George Branham III (born November 21, 1962) is a professional

ten-pin 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 ...

bowler and former 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). He began his career in 1984 and retired at the end of the 2003 season. His career is most noted because he was the first

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to win a PBA tour title as well as win the Tournament of Champions. He had been the only African American to win a PBA Tour title until

Gary Faulkner Jr. Gary Faulkner Jr. (born October 18, 1990) is an American ten-pin bowler from Memphis, Tennessee. He competes on the PBA Tour after having been a member of Junior Team USA. He won his first major PBA title in 2015. Background Faulkner grew up ...

won the

PBA World Championship The PBA World Championship is one of five major PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) bowling events. It is one of three PBA Tour major events that are open only to PBA members. (The U.S. Open and USBC Masters allow qualifying amateurs to enter.) ...

in December, 2015.

Bowling career

Branham started bowling at the young age of six when his father introduced the sport to him. His first real accomplishment as a bowler came when he won the Southern California Junior Bowler of the year tournament in 1983. The following year in 1984 Branham joined the PBA tour where he was runner-up in rookie of the year voting. His first success came on November 22, 1986, at the Brunswick Memorial World open in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

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, where he defeated

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195–191 and earned a purse of $33,260. Branham set a PBA record by winning his first eight TV finals matches, which still stands today. After a four-year stretch of little success, Branham found himself in the final match at the 1991

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 ...

, where he faced

Doug Kent Doug Kent (born February 9, 1967) is a right-handed American professional ten-pin bowler, a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), and a PBA and United States Bowling Congress, USBC Hall of Famer. In the PBA Bowling Tour: 2006–07 ...

. The match ended in a 236–236 tie, sending it to a 9th/10th frame roll-off. Branham managed just 28 pins in the roll-off, to Kent's 50 pins, and had to settle for second place. Branham would redeem himself at the 29th annual Firestone Tournament of Champions in

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. His victory at the Baltimore Open in 1993 qualified him to participate in this annual invitational tournament, considered by PBA insiders to be the most prestigious of all PBA majors because the starting field includes only title winners. Branham's victory over

Parker Bohn III Parker Morse Bohn III (born July 13, 1963) is a left-handed American professional bowler. He has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 1984, and is a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame. Bohn is one of only eigh ...

with a score of 227–214 earned him a $60,000 first prize. This helped Branham reach a career high $107,000 in earnings that season. Not only was this the last time the tournament would be sponsored by Firestone, but Branham became the first and only (as of 2021) African American to win the Tournament of Champions. Following this tournament, Branham only won one more title in 1996 before his retirement at the end of the 2003 season. He finished his career with five titles in the PBA. His total

PBA Tour The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Regional profess ...

earnings topped out at $747,138, and throughout his career Branham recorded a total of 23 perfect 300 games in PBA events.

PBA Titles

Personal life

Though Branham was born in Detroit, he grew up in Southern

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with his two older sisters and one younger brother. After retiring, George began a new career in sales with Pepsi in Indianapolis, where he now lives.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Branham, George, Iii 1962 births Living people African-American sportsmen American ten-pin bowling players Sportspeople from California Sportspeople from Detroit Sportspeople from Indianapolis 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople