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© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2002
Sixty years ago, John Ruggiero Jr., was piloting a B-25 Mitchell bomber above the southwest Pacific, toting bombs.
Twenty years later, Ruggiero was selected captain of the Stroh's Beer Brewery Traveling Bowling Team in Detroit.
"When I got out of the service, I wanted to see if I could make it in bowling," Ruggiero said. "I thought I had a knack for the game and, turns out, I did."
Ruggiero recently moved from West Palm Beach to Oldsmar, where he set up more than 200 trophies in his new home.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, a number of breweries fielded very competitive bowling squads -- Budweiser of St. Louis, Hamm's of Chicago and a dozen others. For 11 years as captain, Ruggiero traveled across the country staging more than 140 exhibitions and matches a year.
"There used to be about 600 breweries in this country and it seemed every one of them had a bowling team," Ruggiero said. "And we'd set up exhibitions with them and with the local hotshots wherever we traveled."
When Ruggiero took over, the Stroh's team included Mike Samardzija, Junior Donoso, Bob Crawford, Dale Seavoy and Mike Totsky with Irv Jaffee as its manager. The breweries picked up all expenses, including salaries and per diem, during the 43-week traveling season.
"The breweries spent a lot of money on us and Stroh's was very strict about our appearance, our behavior and our games," Ruggiero said. "They supplied the uniforms and our managers traveled along to make sure everything went right."
When Ruggiero left the Air Force, he returned to his hometown of Fairmont, W.Va., but didn't remain there long.
"I won just about every tournament in the state and became the youngest (28) elected president of the West Virginia men's association. So, I decided to move to that bowling hotbed of Detroit and things went uphill from there."
Ruggiero's bowling career actually started in 1951 and includes years of solid accomplishments. He won numerous team, doubles and singles events, some of them semi-pro, and competed in the ABC Championships Tournament. He partnered with Bradenton PBA Hall of Famer Dave Soutar in doubles events and also rolled with other greats of the game.
Highlight's of Ruggiero's career include 23 sanctioned 700 series in one season, a 299 game across 12 lanes, 19 300 games and an average of 200 or better for 20 consecutive seasons. He also captured a score of Detroit city championships. Halls of Fame in West Virginia and Michigan welcomed him.
Ruggiero ended his career with Stroh's after 11 years.
"It just got to be too much of a physical grind and this old body couldn't take it anymore," he said. "I bowled in a couple of ABC tournaments and went to Billings this year but just as a sub and didn't bowl."
WIBC FINALE: Pro player Wendy Macpherson and her High Roller team from Cherry Hill, N.J., led a record charge as the WIBC Championship Tournament ended last week in Milwaukee.
Macpherson and her teammates rolled a record 3,327 to win the Classic Division team title, including a record team game of 1,208.
Australia's Cara Honeychurch, also from the women's pro tour, shattered the Classic Division all-events mark with a nine-game 2,150.
Fargo Sports of East Moline, Ill., broke the Division 1 team record with a 3,000 pinfall. Tosca Cobbien and Zelma Barnes of Euclid, Ohio, won the division's doubles with a record 1,284 total.
Division 3 records were the Elkhorn Inn team's 2,503 total and Carmen Lipscomb and Rhonda Berry's 1,119 in doubles. Grace Krump, 71, Kent, Minn., rolled a record 665 series and toppled 1,630 pins for the singles and all-events titles. She entered the tournament with a 149 average.
More than 42,000 players competed for $1.4-million in prize money in the three-month event.
ZONE SET: Liberty Lanes will host the Florida West Zone Conference's mixed team and mixed doubles event July 13-14 and 20-21. Entry fees for the handicap event open to ABC and WIBC players are $20 per person. The West Zone includes centers in Pinellas and Pasco counties.
For information, contact tournament director John Spicer at (727) 724-9015 or john.spicer@verizon.net.
AROUND THE LANES: Chris Holly rolled a 300-820 and Ted Banderman recorded a 300-746 at Dunedin Lanes. ... Tom Palmer nailed a 300-709 and Chris Springstead fired a 300-703 at Seminole Lanes. ... Michael Swinden rolled a 300 game at Liberty Lanes. ... Jack Sorrentino won the no-tap tournament at Southland Lanes. ... Rick Langton, a Seminole High grad and former PBA player, announced his candidacy for the State House of Representatives. ... The No Excuses team won the Champion of Champions league winners' tournament Sunday at Liberty Lanes with a 3,618 pinfall.
-- Phil Gulick can be reached at xerxes8@msn.com.