Firsts, latest and greatest: Looking back, ahead as Erie bowlers hit lanes for 60th Times-News Open

The annual Times-News Open Bowling Tournament, which has been known throughout the years as Erie’s most prestigious bowling event, will hit a milestone this month as it reaches its 60th year.

The landscape of the tournament has changed quite a bit since it originated in 1964, but what hasn’t changed is skill level and intense competition as the bowlers try to prove they are among Erie’s best of the best.

Last year's T-N Open: Mike Machuga's Times-News Open reign continues

This year’s tournament, which will consist of 160 bowlers, commences with the 10-game qualifier at Eastland Bowl on Saturday and Sunday and continues with the six-game semifinals on Jan. 21 at Lake City Lanes. The 16-bowler, 16-game match-play finals take place on Jan. 28 at Greengarden Lanes and Jan. 29 at Westway Lanes.

Here are some things to know about the Times-News Open tournaments of the past and present:

The early years

The tournament director of the Times-News Open during its inaugural event in 1964 was Dom Colelli. Colelli was the first of just four directors during the tournament’s 60 years, according to the event's annual yearbook at tnopen.org. Ray Calabrese then directed the tournament from 1968-81, followed by Rick Klapthor in 1982. Current director Dave Hewett took over in 1983, and the 2023 tournament marks Hewett’s 41st consecutive year as director.

The first event in 1964 featured a points system for the finals, where points were earned for winning a match and for every 10 pins over 200. Matches were two games, and there were a total of 48 games in the event. Tom Hickey won the tournament with 46 points and a 15-9 match-play record to become the first-ever T-N Open champion. Hickey also won in 1968.

Some of the early events took place at lanes no longer in existence, including the Coliseum Lanes at West 15th and State streets; Berry’s Auditorium at 1026 French St.; Frontier Lanes on West Eighth Street and Greengarden Boulevard, and Lakewood Lanes at West 12th Street and Marshall Drive.

The later years

Defending champion Mike Machuga is the only bowler to win the tournament four consecutive years, having won in 2019, ’20, ’21 and ’22. Two others have achieved three-peats, Mike Shady (2002, ’03, ’04) and Lee Eighmy Jr. (2015, ’16, ’17).

No bowler has gone undefeated in the match-play finals; the closest was Machuga going 14-1-1 while winning the championship in 2022.

No bowler won the qualifying championship and overall championship in the same year until pro bowler Ron Palombi Jr. won his first title in 1983. Palombi went on to win the championship six times, which stood as a record until Eighmy won his eighth championship in 2017.

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There have been 33 300 games in the finals. Palombi has the most with eight, followed by Eighmy with four, Cory Bithell with three, and Machuga, Shady and Killian Kilpatrick with two each.

Since going to a 16-game match-play finals format in 1989, the highest total score in the finals is 4,618 by Shady in 2014, when he won his sixth championship. Shady’s total included 30 bonus pins for a win in match play, where he went 14-3. Two positional rounds were played at the end of match play rather than the usual one that year and a semifinal round was added as part of the T-N Open’s 50th anniversary celebration.

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Amazing feats

Arguably the tournament’s most amazing feats were accomplished by Buddy Malone and his son, Pat Malone. Buddy Malone participated in 51 consecutive Times-News Opens, beginning with the first tournament in 1964 and continuing through 2014, while Pat Malone won the championship in five consecutive decades, winning in 1979, 1981, 1990, 2005 and 2011. Pat Malone died in 2021.

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Another amazing feat took place in 2013 when Mike Shady and Mike Machuga, facing each other in the first game of the match-play finals at Eastland Bowl, each bowled 300. Shady went on to win the championship while Machuga finished third.

Also amazing was Ben DeSantis bowling consecutive games of 300, 299 and 297 for a three-game series of 896 in the qualifier of the 2006 tournament at Lake City Lanes.

60th tournament: Notables missing, young talent entered

Eight-time champion Eighmy has not entered this year’s tournament, nor has Kilpatrick, the runner-up the past three years.

Entering the Times-News Open for the first time is 14-year-old phenom Taylor Kretz. Kretz, who bowls two-handed, is a freshman on the McDowell bowling team and has had monumental achievements both on the local and national level since taking up bowling in 2020 at age 12. In 2021, Kretz was a member of a team that won the national title in the U-15 National Youth Team Championship in Smyrna, Tennessee, and in December she bowled a school and Metro League record 768 series for the McDowell team.

“Taylor has a unique talent, and has come a long way in little time,” said former PBA Tour bowler Mike Shady, who coaches Kretz. “She’s very strong, very athletic, and she’s one of the few female two-handers that do it at a high level.”

Freshman phenom: McDowell bowler Taylor Kretz uses alternate approach to set Metro League marks

Shady’s son, Austin Shady, has entered for the first time.

A void will be felt in this year’s tournament with the recent death of two-time champion Ray Sheridan. Sheridan, who died on Oct. 30 at age 85, won the tournament in 1971 and 1972, and was a longtime score collector on the tournament committee. He was inducted into the Northwest Pennsylvania Bowling Hall of Fame in 1987 and was the first bowler to achieve back-to-back T-N Open championships.

Raymond Sheridan:Sept. 17, 1937-Oct. 30, 2022

“I watched Ray win his first championship in 1971, and it was so exciting,” Hewett said. “That’s what got me interested in the Times-News Open.”

Another notable death from the Times-News Open scene was Ben DeSantis, who died on Nov. 19 at age 50. DeSantis participated in 29 Times-News Opens, with his highest finish eighth place in 2006, the year that he bowled consecutive games of 300, 299 and 297 in the qualifier.

60th annual Times-News Open

• Qualifier: Saturday and Sunday, Eastland Bowl, 9 a.m., 2 p.m. each day. (Saturday: Squad A at 9 a.m., Squad B at 2 p.m.; Sunday: Squad B at 9 a.m., Squad A at 2 p.m.)

• Semifinals: Jan. 21, Lake City Lanes, 1 p.m.

• Finals: Jan. 28, Greengarden Lanes, noon; Jan. 29, Westway Lanes, noon.

• Entrants: 160 maximum (10 pair with 8 in a pair, 20 lanes).

• Format: qualifying round: 10 games (5 Saturday, 5 Sunday), top 32 advance to semifinals; semifinal round: 6 games, top 16 advance to finals; finals: 16 games total, consisting of 8 head-to-head matches on Jan. 28 and 7 head-to-head matches plus one positional round on Jan. 29. Total of 32 games.

• Prize: $1,500 first place, based on 160 entrants; all bowlers reaching semifinal round will cash, with various special prizes according to positioning; prize ratio approximately 1 in 5.

• Sanctioned: USBC.

• Former champions entered: Mike Shady (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2013, 2014); Mike Machuga (1997, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022); Ross Caruana Jr. (1985); T.J. Mitchell (2018).

• 2022 champion: Mike Machuga (4,295).

• 2022 qualifying champion: Mike Machuga (3,731).

• Tournament staff: director, Dave Hewett (41th year); assistant director, Tim Nick; treasurer, Dale Uplinger; computer operations, Brett Rearick; committee, Elaine Hewett, Bob Montgomery, Mike Duke, Keith Reed.

• Online: tnopen.org, or on Facebook under Times-News Open

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Bowling tournament: Erie PA Times-News Open reaches 60th anniversary