Bowling One-On-One with PBA Commissioner Tom Clark: We Create Dreams
The sport of bowling is as strong as it has ever been and is thriving across the nation and world. People of all ages and levels are embracing the sport and challenging themselves to be the best they can be. The bowling community worldwide is like a huge family always pulling for each other and sharing the knowledge.
The Professional Bowling Association is doing its part to help grow and spread the love and passion for the sport of bowling. It has a rich and exciting history and produces the highest level of bowling competition in the world. The PBA inspires bowlers to become the best they can be and to make dreams become a reality. The responsibility of promoting, growing, and protecting this great sport starts with leadership and the PBA is lucky to have such a leader who is also one of its biggest lifelong fans.
I had the opportunity to connect with the Commissioner of the PBA, Tom Clark, and I asked him about his bowling journey and his vision for the sport and the PBA.
I understand that bowling was a part of your youth growing up. As a young adult, you attended Buffalo State University where you received your bachelor’s degree in journalism. You chose Buffalo State specifically because it had a bowling program, and you became a member of the school’s bowling team and competed nationally.
Talk a little bit about the beginning of your bowling journey and how your relationship with bowling first began. I like to ask this question in my interviews because it helps to give readers a foundation of how bowling became a part of one’s life.
“The three biggest reasons bowling became part of my life at a very early age are, 1) my family, 2) where I grew up and, 3) the PBA.”
“Those three things are why I’ve loved bowling ever since I could walk. I was born in 1969 and raised in Syracuse, NY, which was a strong bowling hotbed throughout my youth.”
“My father has been a competitive bowler (200+ average) since the 1960s. He introduced me to the game, taught me how to bowl. I watched him bowl in his leagues, and my mother took me to tournaments and my leagues. The league that helped me appreciate what it takes to be a good bowler at an early age was our Junior Traveling League, because we would bowl in a different center every week, against the best junior players in the area.”
You grew up in a time and era of the PBA when distinct legends were competing, and new legends were being created. What are some of your memories of the PBA growing up?
“Saturday afternoons were not complete without the PBA on TV. Whether we were at my grandparent’s house, or at home, everything stopped when the Pro Bowlers Tour came on. Mark Roth, Marshall Holman, Earl Anthony, and other stars of the 70’s and 80’s were my idols, I emulated them, wanted to be like them and while I was an avid sports fan for baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, tennis, and football, I loved PBA bowling the most.”
You’ve been the PBA Commissioner since 2011. Over the years, you’ve focused a lot on bringing more media attention to the sport. In 2018, you helped orchestrate the transition of the PBA television media rights from ESPN to FOX. You’ve expanded to include such events like the PBA Elite League, which has expanded further this year with the addition of more match rounds including stops at multiple cities across the nation. You partnered with the World Bowling Tour and brought PBA Tournaments to live stream for non-attendees worldwide to enjoy which helps keep the bowling community close to the sport and tournament action.
It’s evident that you’re making the most of your position as PBA Commissioner and really helping the PBA and the sport in general grow and prosper. It’s a huge responsibility. Talk about what it means to you personally having such an important and positive impact and influence on the survival and overall growth of the Professional Bowling Association and the sport of bowling.
“Thank you, and it’s become my mission in life, to try and get as many people as possible, to appreciate, respect and enjoy watching professional bowling as much as I do. With the added hope and goal that it inspires more people to go bowling, take up the sport seriously, and have it become an essential, healthy, valuable, uplifting part of their lives as it has been for me.”
The technology side of the game continues to evolve rapidly; from technical advances in equipment to software that instantly captures, tracks, and shares personal scores with other bowlers around the world, to name just a few. There’s also the important element of protecting the integrity and history of the game. You spend quite a bit of time making sure the legends of the game are involved and recognized as they are the ones that set the path in the first place. Please share your high-level vision for the sport of bowling ahead, the PBA and of protecting the great tradition of the game.
“Serving our most valuable business partners and investors, and our players and membership, are essential for us to continue creating history. Enhanced, of course, by the precious history and traditions we already have, which many competing sports do not.”
“Key to those pillars for our success, is focusing on the top group of people to grow: The fans. Without fans, there is no professional sport. Without fans, there is nothing. So, we focus on the fans, in person, online, in the game, on TV, and their loyalty and passion will help our business partners and players.”
“But at the heart of it all, is simply the game. We have to love and grow bowling, protect it, balance interests and continue providing a playing field that inspires greatness.”
“Fans want to see greatness, and we want to give it to them, as we have for 65+ years.
“As technology and society evolve, often the next steps are unpredictable, so we remain flexible, nimble, and ready. Whether it’s more competitive events for players of all skill levels like our new PBA LBC program has rolled out, or PBA Jr. development, or sports wagering as it continues to become widely acceptable, or new ways to package PBA content to bring fans along. We’ve always been in front of trends on things like celebrity participation, live and archived streaming content, and enhancing our telecasts with information such as FOX StrikeTrack.”
“Sometimes, there is compromise, to find the balance between business interests and the purity of the sport in order to thrive. But to me, the PBA is the most important brand in our industry, we set the tone, we create dreams and keep the flame of passion for the sport alive. It’s a responsibility I do not take lightly.”
Thank you, Tom, for taking time from your busy schedule to share some of your insights and thoughts about the exciting times today in the sport of bowling as well as the future of the PBA. Your continued commitment, dedication, and efforts to support and promote this great sport every day is greatly valued, respected, and appreciated by the bowling community worldwide. Keep up the good work!
“Thank you for your interest and passion for the sport. Good luck to your web site Bowling One-On-One, all your followers, and I hope to meet you out on the lanes sometime soon.”
*Image Credits: PBA, USBC, FOX and Tom Clark
