Hold on, Mika, you're no. 2 - News, Notes & Quotes - Mika Koivuniemi not first foreign-born winner of U.S. Open bowling competition - Brief Article

Bowling Digest, June, 2002 by John J. Archibald

WHEN FINLAND'S MIKA Koivuniemi captured the U.S. Open last December, he was thought to be the first foreign-born winner of that tournament. Not so. Andy Varipapa, best known for his trick shots, won the national individual match-game championship--then known as the All-Star--in 1946 and 1947. Varipapa was born in Carfizzi, Italy, in 1891.

After emigrating to America as a young man, Varipapa played semipro baseball until suffering a broken leg. Then he took up bowling and wound up in the ABC Hall of Fame. He died in 1984.