Page 30 - BCM May 2024

HONORS

‘Just Make Sure legend. He put a dollar down, then
paid o the balance with a 20-year
mortgage. e monthly payments
They Have Fun’ were “based on the business [the
owner] was doing. And I made the
business run much better.”
Using telephone solicitors long
Al Blough’s simple success secret led to a long before the practice became de
career and election to the BPAA Hall of Fame. rigueur, “we’d capture names and
we hired people to call them and
invite them in.” It wasn’t unusual
BY DENNIS BERGENDORF for people to “bring a friend” to try
to knock down the pins, and if the
l Blough went from a 22-year- guests didn’t know how, there were
A old college graduate who had nearly constant learn-to-bowl classes
never thrown a bowling ball to being available.
the recipient of the Victor Lerner “We’d teach them how to bowl and
Memorial Medal, an odyssey that then they were more than happy to
took 64 years and was lled with join a league,” Blough noted.
highs and lows — mainly highs. And Blough made sure there were
e Lerner Medal is the BPAA’s top plenty of leagues from which to
honor and recognizes a proprietor choose.
for a lifetime of service to the bowling “I put a league in everywhere I
industry. It includes induction into could get it… double shifts each
the BPAA Hall of Fame and a per- night, with ve people on a team.
manent place on the walls of BPAA at’s just what you did,” he said,
headquarters and within the walls of Al Blough matter-of-factly.
the International Bowling Museum He reluctantly adopted the then-
and Hall of Fame in Arlington, Texas. ment that may have been salvage- new practice of letting league bowlers
Blough, never one to toot his own able. bowl free all summer.
horn, accepted the news with typical Blough got his start in 1958, just “ at was a good promotion,” he
humility. after graduating from the private conceded.
“It was a big surprise to me,” he Juniata College. His father Henry and By then he was active in BPAA, and
said. “I’m thrilled for that to happen two partners put him in their Colo- he got on the League Development
to me. I never expected anything like nial Hills Bowling Center as manager, Committee.
this. My thoughts were, ‘Oh, I didn’t even though he was not a bowler. But “Everybody had di erent ideas,
feel that I deserved that.’ On the that quickly changed. and we put together an enormous
other hand, I met the criteria for it.” “I was working at a bowling alley book with all kinds of promotions to
Indeed, he does. At the peak, as manager, so I had plenty of time to get people to bowl leagues — every
Blough owned ve bowling centers. learn to bowl. I had lots of people to possible idea for a promotion that
ey were fun places, busy and teach me,” he said. you could want,” he recalled.
vibrant, with strong league bases and Teaching bowling became the Asked about the oddest league he
waiting lists for open bowling on the foundation of his decades-long pulled from the book, he pondered
weekends. bowling career. the question for a moment and then
Well, all but one… Stingray Lanes, “Teach bowling. Teach bowling. said, “ e tattoo league.”
the hard-luck 10-laner on Grand Build your customers,” he empha- Bowlers, it seemed, just had to
Caiman Island that was walloped rst sized. It’s a philosophy that led to have tattoos, and “it went wild.”
by 911’s decimation of tourism and his managing ve centers. “ at was Dozens of artfully adorned folks were
then by one of the most ferocious before cell phones and fax machines. on the lanes and having a good time.
hurricanes in Caribbean history. I had to drive around to pick up the ey also consumed their share
“When the hurricane hit, we didn’t paperwork from all ve. In nine of alcohol, which was exactly the
have enough insurance to rebuild,” years, I learned how to run centers.” purpose of the Rum Bucket loop.
Blough said, so in 2004, he and In 1967, he purchased his own “We had hundreds of teams that
partner Pat Ciniello “called it a day,” establishment, Garden Spot Bowl, in came out for it,” Blough said.
not even retrieving any capital equip- a move that became something of a And let’s not forget the Lousy

28 • BCM • MAY 2024 www.bcmmag.com

028,030_LernerAward_0524.indd 28 4/15/24 7:49 PM