weber
Richard Anthony Weber (December 23, 1929 – February 14, 2005) was a ten-pin bowling professional and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Along with Don Carter, Weber is widely regarded as professional bowling's fi ...
are widely regarded as professional bowling's first superstars.
He was voted the Greatest Bowler of All-Time in a 1970 ''Bowling Magazine'' poll, and ranked #1 among 20th Century bowlers by ''Bowlers Journal'' in 1999. At the vanguard of
celebrity endorsement
Celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising campaign or marketing strategy which uses a celebrity's fame or social status to promote a product, brand or service, or to raise awareness about an issue. Marketers use celebr ...
, he capitalized on his fame during televised bowling's most popular period to become the first athlete of any kind to earn $1,000,000 in a single endorsement deal, for
Ebonite International
Ebonite International was a parent company that oversaw the manufacture of bowling balls and bowling equipment. Their headquarters and primary manufacturing facility was located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky before closing on November 15, 2019.
The m ...
.
Bowling career
Prior to the PBA being formed, Carter was known as a dominant bowler in major tournaments of the 1950s, as well as in team play.
[ In the nine BPAA All-Star tournaments (predecessor to the U.S. Open) between 1952 and 1960, Carter won four times in eight events (he withdrew one year due to injury) and never finished lower than fourth. He won five World Invitational events in a six-year span (1957 to 1962), finishing second the only year he did not win. He also won one ]ABC Masters
The USBC Masters is a championship ten-pin bowling event conducted by the United States Bowling Congress. The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) began recognizing it as a title event in 1998, and it was designated one of the four majors in 2000 ...
title in 1961.
Carter also won four tournaments during the 1950s in the ABC Open Championships Classic Division.[ As a team bowler, Carter helped the Pfeiffer Beer team of ]Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, win the 1953 ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
Open Championships before he moved back to St. Louis. Carter was then part of the "Budweisers" Bowling Team that won the National Team Match Games title four times in five years (1956, 1957, 1959, 1960). On March 12, 1958, this team established an ABC league series record for a five-man team (3,858 pins) that stood for more than 35 years. Carter rolled games of 266, 253 and 235 in that session for a 754 series. Ray Bluth, Dick Weber
Richard Anthony Weber (December 23, 1929 – February 14, 2005) was a ten-pin bowling professional and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Along with Don Carter, Weber is widely regarded as professional bowling's fi ...
, Tom Hennessey, and Pat Patterson were also on that 1958 team. Said teammate Bluth, "Don was the greatest bowler of his era (and) was the star of the Budweisers. He was our leadoff man. He wasn’t too gung-ho about that role, but he kept getting strikes and so did the rest of us, so he stayed there."
Unlike most bowlers who keep their arm straight on the backswing as they are about to release the ball, Carter kept his elbow bent, never straightening his arm.[ With the format for bowling (a single player at a time on a stationary lane) lending itself well to early two-camera live television setups, prominent players like Carter began to be seen on TV sets across the United States. He appeared regularly on bowling shows like ''Bowling Stars'', ''Championship Bowling'', '']Jackpot Bowling
''Jackpot Bowling'' (also known as ''Phillies Jackpot Bowling'' and ''Jackpot Bowling Starring Milton Berle'') was a professional bowling show on NBC from January 9, 1959, to March 13, 1961.
Broadcast history Short-form version
''Jackpot Bowling'' ...
'' and ''Make That Spare
''Make That Spare'' is a fifteen-minute bowling program that was broadcast on ABC from October 8, 1960, to September 11, 1964.
Broadcast history
The series was hosted by the former actor and nightclub singer Johnny Johnston except in the 1961-19 ...
''.
With Carter's encouragement, lawyer/businessman Eddie Elias
Edward G. "Eddie" Elias (December 12, 1928 – November 15, 1998) was best known as the founder of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA).
Elias grew up in the Akron, Ohio, United States area, and attended West High School, The University ...
proposed a pro tour to a number of players at the 1958 ABC Open Championships in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
. Carter was one of 33 bowlers who each donated $50 to get the PBA started, and Elias would later become Carter's business manager.[ Although the PBA was not formed until Carter was 32 years old, he still won seven PBA titles, including two majors: the inaugural PBA National Championship in ]1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events
January
* Ja ...
and the ABC Masters
The USBC Masters is a championship ten-pin bowling event conducted by the United States Bowling Congress. The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) began recognizing it as a title event in 1998, and it was designated one of the four majors in 2000 ...
in 1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 ...
. He also made the finals of the 1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
* January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism.
* January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...
PBA National Championship, but finished runner-up to Carmen Salvino
Carmen Salvino (born November 23, 1933 in Chicago) is an active professional ten-pin bowler, inventor, author, ambassador, and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Known as "PBA's Original Showman", Salvino won 17 P ...
. Carter won four titles and $49,000 in prize money in 1962 alone ($469,000 in 2022 dollars). That year, he also made 18 top-five finishes (still a PBA record), including seven straight top-five finishes (a feat matched only by Dick Weber
Richard Anthony Weber (December 23, 1929 – February 14, 2005) was a ten-pin bowling professional and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Along with Don Carter, Weber is widely regarded as professional bowling's fi ...
since), and he was named the Bowling Writers Association of America's Bowler of the Year.
In 1964, he signed a $1,000,000 multi-year deal to endorse Ebonite
Ebonite is a brand name for a material generically known as hard rubber, and is obtained via vulcanizing natural rubber for prolonged periods. Ebonite may contain from 25% to 80% sulfur and linseed oil. Its name comes from its intended use as an ...
bowling products, at the time the highest single deal of its kind.[ By that time, Carter was already grossing more than $100,000 a year ($957,000 in 2022 dollars) between bowling tournaments, exhibitions and other endorsements.][
Carter was the PBA's first president, and served four years overall in that capacity. Recurring knee problems forced him to retire from competitive bowling in 1972.][ Said Carter in a 1994 interview: "I didn't just want to go out there and show up. I wanted to win. If I couldn't win, I didn't want to compete. My knees made it so I couldn't practice and hardly could complete a tournament."][
]
Pre-PBA and Non-PBA individual titles
* 1953 BPAA All-Star
* 1954 BPAA All-Star
* 1957 BPAA All-Star
* 1957 World Invitational
* 1958 BPAA All-Star
* 1959 World Invitational
* 1960 World Invitational
* 1961 World Invitational
* 1962 World Invitational
PBA Tour titles
Major titles in bold type.
# 1960 Paramus Eastern PBA Open (Paramus, New Jersey
Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...
)
# 1960 First Annual PBA National Championship (Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
)
# 1961 ABC Masters (Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
)
# 1962 Houston PBA Open (Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
)
# 1962 Santa Fair PBA Open (Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
)
# 1962 Tucson PBA Open (Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
)
# 1962 Rochester PBA Open (Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
)
Personal life
Carter enlisted in the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
in 1944, and spent two years as a radarman in the South Pacific. He was a baseball player in high school, and played AAU baseball with the likes of Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher who later took on the roles of Manager (baseball), manager and Coach (baseball), coach. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball ...
and Joe Garagiola
Joseph Henry Garagiola Sr. (February 12, 1926 – March 23, 2016) was an American professional baseball catcher, later an announcer and television host, popular for his colorful personality.
Garagiola played nine seasons in Major League Basebal ...
.[ He signed a minor-league contract with the ]Philadelphia Athletics
The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...
in the fall of 1946. After one minor league season, he hung up his baseball spikes and returned to St. Louis to take a job at Golden Eagle Lanes. Working as an alley man, bartender and janitor, he bowled as often as he could during his time off.
In 1951 he was invited to bowl for the Pfeiffer Beer team in Detroit, where his bowling career reached high momentum.
Carter married professional bowler LaVerne Haverly (née Thompson) in 1953. The two divorced in 1964. His second marriage, to Pat Hardwick in 1966, ended in a 1972 divorce. In 1973 Carter married professional bowler Paula Sperber, who had won the 1971 U.S. Women's Open
The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, W ...
and had an outstanding pro bowling career. Carter's first and third wives, Haverly and Sperber, are both in the WIBC (now USBC) Hall of Fame. Don remained married to Paula until his death in 2012. For a few seasons, the PBA held a mixed doubles tournament called the ''Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles Championship''.
Beginning in 1978, Carter appeared in selected TV commercials for Miller Lite
Miller Lite is a 4.2% ABV light American lager beer sold by Molson Coors (previously MillerCoors) of Chicago, Illinois. The company also produces Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life. Miller Lite competes mainly with Anheuser-Busch's Bu ...
beer, which had begun using athletes and celebrities in its ad campaigns a few years prior.
Carter died on January 5, 2012, from complications of both emphysema
Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...
and pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
. He was 85. His first wife LaVerne would die only two months later.
Milestones and recognition
*Established a 234 league average in 1959, the highest that season in a sanctioned American Bowling Congress league
*Inducted into ABC Hall of Fame, 1970
*Inducted into PBA Hall of Fame, 1975 (inaugural member)
*In 1958, he wrote a book entitled "10 Secrets of Bowling" with the help of illustrator Anthony Ravielli.
*In 1975, he wrote another book entitled, "Bowling The Pro Way" in association with George Kenney and illustrated by Simon Pavkov.Don Carter stats
doncarter.com; retrieved June 25, 2013.
Carter was known for a number of bowling "firsts":
*First to record three All-Events totals of 1900 pins or higher at the ABC Open Championships (1951, 1952 and 1953)
*First to convert the sweepstakes spare on the ''Make That Spare
''Make That Spare'' is a fifteen-minute bowling program that was broadcast on ABC from October 8, 1960, to September 11, 1964.
Broadcast history
The series was hosted by the former actor and nightclub singer Johnny Johnston except in the 1961-19 ...
'' television show (1961), as well as the first to make the spare twice
*First bowler to crack the jackpot for six consecutive strikes on the ''Jackpot Bowling
''Jackpot Bowling'' (also known as ''Phillies Jackpot Bowling'' and ''Jackpot Bowling Starring Milton Berle'') was a professional bowling show on NBC from January 9, 1959, to March 13, 1961.
Broadcast history Short-form version
''Jackpot Bowling'' ...
'' television show
*First to bowl an 800 series on television (809 at the 1956 National Bowling Championships)
*First bowler to win every possible major tournament in his era (BPAA All-Star, World Invitational, PBA National Championship and ABC Masters)
*First president of the PBA
*First bowler to have a professional tournament named after him
*First athlete to sign a $1 million endorsement contract, inking a multi-year deal with Ebonite International
Ebonite International was a parent company that oversaw the manufacture of bowling balls and bowling equipment. Their headquarters and primary manufacturing facility was located in Hopkinsville, Kentucky before closing on November 15, 2019.
The m ...
in 1964
References
External links
Official web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Don
1926 births
2012 deaths
American ten-pin bowling players
Sportspeople from St. Louis
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors