Johnny Petraglia

John Petraglia Sr. (born March 3, 1947) is an American professional bowler. He is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), where he won 14 PBA Tour titles. He has also won eight PBA Senior Tour titles. He is a member of both the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.

Bowling career

Petraglia joined the PBA in 1965, and won his first tour title at Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1966 when he was just 19 years old. A week later, Petraglia left the PBA Tour to join the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He served as an Army Specialist 5 in Long Binh and Bien Hoa from 1967 to 1968.

His best season as a pro came in 1971, when he won five titles in all. That year included consecutive wins in the last three tournaments of the winter season—culminated by a major championship in the Firestone Tournament of Champions. Petraglia remains the only PBA bowler to win three consecutive televised tournaments. Petraglia would win two more majors: the 1977 BPAA U.S. Open and 1980 PBA National Championship, making him at the time only the second player to earn the PBA career "triple crown", following Billy Hardwick. Since then, six other players (Mike Aulby, Pete Weber, Norm Duke, Chris Barnes, Jason Belmonte, and Dom Barrett) have also achieved the triple crown. The 1980 event featured one of the more dramatic final matches in major tournament history, as Petraglia rolled four consecutive strikes in the 9th and 10th frames to secure the victory over Gary Dickinson.

At the PBA National Championship 1994, the 47-year-old Petraglia rolled the PBA's seventh televised perfect 300 game to defeat Walter Ray Williams Jr., 300–194, in the semifinal match. He did not, however, go on to win the title match that followed. Through 2021, Petraglia remains the oldest player to score 300 in a televised PBA Tour event.

Petraglia is one of only two bowlers (joining Dick Weber) to win at least one regular or Senior PBA Tour title in six different decades. However, Weber's final title was in a PBA Regional event. After his victory in the PBA Senior Dayton Classic on May 17, 2012, Petraglia is the only bowler in history to win a ''national'' PBA Tour title in six different decades.

In 2010, Petraglia won the Dick Weber Bowling Ambassador Award, an honor given annually by the Bowling Proprietors Association of America (BPAA) to the "bowling athlete who has consistently shown grace on and off the lanes by promoting the sport of bowling in a positive manner."

In the qualifying rounds of the 2018 PBA Tournament of Champions, Petraglia announced his retirement from the PBA Tour. However, he is still a brand ambassador for Brunswick and occasionally competes in the PBA50 Tour (formerly PBA Senior Tour).

PBA Tour titles

Major championships in bold type.
# 1966 Fort Smith Open (Fort Smith, Arkansas)
# 1970 Bellows-Valvair Open (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
# 1971 Winston-Salem Classic (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
# 1971 Fair Lanes Open (Springfield, Virginia)
# 1971 Don Carter Classic (New Orleans, Louisiana

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