I idolized him after his 299 game in Hawaii in '74....ringing 9 on last ball....and I'm a righty....

You bet.....greatest of all time, and the most class too!

@@Jointlock Even Walter Ray agrees. Earl got his Championships in a shorter time span. Yes simply the greatest!

@@johngates450 Also was the analyst on NBCs coverage on the PBA Fall Touted

The 3-bar sweeps were my favorite of all time. I actually have one in my basement, the local mechanic here saved me one as all the AMF places switched to those large opaque plastic ones.

Around 1976, he started letting his hair grow out. In 1978, he started wearing the modernized eyeglasses and nicer attire. The "transformation" was complete by early-1978.

@@jayjarnold And then, after his heart attack in, I wanna say, 1980 or so (I forget exactly when that was), he lost a considerable amount of weight and then the transformation really was complete. And I think that brush with death also loosened him up and he started showing his sense of humor more and more.

Throughout his 35-year tenure as the main play-by-play announcer on ABC's Pro Bowlers Tour, Chris Schenkel would occasionally be sent off "on assignment," whether for an Olympics telecast that ABC was doing, or for some other sporting event. There was even a time or two when he got snowed in at an airport somewhere and was unable to get to the destination city from which the bowling telecast was originating. In those cases, ABC had a few different "regular fill-in" announcers they would use. In the mid '60s thru the mid '70s, that man was Bud Palmer, who, frankly, was my favorite (maybe even more so than Schenkel). Then, they severed ties with Palmer and Dave Diles was the go-to guy whenever ABC needed a fill-in for Schenkel. He's the one you hear on this telecast. Once when ABC was in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for the Quaker State Open, they called on WFAA-TV's sports anchor Verne Lundquist, who also moonlighted as one of ABC's college football play-by-play announcers during the Fall. Al Michaels of Monday (and now Sunday) Night Football fame was also in ABC's stable of sports announcers and was called on at least once or twice to fill in for Schenkel when he was unavailable. There was even one occasion (and this telecast is on KZfaq, but for the life of me, I can't recall which show it was) that Bo Burton did the show alone, handling both the play-by-play duties AND color commentary. And while I always thought Bo was not the most skilled broadcaster I've ever heard, he not only did a credible job that day, but I thought he sounded great. He really rose to the occasion on that one unusual telecast. Chris Schenkel was the main play-by-play voice of bowling on ABC for so long, it's easy to think that he was on ALL their telecasts. But as you have correctly picked out, there were some telecasts where he wasn't there. Quite a few, actually. I'd say in the 35 years Pro Bowlers Tour was a Saturday afternoon staple in the Winter (and later in the Spring) months, there were usually at least a couple of shows each year (and sometimes more) when Schenkel was "on assignment" or for some other reason, just couldn't be there. But if you count up all those absences, I think Bud Palmer probably took his place in about half of them or more. Dave Diles probably filled in the second most often. Followed by Al Michaels. And I can only recall Verne Lundquist doing it once. Billy Welu was the original color commentator. Upon Welu's death after the 1974 Winter Tour, ABC spent the next year using a variety of different color commentators, ostensibly doing a series of on-air auditions. They decided on Burton to take the role permanently, and he joined Schenkel in the booth regularly starting in '76. Whenever Bo would make the stepladder finals (which always seemed to happen about once a year or so), Dick Weber would fill in. Not a bad back-up guy.

BrownswickBowling Oh ok, I thought it may have been a contract dispute or something. I think Diles and Schenkel sound very similar IMO!

@@ProdigyBowlersTour Be careful what you ask,the answer might be longer than War and Peace

That was meant for diverging,just kidding Brunswick, I appreciate your thoroughness, very informative

Chris Schenkel was their main announcer for non heavyweight boxing. There was a lot more boxing on TV in 70’s and 80’s, and many times they would have a live match on Wide World of Sports. Dave Diles also was the sports director at WXYZ-TV Detroit, and would do stuff for ABC on weekends.

They all wore the black patches that day because Dick Battista, former PBA player (and the color commentator on some early Championship Bowling episodes) had died that week.