New York Times - November 18, 2013
Billy Hardwick, Hall of Fame Bowler, Dies at 72
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
Billy Hardwick, the first bowler to win all three of the most prestigious Professional Bowlers Association tournaments, or the triple crown, died on Saturday near his home in Bradenton, Fla. He was 72.
The cause was a heart attack, his daughter, Kelly Frasure, said.
A dashing figure on the lanes who stood just over 6 feet tall and weighed 155 pounds, Hardwick overcame a rare form of arthritis, which plagued him from the age of 10, and a junior high school accident that mangled his ring finger, to compete against greats like Don Carter and Dick Weber.
He won 18 P.B.A. tour titles, including the three major tournaments that make up the triple crown: the P.B.A. National, in 1963; the Tournament of Champions, in 1965; and the Bowling Proprietors Association of America All-Star (now called the United States Open), in 1969.
In 1969 alone, he won seven tournaments, earning $64,160 (about $409,000 in today’s dollars), almost $20,000 more than the next highest-earning bowler in the P.B.A. He was voted player of the year in 1963 and 1969 and inducted into the P.B.A. Hall of Fame in 1977.
Hardwick bowled right-handed with a fluid style, far smoother than many of today’s power players, and the path his ball followed in the lane was different from those of most right-handed bowlers, giving him a competitive advantage.
“The left-handed bowlers on the tour were winning about 60 percent of the money even though they represented only about 18 percent of the bowlers,” Hardwick told Dave Anderson of The New York Times in 1974. “The reason was that the lane for the left-handers was truer because it wasn’t worn down like it was on the side for the right-handers. But my style of bowling was to get outside the track used by most of the other right-handed bowlers and create my own angle.”
His approach hurt him, however, when the P.B.A. began lacquering and oiling lanes to compensate for the advantage that left-handed players held.
“Because of my style, it affected me more than it did other guys,” Hardwick said. “It’s like if they put golf tournaments on shorter courses, it would affect Jack Nicklaus more than the other guys, because his extra distance wouldn’t mean as much.”
Still, Hardwick won another P.B.A. tournament in 1976, his final season. Only five other bowlers have won the triple crown.
William Bruce Hardwick was born to Mary, a factory worker, and Hubert Hardwick, a painter, in Florence, Ala., on July 25, 1941. He grew up in San Mateo, Calif., and first started bowling, he said, because he wanted to beat his peers at Hillsdale High School in a sport.
He started on the professional tour in 1962, winning four titles in his second year, when he was named the player of the year. In 1969, he was the rare bowler to appear in a mass-market television advertisement, for Miller High Life beer.
After retiring, Hardwick owned a bowling alley, Billy Hardwick’s All Star Lanes, in Memphis, where he also had a home.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Rebecca; another daughter, Jamie Howell; two sons, Eddie and Chris, a comedian and talk show host of the late-night AMC talk shows “Talking Dead” and “Talking Bad” and the Comedy Central show “@Midnight”; a brother, Michael; two sisters, Liz Lange and Nancy Appelbaum; and eight grandchildren. Two sons, William and Joseph, died as infants.
