Published: November 25, 2009 10:41 pm      

PRO BOWLING: Lockport’s Brad Angelo among 63 TofC bowlers

Field for 2010 Tournament of Champions is announced by PBA

LOCKPORT — Lockport’s Brad Angelo is among 63 of the world’s greatest bowlers who will compete Jan. 19-24 in the 2010 Professional Bowlers Association’s prestigious Tournament of Champions.

Angelo, a PBA champion and former Rookie of the Year, joins PBA greats that include Walter Ray Williams Jr., Norm Duke and Pete Weber at Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas.

Last year, Angelo penned a weekly column in the US&J about life on the PBA Tour.

Among others on the 63-player field announced Monday by the PBA are Kelly Kulick, who made PBA history in 2006 as the first woman to earn a full-season exemption to bowl on the PBA Tour.

Kulick will make history as the first woman to compete in the event. She won the inaugural PBA Women’s World Championship in August during the PBA World Series of Bowling.

Another trend-setter in the field is Jason Belmonte of Australia, who will be the first two-handed player to compete in the event after winning last season’s Bowling Foundation Long Island Classic in West Babylon, N.Y.

At age 50, Williams Jr., the Tour’s all-time win leader with 46 titles, will again try for his first Tournament of Champions title. The Tournament of Champions is the last jewel Williams needs to complete the PBA’s Triple Crown, Grand Slam and Super Slam.

Others in the field are Jack Jurek of Lackawanna, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., Joe Ciccone of Buffalo and Johnny Petraglia of Jackson, N.J.

The second major championship on the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour schedule, the Tournament of Champions is open exclusively to PBA Tour exempt-player champions, winners of the most recent PBA Regional Championship and Regional Players Invitational, the United States Bowling Congress Masters winner, the USBC Senior Masters, PBA Senior U.S. Open and PBA Senior World Championship winners; past tournament winners, PBA Hall of Famers and the PBA Women’s World Championship titlist.

Fifty-nine players have been assured spots in the tournament with the Regional Players Invitational representative to be determined at the RPI Championship Dec. 15-17 in Reno, Nev.

If there are new PBA Tour champions in the events leading up to the Tournament of Champions, the players “on the bubble” who would be eliminated in order are Bob Learn Jr., Kurt Pilon and Dave Arnold.

If any spots in the field are vacant, PBA Tour champions not currently on the exempt Tour list will be eligible in order of the most recent title winners.

In all, 13 past Tournament of Champions winners, 16 PBA Hall of Famers and 19 members of the PBA 50 greatest players of all-time list are scheduled to compete.

The first Tournament of Champions was conducted in 1962 in Indianapolis. The event was not conducted in 1963 and ’64 but moved to Akron, Ohio, in 1965 where it was conducted until 1994. Since then, it has been conducted in various locations.

The stepladder finals will be telecast live by ESPN at 1 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 24.