For one year only, NBL rolled with it
08:07 PM CDT on Saturday, September 26, 2009
The National Bowling League lasted only one season after kicking off in Dallas in the spring of 1960, but the memories resonate, and for good reason.
As John Fulgaro relates it in National Bowling League: One Year Wonders, 1961-1962, it's hard not to love a league where:
• Blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield cut the ribbon for the Bronco Bowl, built expressly for the Dallas Broncos by the team's owner, J. Curtis Sanford, who'd founded the Cotton Bowl a quarter-century earlier.
• Fans hassled players while they bowled, stomping and heckling and shooting cap guns.
• Officials awarded then-vice president Lyndon Johnson a lifetime pass to see the San Antonio Cavaliers, who never played a single home match.
• The Minnesota Vikings changed their name to Twin Cities Skippers after the NFL expansion team stole their name.
• Fort Worth's owner offered half interest in a goat ranch to the game's biggest name, Don Carter, who somehow resisted.
The league's initial draft may have been its signature event. Held in Omaha to stock the NBL's original 12 teams, it lasted two days, taxing scouting reports and Miami's owner, who at one point in the marathon announced, "Miami, with its 16th-round selection, chooses this nice young man who has been handling the mike for us. I don't know his name, but they tell me he can average 200."
Fifteen picks later, Dallas selected Mickey Mantle. With no goat ranches in the offing, he remained with the Yankees.
Fulgaro's book is a little sloppy in places. In Dallas' case, he gets its Hunts mixed up. He also couldn't tell Mansfield from a common TV actress. But the book has its charms, nonetheless. One of its best interview subjects is the Broncos' star, Carmen Salvino, later one of the PBA Hall of Fame's eight original inductees. Salvino loved the old NBL but admits it occasionally tried his patience, once leading him to fight a fan who had taunted Salvino's wife.
"They were told to be crazy like wild people," he said of the fans, "and that's how they were."
Wild or not, there weren't enough of them. Players, either. Even before the Detroit Thunderbirds won the NBL trophy over the Skippers, bowlers bailed. Dallas players even sued their owner, Sanford, not that anyone got rich.
Without a television contract, which went to the individual-driven Professional Bowlers Association, the NBL was doomed and forgotten, at least until Fulgaro resuscitated the memories.
Still, he missed this bit of trivia: One of the original Dallas Broncos was Eddie Brickell, whose daughter headlined Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. In her father's heyday, they'd have drafted her.
• On most career moves, replacing a legend is not recommended. Fortunately for Dave Tippett, Wayne Gretzky only made magic with a stick in his hand, not in a suit. Tippett won't face the same pressure he did with the Stars, where missing the playoffs for the first time in six years got him fired. He fancies himself a builder, as most purists do. They don't always make good finishers.
• Roy Williams' considerable blocking skills go back to his days at Texas, when Vince Young took over at quarterback. When I once asked Williams what the difference was for him personally when VY played, he smiled. "I run my route," he said, "and then I start to block."
• NBA's most snake-bit team has to be the Rockets, who can't keep Tracy McGrady healthy, and now Yao Ming says he'll definitely miss this season with his bum foot.
• If the Eagles' Donovan McNabb is out Sunday and Kevin Kolb struggles against the Chiefs, here's betting Michael Vick gets more than a few wildcat plays. He can make things happen with his feet, and the Eagles can't let this season slip away.
• Early prediction for Rangers rotation starting next season: Kevin Millwood , Scott Feldman, Tommy Hunter, Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz. Of course, that leaves Brandon McCarthy and Matt Harrison without a chair, not to mention Ben Sheets, Eric Hurley, Dustin Nippert, etc. But the back end of the rotation is likely to remain fluid, too.
• Lack of leadership seems to be a common theme on Dallas sports scene. Best leader among four pro teams? Undoubtedly, the Stars' gritty Brenden Morrow. No. 2? Marlon Byrd, and he may not even be a Ranger after next month.
• South Carolina's 16-10 upset of fourth-ranked Ole Miss smacks of an old complaint about Houston Nutt: wins big games; loses ones he shouldn't. Also makes you wonder if Steve Spurrier started setting this up weeks ago, when he voted Jevan Snead his preseason All-SEC QB before changing to Tim Tebow.
• The Gregory-Portland ISD has dedicated Ray Akins Wildcat Stadium in honor of the former high school coach, father of Texas QB Marty Akins and grandfather of the Saints' Drew Brees. Nice blood lines.
• Among the 22 football players named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team for charitable work and volunteerism in the community: Tarleton State defensive lineman Jacob Rowe, a junior out of Alvarado.
• Every year, I've tried the latest fried fad at the Fair. This time, think I'll pass on the fried butter. Maybe an extra corn dog instead.
• Former DMN sportswriter Gary Myers comes out Tuesday with The Catch, a look back at the Cowboys' 1982 NFC Championship Game loss to the 49ers and the impact it had on the NFL as well as the lives of the players involved. Poignant material on Drew Pearson and Charlie Waters, in particular.