Brian Voss of Kennesaw, GA, is a professional ten-pin bowler and member of the Professional Bowlers Association since 1982. The right-hander currently owns 24 PBA titles (10th all-time). He was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 1994 and the USBC Hall of Fame in 2007.
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Early years
Born August 4, 1958, Brian Voss grew up in Anchorage, Alaska (USA), where his father took ownership of a bowling center when Brian was 6. As he said in a 2002 interview, "Bowling has been part of my life for as long as I can remember."[1] After his family moved to Colorado, Voss struggled to pay for college while working at a bowling center, before deciding to enlist in the U.S. Army. He served two years as an Army electronics technician in the Seattle, WA area, where he also had the opportunity to participate in intramural bowling and refine his game.
PBA career
Voss won his first PBA tour title in 1983. It was an unusual title match, with Voss and challenger Pete McCordic tying after the standard 10 frames with an unusually low score of 176; Voss took the championship in an extra 9th/10th frame roll-off. The 1980s saw him win his only major title, the 1988 PBA National Championship. Also in 1988, he earned a then-record $225,485 and was named PBA Player of the Year.
Voss enjoyed his best career stretch from 1987-1998, winning at least one title in 12 straight seasons — four short of the record 16 seasons now held by Walter Ray Williams, Jr. He suffered a broken wrist at the beginning of the 1999 season, and the streak ended. He has collected over $2.3 million in career PBA earnings, and currently stands fifth all-time in that category.
He was known for exceptional versatility, being able to bowl well on multiple oil patterns. According to pba.com, Voss was "a threat to win any event in which he entered."
Personal
Early in his career, Voss developed a sort of "playboy" reputation because of his poster-boy good looks. In fact, he became a devout family man. Unlike most bowlers, who stay on the road between stops of the grueling PBA tour, Brian routinely flew home to his wife and two sons in the Atlanta area, even if only for a couple of days.
Awards and Recognition
- PBA Player of the Year (1988)
- Harry Smith PBA Point Leader award (1987, 1988)
- Inducted into PBA Hall of Fame, 1994
- Inducted into USBC Hall of Fame, 2007
- Was ranked #13 on the PBA's 2008 list of "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years"
References
- ^ "The Natural", an interview with Brian Voss in Bowling Digest, February, 2002.
Other Sources
- Hall of Fame bios at www.pba.com, official site of the Professional Bowlers Association
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