From pigskins to tenpins: for this multiple titlist, one missed football practice led to a lifetime of bowling success - Then & now: Ted Hannahs

Bowling Digest, Oct, 2003 by Dick Denny

THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, when Ted Hannahs was nine and a big kid for his age, the Zanesville, Ohio, native made a spur-of-the-moment decision that changed his life forever.

"It's funny how bowling became my passion," Hannahs says. Funny indeed, considering a sport that was first an afterthought for him led to a resume that includes an ABC championship and an ABC runner-up finish, three PBA titles, 18 PBA regional victories, two ABC/Brunswick World Team Challenge Grand Championships, a second in the ABC Masters, a third in the PBA Tournament of Champions, and a fourth in the BPAA U.S. Open.

Football was No. 1 for Hannahs, who started playing at age eight. But he became disillusioned with the sport early in his second season.

"The coach wasn't too happy after we lost a game during the weekend, and he told us that Monday would be a tough practice and we'd run a lot," says Hannahs, who is a robust 6'2" and 210 pounds. "My dad Ernie and older brother Gary were going bowling that Monday afternoon, and I asked them, 'Can I join you?' They said, 'Sure, come along.'

"I didn't know what I was doing, but I fell in love with bowling. I didn't go to football practice that day. I played a little more, but soon quit [football]. Dad was a self-taught bowler, and Gary is better than a 200-average bowler. Dad tried to convince me football was not the way to go. I absolutely made the right decision. Dad taught me the fundamentals of bowling, and Gary told me about the modern game."

In the fall of 1966, at about the same time he dropped football, Hannahs joined his first bowling league. By his senior year at Zanesville High School, he led the state of Ohio in junior league competition with an average of 210.

"My dad was good at getting me into competition," Hannahs says. "I bowled Saturday morning and afternoon in Zanesville, and on Sunday I went to Columbus, Ohio, to bowl in a doubles league. About 40 kids tried out and 16 qualified. Steve Phillips and I bowled a 569 game. Steve shot 300, and I had 269. Steve, at that time, was the youngest to bowl 300 in Columbus.

"We had 1,485 for our series, which was the third highest in the nation for adults that season--and we were both 15. Anytime you're a kid and you get a story with pictures in the AJBC [American Junior Bowling Congress, forerunner to the Young American Bowling Alliance] magazine, it's a big thrill."

Hannahs' sports interests weren't directed only to bowling as a teenager. He also was a promising baseball pitcher. After graduating from Zanesville High, Hannahs enrolled at Ohio State. He intended to try out for the Buckeyes baseball team as a walk-on, but the plan went awry when the coach said he couldn't wait until January for Hannahs to try out.

"I had problems with my feet," Hannahs says. "I had jungle rot [a skin disease] at 16 and couldn't walk for two weeks. When the coach said he wanted me to try out right away, I realized how much time baseball would take, so I decided to stick to bowling.

"Those nine months at Ohio State were the worst of my life. I didn't have a major, and I didn't study well. I realized I was not the college type, so I went back home and started to work and bowl on weekends."

Hannahs took a job delivering tobacco, candy, and sundry other items to country stores. He did that five days a week for two and a half years. In addition to weekend bowling, Hannahs competed once a month in Ohio Tournament Bowlers Association events.

It wasn't long before he was averaging 220 and getting encouragement to consider a pro career. Says Hannahs, "Jay Young, who was on tour at the time, said, 'You should go on tour. The way you release the ball is perfect.'"

Hannahs got his first taste of tour life in the late '70s, when he qualified for a PBA tournament in Cleveland as an amateur in three different years. In the last of those three tournaments, Hannahs received a valuable lesson on the rigors of the tour.

"I was in ninth place with eight games to go in match play, and my thumb was ripped to pieces," he says. "Nothing ever hurt so much. One guy said I could glue it together. I was so naive I took everyone's advice at face value. I finished 21st, but those three tournaments gave me a sense that maybe I could do it on tour."

The year 1980 was pivotal in Hannahs' bowling career. His grandfather had worked for the post office for 35 years, and Hannahs thought he might follow in his footsteps. "I took some tests, and I had the job as a mail carrier if I wanted it," he says. "But I didn't want to go through life wondering if I should have tried the pro tour, so I joined the PBA and bowled in three 1980 events. I finished ninth at Syracuse in the next-to-last tournament of the year and had a 300 game. That gave me confidence,"

Bowling in three tournaments that fall likely cost Hannahs a PBA Rookie of the Year award. If he had bowled in only two events, he would have been considered a rookie in 1981, his first full season on tour. Mark Fahy was voted PBA Rookie of the Year in 1981, even though he didn't win a tournament or finish in the top 50 on the money list. Hannahs won his first PBA title at Waukegan, Ill., that year, beating Tommy Hudson in the championship match, and he placed 26th on the money list with $40,140. Those credentials would have earned him Rookie of the Year if he had been eligible.