George Branham III

Last updated
George Branham III
Born (1962-11-21) November 21, 1962 (age 60)
Detroit
Years active1983-2003
Bowling Information
Affiliation PBA
Rookie year1986
Dominant handRight (cranker delivery)
Wins5 PBA Tour (1 major)
300-games 23

George Branham III (born November 21, 1962) is a professional ten-pin bowler and former member of the Professional Bowlers Association (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 African American to win a PBA tour title and later became the first to win a major championship, which he accomplished at the 1993 Tournament of Champions. He had been the only African American to win a PBA Tour title until Gary Faulkner Jr. won the PBA World Championship in December, 2015. [1]

Contents

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. [2] His first success came on November 22, 1986, at the Brunswick Memorial World open in Chicago, Illinois, where he defeated Mark Roth 195–191 and earned a purse of $33,260. [3] His next title came at the 1987 AC-Delco Classic, where he climbed from the #5 seed and had to defeat two future PBA Hall of Famers (Mike Aulby and Norm Duke) before defeating Steve Wunderlich 225–182 in the championship match for the $27,000 winner's share. [4] 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, where he faced Doug Kent. 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. He finally returned to the winner's circle in 1993 at the Baltimore Open, crediting the victory over Brian Voss to a tip from then-tour roommate Randy Pedersen. [5]

The Baltimore Open title re-qualified Branham for the 1993 Firestone Tournament of Champions in Fairlawn, Ohio, and he took full advantage. This annual invitational tournament is considered by PBA insiders to be the most prestigious of all PBA majors, because the starting field includes only PBA title winners. Branham secured the top seed in qualifying, and his victory over Parker Bohn III in the title match by a score of 227–214 [6] earned him a $60,000 first prize. [7]

Following this tournament, Branham only won one more title in 1996 before his retirement at the end of the 2003 season. He finished his PBA career with five national titles. His total PBA Tour earnings topped out at $747,138. [5] Branham recorded a total of 23 perfect 300 games in PBA events, including back-to-back 300 games during qualifying at the 1995 Peoria Open.[ citation needed ]

PBA Titles

Major championships in bold.

YearTitle
1986Brunswick Memorial World Open
1987AC-Delco Classic
1993Baltimore Open
1993Firestone Tournament of Champions
1996Cleveland Open

Personal life

Though Branham was born in Detroit, he grew up in Southern California with his two older sisters and one younger brother. [8] After retiring, George began a new career in sales with Pepsi in Indianapolis, where he now lives.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norm Duke</span> American professional bowler

Norm Duke is an American professional bowler who previously competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour and now competes on the PBA50 Tour. He has won 40 titles on the PBA Tour, including seven major championships, and another six titles on the PBA50 Tour. A member of both the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame, Duke is one of only three players in history to reach 40 career PBA Tour titles. He has bowled 73 perfect 300 games in PBA competition, including the 16th televised 300 game in PBA Tour history on January 5, 2003. Duke is a member of the Storm pro staff.

The PBA Tournament of Champions is one of the five major PBA bowling events. It is an invitational event and the only PBA Tour major that does not have any open field. All participants must meet qualifications to be invited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic Barrett</span>

Dominic Simon Barrett is one of England's leading ten-pin bowlers. He competes in world events and on the PBA Tour, where he has won ten titles. This total includes three PBA major titles: the PBA World Championship (2013), the U.S. Open (2018) and the Tournament of Champions (2022), which makes him one of nine triple crown winners in PBA history and the first European player to accomplish the feat. He has been the ranking winner on the European Bowling Tour (EBT) in three seasons and is also the only player to have been named as ‘World Bowling Writers’ bowler of the year three consecutive times. He is nicknamed "The Dominator".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Barnes (bowler)</span> American professional bowler (born 1970)

Chris Barnes is an American professional bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), who currently competes on both the PBA Tour and PBA50 Tour. He has also competed internationally as a member of Team USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Belmonte</span> Australian professional ten-pin bowler

Jason Belmonte is an Australian professional ten-pin bowler. He plays on the PBA Tour in the United States and in world events. He is known for being one of the first bowlers to gain media attention for using the two-handed approach style to deliver his shot. He has won 31 PBA titles, including a record 15 major championships; he is only one of eight bowlers in PBA tour history to achieve 30 wins, making him the only 30-time winner in PBA Tour history who is not currently a member of the PBA Hall of Fame. He is one of two bowlers in PBA history to have won the Super Slam, winning all five PBA major titles. He is the all-time leader in both USBC Masters and PBA Tournament of Champions titles, winning each event four times. He is also the only three-time winner of the PBA Players Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mika Koivuniemi</span>

Mika Juhani Koivuniemi is a Finnish bowling coach and semi-retired professional ten-pin bowler. He competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour in the United States, and won bowling titles in 21 different countries during his career. He is a two-time PBA Player of the Year, one of only three players born outside the USA to win that award. Koivuniemi is the second international player and first European ever elected to the PBA Hall of Fame; he was inducted in 2019. He is also a member of the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame and Finland Bowling Hall of Fame.

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 professionals, a small percentage of the bowling membership competes at the national and international level, forming the PBA Tour. Founded in 1958, the PBA Tour has been in continuous operation since the inaugural 1959 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parker Bohn III</span>

Parker Morse Bohn III is a left-handed American professional ten-pin 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 eight players in PBA history to accumulate at least 30 career PBA Tour titles, currently ranking fifth all-time with 35. He has ten more titles on the PBA50 Tour. He is a two-time PBA Player of the Year and has one a PBA50 Player of the Year award (2022). Bohn has also earned 27 PBA Regional Tour titles, nine PBA50 Regional titles, and two European Bowling Tour (EBT) titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randy Pedersen</span>

Randy Pedersen is an American sportscaster and former professional bowler. He is currently a color analyst for Fox Sports' coverage of the PBA Tour, formerly filling that same role on ESPN and CBS Sports Network telecasts of the PBA Tour in previous seasons. During the most recent season, he worked alongside play-by-play announcers Rob Stone and Dave Ryan, having previously worked with Dave LaMont, Lon McEachern and Mike Jakubowski. Pedersen grew up in Southern California, but relocated to Clermont, Florida in the early 1990s. He has resided in Florida ever since. He and his ex-wife Becky have two children: a son, Chad and a daughter, Savannah.

Mike Aulby 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. He is also the first player in history to complete a career "Super Slam", in which a bowler wins all five PBA Tour major tournaments at least once. He has since been joined in this exclusive club by Jason Belmonte. Aulby owns 29 career PBA Tour titles, currently 9th place all-time, with eight major titles among these wins. He is a member of both the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.

Doug Kent is a right-handed American professional ten-pin bowler, a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), and a PBA and USBC Hall of Famer. In the 2006–07 season, Kent became just the sixth bowler in PBA history to win two major championships in one tour year as he captured titles in the USBC Masters and Denny's PBA World Championship. For his efforts, he was voted the Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year and received a four-year exemption for PBA Tour events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Rash</span> American ten-pin bowler

Sean Rash is an American ten-pin bowler who is considered one of the top players on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. He currently owns 17 PBA Tour titles, including two major championships, and was the 2011–12 PBA Player of the Year. Rash has rolled two of his 30 career PBA perfect 300 games on television, making him the first player in history with multiple perfect games in the TV finals of a PBA Tour event. Canadian François Lavoie and American Chris Via, and Australian Jason Belmonte have since joined Rash in this exclusive club. Sean also owns ten PBA Regional Tour titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Fagan</span> American professional bowler

Michael Todd Fagan is an American former professional bowler on the PBA Tour. He has also participated in World Bowling Tour (WBT) and European Bowling Tour (EBT) events, and as a member of Team USA in international competitions. Known for his high backswing, he was given the nickname "King of Swing". He has a high RPM rate, but also has a smooth release, so his style can be classified as either a cranker or a power stroker.

Kamron Doyle is an American ten-pin bowler from Brentwood, Tennessee.

This is a recap of the 2010–11 season for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. It was the Tour's 52nd season and consisted of 12 title events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Ciminelli</span>

Ryan Ciminelli is a left-handed ten-pin bowler originally from Cheektowaga, New York. Since 2007, he has competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. Ciminelli has won eight PBA Tour titles, including one major championship, in addition to 13 PBA Regional Tour titles. He has earned over $700,000 on Tour through the 2020 season, and has rolled 15 perfect 300 games in PBA competition. Ciminelli was runner-up for PBA Player of the Year in the 2015 season. He was given the nickname "The Ryan Express" in the 2012 Tournament of Champions TV introductions, while his DV8 bio listed the nickname "Hit Man".

This is a recap of the 1993 season for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. It was the tour's 35th season, and consisted of 35 events.

The 56th season of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour was played in 2015. There were 27 singles title events, three doubles title events, and two team events on the 2015 schedule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. J. Tackett</span> Professional ten-pin bowler

Edward Dean Tackett Jr. is an American professional ten-pin bowler from Huntington, Indiana, now residing in Bluffton, Indiana. A member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2012, Tackett has won 21 PBA Tour titles, including four major championships, and is one of nine professional bowlers that have completed the PBA Triple Crown. He was named PBA Player of the Year for the 2016 season, and was runner-up for the award in 2017 and 2018. Tackett is right-handed and uses a cranker-style delivery. He has been called a "unicorn" in the sport, because of his ability to use a one-handed, thumb-in delivery to achieve RPM rates comparable to most two-handed bowlers.

Gary Faulkner Jr. 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.

References

  1. ↑ Vint, Bill (December 17, 2015). "Memphis' Gary Faulkner Jr. Wins First Title in Rolltech PBA World Championship". Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  2. ↑ Crowe, Jerry (November 23, 1986). "Branham 1st Black to Win a PBA Title". Los Angeles Times .
  3. ↑ "Black Bowler Wins". The New York Times . Associated Press. November 23, 1986.
  4. ↑ "1987 AC Delco Classic (YouTube video)". youtube.com. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Winters, Jill (February 15, 2021). "Bowling's First Black PBA Champion George Branham III Was 'A Natural'". flobowling.com. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Bowling in 1993". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  7. ↑ Anderson, Kelli (May 3, 1993). "George Branham III". Sports Illustrated . Vol. 78, no. 17. p. 58.
  8. ↑ "Breakthrough in Bowling". Ebony . Vol. 42, no. 5. March 1987. pp. 142–4. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.