Angling to make more Canadian history: Bill Rowe Jr. has won international medals by the boatload, but that elusive first PBA title is what motivates him today - Then & now: Bill Rowe Jr

Bowling Digest, Dec, 2002 by Dick Denny

Rowe kept hearing from colleagues who said, "You've gotta go to the States." So at 17, he joined the PBA. "I bowled regional tournaments for about a year and cashed a couple of times. In the fall of 1983, I went to a PBA school at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis. I entered about four tour events, including Indianapolis and Syracuse. I didn't have much success.

"A year later, when I was 19, a gentleman came up to me and said, `I'd like to put you on tour.' I went out again, but I still did not possess the knowledge I needed. I was totally depressed and said, `Screw this. I'm done.' I put all my bowling balls in the closet and didn't throw a ball for a year and a half."

But the urge to bowl hit Rowe again when he was watching the PBA tour one Saturday afternoon. He went to his closet and picked up a ball, then went bowling later in the day and shot 700 for three games. His career picked up steam from that day forward.

In 1987, Doug Heim was recruiting bowlers for a team that was going to the ABC National Tournament in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Craig Woodhouse--who was Canada's male Bowler of the Year and a singles gold-medal winner in the FIQ American Zone Championships at Wichita, Kan., in 1989--knew about Rowe's promise and told Heim he ought to add Bill to his team.

"With that tournament, I started to bowl with the big boys," Rowe says. "I bowled decently, and from that point on it was kind of like I was accepted."

Shortly after that ABC Tournament, Rowe's career really took off--thanks in part to Woodhouse, who was instrumental in his technical development and mental maturation. "Craig was one of the most successful Canadian bowlers in the '80s," Rowe says. "He really helped my game. He taught me how to play lanes and get the knowledge I needed so badly. We would practice together from 4 to 6 p.m., five days a week at the center my dad managed in Grimsby.

"It was a small center, just 16 lanes. It had no lane machine. I had to do the lanes by hand and I got very creative, making them easy, then tough."

Woodhouse coached the Team Canada men's team for six years. In that time, Rowe says, Woodhouse coached him to almost every one of his major accomplishments.

In the 1995 FIQ World Championships at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Rowe earned a silver medal in singles (friend Marc Doi, also of Canada, claimed the gold medal). Also in 1995, Rowe won a gold medal in singles at the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires. "I've believed in everything Craig's said, and I respect his advice," Rowe says.

The year 1995 brought Rowe even more glory. As Canadian national champion, he represented his country in the international qualifier at the PBA Brunswick World Tournament of Champions in Lake Zurich, Ill.

"I won the qualifier, and I cashed in the tournament," Rowe says. "I really felt good when they presented me with a trophy for winning the qualifier. It was crystal and only a little smaller than the crystal trophy they gave to Mike Aulby, who won the tournament.

"I roomed that week with Pat Healey, who was still an amateur then. He finished second in the international qualifier and placed third in the tournament finals. I also remember Pete Weber high-riving me for my showing in the qualifier, and that made me feel good."