Taking a whirlwind tour: broadcasting the PWBA, overseeing amateur competition, or rolling a few frames herself—bowling's foremost female voice has seen it all

Bowling Digest, Summer, 2004 by Dick Denny

JAN SCHMIDT HAS TOUCHED many bases in her 45 years. Besides being an accomplished bowler and ESPN broadcaster, the former PWBA marketing director has won several softball championships as a left fielder and shortstop, been a quarterback and free safety in women's two-hand touch football, played the French horn in her high school band, participated in rollerskating free dance, worked for the government while a high school senior, and claimed two WIBC championships (the Queens in 1993 and classic singles in 1997).

All of these ventures have prepared Schmidt well for what might be her most formidable career assignment yet, as director of tournaments and marketing for the WIBC, a job she took in August after PWBA founder John Sommer indicated he would no longer put money into the women's professional bowling tour.

"WIBC is very pleased to have such an accomplished WIBC bowler and marketing professional join our staff," WIBC executive director Roseann Kuhn said in announcing Schmidt's appointment. "Her experience with the PWBA will be a great building block for the success we anticipate she will have while enhancing our tournaments."

Schmidt, who spends two days a week working out of her home in Rochelle, Ill., and three days a week at WIBC headquarters in Greendale, Wis., says she's looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that being with WIBC offers: "It's so exciting to continue to work within the sport I love, developing new marketing and sponsorship programs for the oldest and largest women's sports membership organization in the world."

Schmidt, who grew up in Westmont, Ill., with an older sister and younger brother, began the journey to Greendale at the age of nine when her parents took her bowling for the first time. It wasn't a staris-in-the-making debut. "My parents teased me about keeping me out of the bowling center, because I apparently lofted the ball a long way down the lane," Schmidt says with a laugh.

Once she entered the junior ranks at Suburban Bowl in Downers Grove, Ill., however, Schmidt began to learn the game quickly. Two years ago she went back to Suburban Bowl to do a Beat-the-Champs telecast. While there she had a conversation with Grace Schram, who ran the junior leagues at the center.

"It was nice to see Grace again, and it was fun talking to her about junior bowling," Schmidt says.

Bowling was only one of several athletic interests for Schmidt as a youth. She played 16-inch softball in which "you didn't use a glove." When Jan reached Downers Grove South High School, she played 10-, 11-, and 12-inch intramural softball.

"I played seven years of football in a women's football league in Downers Grove, and I did all right," Schmidt says "I also was in pairs dance in rollerskating, and I was a pretty good floor guard at a roller rink in Westmont. If somebody fell, I would guard against anybody hitting them. It didn't happen very often. Working as a floor guard was fun."

As a high school senior, Schmidt took a class in which she got credit while working part-time for the United States Energy Research and Development Administration in the security division, which required clearance from the FBI. It was good hands-on training for someone so young. After graduation from high school, Schmidt remained with the USERDA for a year before taking a job with the Johnson Wax Co.

"I was with Johnson Wax 11 years," Schmidt says. "I was in Oak Brook, Ill., for seven years and spent four years in the Racine, Wis., headquarters for the company. I was a credit adjustment analyst. In that capacity I had a lot of negotiating training, which helped me with the PWBA and I hope does the same thing with the WIBC. Johnson also sent me to school at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis."

One of the perks Schmidt had at Johnson's was that the company allowed her to bowl whenever she could, which wasn't often. She did make a connection with Lisa Vint, a former PWBA touring player who now runs Windy City Bowling News in East Troy, Wis., and is executive director of the Mid-America Bowling Writers (Schmidt is MABW president). They were longtime teammates in the Chicago area and it was Vint who encouraged Schmidt to enter her first PWBA tournament as an amateur in 1986.

"Jan and I go waaaay back," Vint says. "She and I bowled in the same league in suburban Chicago [at the Broadview center] and were teammates in another league for probably 10 years [Northwest Suburban Ladies Triples at Fair Lanes/AMF Rolling Meadows] even after I got married, left my job with Citibank in downtown Chicago, moved to Rockford, Ill., and went out on tour full-time. She moved to Rochelle [30 minutes south of Rockford] when she left S.C. Johnson and went out on tour, and I moved to Wisconsin and left the tour."

Vint recalled an amusing story of the day she and Schmidt were doubles partners in the Chicago Women's Bowling Association City Tournament.

"It was a late squad on a Saturday or Sunday night at Marzano's Clearing Bowl near Midway Airport," Vint says. "The place would vibrate when a plane took off or landed. I don't think the lanes had been conditioned since early that morning, and we both shot around 450. She still managed to be inducted into the Chicago WBA Hall of Fame. I'm still waiting [Schmidt also is in the Illinois WBA Hall of Fame]."