Steve Cook (born January 13, 1957) is an American retired left-handed
ten-pin bowler and 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 was known as the largest physical specimen on the PBA Tour, standing at 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 meters) tall, and weighing in around 260 pounds (~120 kilograms). He was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 1993, and was ranked #25 on the PBA's 2008 list of "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years." In 2014, Steve was elected to the
USBC Hall of Fame for Superior Performance.
Cook won his first
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 ...
title at the age of 22 in the 1979 Ford Open, and finished with 15 titles in his career. Among the titles were major championships at the 1981
Firestone Tournament of Champions, the 1983
Touring Players Championship, and the 1986
U.S. Open (one of four total titles he earned in 1986 alone). Cook's final PBA Tour title was earned at the 1992 Cleveland Open. He cashed more than $800,000 during his PBA career.
[Hall of Fame player bios at www.pba.com]
PBA Tour titles
Major championships are in bold text.
# 1979 Ford Open (
Alameda, California
Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...
)
# 1980 US Polychemical Open (
Fresno, California
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...
)
# 1981 Firestone Tournament of Champions (
Akron, Ohio
Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...
)
# 1981 Kessler Classic (
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
)
# 1982 Long Island Open (
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census.
The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...
)
# 1982 Kessler Open (
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
)
# 1983 Touring Players Championship (
Limerick, Pennsylvania
Limerick Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States.
History
The township was named for the hometown of early settler William Evans, whose family arrived in the area from Limerick, Ireland in 1698. The township is ...
)
# 1985 Showboat Doubles Classic w/Mike Aulby (
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
)
# 1986 BPAA U.S. Open (
Venice, Florida
Venice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. The city includes what locals call "Venice Island", a portion of the mainland that is accessed via bridges over the artificially created Intracoastal Waterway. The city is located in Sou ...
)
# 1986 Greater Hartford Open (
Windsor Locks, Connecticut
Windsor Locks is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 12,613. It is the site of Bradley International Airport, which serves the Greater Hartford-Springfield region and occupies approxim ...
)
# 1986 Showboat Doubles Classic w/Mike Aulby (Las Vegas, Nevada)
# 1986 Austin Open (
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
)
# 1988 A&W Pro Bowlers Classic (
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
)
# 1989 Showboat Doubles Classic w/Mike Aulby (Las Vegas, Nevada)
# 1992 Cleveland Open (
Parma Heights, Ohio
Parma Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States and a western suburb of Cleveland. Parma Heights is surrounded on the north, east and south by the larger city of Parma, Ohio, Parma. The cities of Brook Park a ...
)
Personal
Cook is the brother-in-law of fellow PBA Hall of Fame bowler
Mike Aulby
Mike Aulby (born March 25, 1960, in Indianapolis, Indiana) is a left-handed bowler and former member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). He is one of only five PBA bowlers to win both a Rookie and Player of the Year award. ( Tommy Jones ...
.
Cook and Aulby were three-time winners of the PBA's Showboat Doubles Classic. After retiring from competition, Steve developed his own eponymous bowling supply business.
Since 2016, he became the owner/proprietor of Steve Cook's Fireside Lanes, a 32-lane bowling center in Citrus Heights, CA located just outside Sacramento, CA
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Steve
American ten-pin bowling players
1957 births
Living people
People from Granite Bay, California