Nelson "Bo" Burton Jr. (born June 5, 1942 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States) is a professional ten-pin bowler, PBA Hall of Famer, and former longtime analyst for the Professional Bowlers Tour on ABC Television. He is the son of Nelson Burton, Sr., who himself was a successful bowler in his day, competing with the likes of Glenn Allison and Billy Welu. Bo compiled 18 titles on the PBA Tour, including two major championships, and earned $763,782 (USD).
Burton won his first title in Louisville, Kentucky, on August 20, 1964, at age 22. He was the 1970 PBA Player of the Year, winning four titles and leading the tour in average. After a down year in 1971, Bo rebounded with three titles in the 1972 season. Burton won major titles at the 1976 ABC Masters and the 1978 BPAA U.S. Open. He twice finished runner-up in the PBA National Championship major (1966 and 1968).
Both Burton and his father are members of the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Hall of Fame. Burton Jr. is also a member of the PBA Hall of Fame, elected in 1979. His 18th and final PBA tour title came in 1984 at the AMF Angle Open held just outside his hometown of St. Louis. In that tournament, Burton set a record for a televised four-game pin total with a combined score of 1,050 (278-279-257-236), topping Larry Laub's then-record of 1,021 set in 1972. Burton's record stood until 1995 when it was broken by David Ozio with a score of 1,070. That record subsequently fell in 1996 when Bob Learn Jr. famously shot 300 in the opening TV match of the PBA Flagship Open in his hometown of Erie, PA en route to a now-record four-game total of 1,129. [1] Burton was ranked #15 on the PBA's 2008 list of "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years."
Major championships in bold text.
In 1975, Burton became the color analyst on ABC's Saturday afternoon telecast, The Pro Bowlers Tour , working with veteran sportscaster Chris Schenkel. He replaced Billy Welu, who had died the previous year. Only 33 at the time, Burton also continued to compete on the PBA Tour, vacating the broadcast booth if he made the TV finals of an event. (His broadcast backup on those occasions was usually Dick Weber or Dave Davis.) Burton spent nearly 23 years (1975 to 1997) with ABC. From 1978 to 1997, he hosted a bowling Tip Of The Week, usually after the second televised match. He and Schenkel were still working together when ABC ceased production of the series in June 1997.
After leaving ABC, Burton moved to ESPN and spent one year in 1998 providing analysis for select PBA broadcasts. He also was a commentator for the 1998 Women's College Bowling National Championship. He and former NBC bowling announcer Jay Randolph called the action on ESPN2.
Burton has also been involved with the Generations Bowling Tour, as both a competitor and color commentator on local telecasts.
In August 2007, Burton and Marshall Holman were the broadcasters for the 2007 U.S. Women's Open in Reno, Nevada on ESPN. The early rounds of the event were taped that month and aired every Sunday afternoon over the course of four weeks, starting Sept. 16. The live televised finals aired on Oct. 14, and Liz Johnson won the event. It was Bo's first national broadcasting work in nearly ten years. He also handled the broadcast of the 2008 U.S Women's Open, once again teaming with Holman.
Burton was the color analyst for the CBS telecast of the USBC "Clash of the Champions" that aired on May 10–11, 2008. He teamed with play-by-play man Bill Macatee and laneside reporter Lynn Swann. The broadcast marked bowling's return to network television for the first time since 1999 when CBS carried it.
Burton Jr. returned to the ABC broadcast booth for the 2011 PBA Tournament of Champions, the first ABC broadcast of a PBA event since 1997. [2]
Burton has resided in South Florida with his family since 2001. He has not bowled regularly on the PBA Tour since 1986.
Bo has also been involved in the Strike-a-Thon.
Bo's brother, Neil Burton, was also a professional bowler for a brief time. Neil won the 1980 ABC Masters, just four years after Bo had won it. [3]
Earl Roderick Anthony was an American professional bowler who amassed records of 43 titles and six Player of the Year awards on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. For over two decades, his career title count was listed as 41. The count was amended to 43 in 2008, when the PBA chose to retroactively award PBA titles for ABC Masters championships if won by a PBA member at the time. He is widely credited for having increased bowling's popularity in the United States. He was the first bowler to earn over $100,000 in a season (1975), and the first to reach $1,000,000 in lifetime PBA earnings (1982). His ten professional major titles—six PBA National Championships, two Firestone Tournament of Champions titles, and two ABC Masters titles—are the second most all time, tied with Pete Weber and five behind Jason Belmonte.
Christopher Eugene Schenkel was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and baritone voice.
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. A PBA rule change in 2008 retroactively awarded a PBA title to any Masters winners prior to 1998 who were PBA members at the time of the victory.
Lynda Barnes is one of the world's leading female tenpin bowlers. She is a former member of the PWBA. Bowling as an amateur, Lynda won the 1998 USBC Queens championship, then known as the WIBC Queens. In 1999, Lynda married Chris Barnes, a leading bowler on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tour. The couple's twin sons, Troy and Ryan, were born in May 2002. Ryan currently bowls for his father's alma mater, Wichita State University. Lynda is a former member of Team USA.
The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) organizes and oversees a series of annual tournaments for the top competitive women ten-pin bowlers. The series is often referred to as the "women's tour" of bowling.
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.
William Joseph Welu was an American professional bowler, executive for the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), bowling broadcaster, and ambassador for the sport. A founding member of the PBA in 1958, he won four PBA titles, including two USBC Masters championships. He was only the second bowler in history to successfully defend a United States Bowling Congress Masters title, winning the event in 1964 and 1965 to join Dick Hoover (1956–57). The feat was not matched again until Jason Belmonte won back-to-back Masters titles in 2013–14.
Marshall Holman is an American sports broadcaster and retired professional ten-pin bowler. He was known for his flamboyant, fiery demeanor and his success on the PBA Tour from the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s. He is one of only 17 players in history to reach at least 20 career PBA Tour titles. Holman was sponsored by Columbia 300 and Nike.
The U.S. Open is one of the five major tournaments in the Professional Bowlers Association. Despite its status as a PBA Tour major, the tournament is open to qualifying amateurs as well as PBA members. The U.S. Open is considered one of the most difficult tournaments to bowl in today, due to its long format and demanding oil pattern, which differs from most oil patterns the PBA employs.
The Professional Bowlers Tour, also known as Pro Bowlers Tour, is a broadcast of the Professional Bowlers Association that aired on ABC from 1962 to 1997. In the telecasts, sportscaster Chris Schenkel and the graphics displayed during the show would refer to the show as "The Professional Bowlers Tour", possibly to disambiguate from the NFL's use of the term "pro bowler" when referring to players who were selected for the Pro Bowl—an event also televised on ABC for many years.
Michael William Durbin is a retired American professional bowler and bowling broadcaster, and is a member of both the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) and United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Halls of Fame. Durbin won 14 PBA Tour titles in his career, including three major championships.
John Petraglia Sr. 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.
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Richard A. Ritger was a right-handed ten-pin bowler in the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), who spent his later years as a bowling instructor and proprietor of Dick Ritger's Bowling Camp. Known for his smooth stroker delivery, he is one of only 17 players in history to have won at least 20 career PBA Tour titles.
Dave Davis was an American professional ten-pin bowler who was a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). He grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and resided in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida in his later life before moving to Lake Placid, Florida. Davis is a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.
David Soutar is a retired professional ten-pin bowler who competed on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. He won 18 times on the regular PBA Tour, and seven more times on the PBA Senior Tour. Soutar was raised on the east side of Detroit, Michigan and is now a resident of Bradenton, Florida. He is a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.
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.
Bowling on CBS is the de facto title for CBS Sports' professional ten-pin bowling television coverage.
PBA on ESPN is the branding used for Professional Bowlers Association broadcasts on the ESPN cable television network. ESPN's relationship with bowling began in 1985, when the network aired the 12 Summer Tour events. By 2001, ESPN provided exclusive coverage of 20 regular-season events and four to six summer telecasts, all on Sundays or Tuesdays.