MIAMI — Don Carter, the bowling great with the unorthodox style who flourished as a genuine sports celebrity during the game’s golden age on TV, has died. He was 85.
Carter died at his home Thursday night, the Professional Bowlers Association said Friday. He recently was hospitalized with pneumonia complicated by emphysema. Carter, known as “Mr. Bowling,” was the game’s original superstar. He became his sport’s most recognizable name at a time when alleys were thriving across the country and bowling was starting to assert itself as a fixture on television. Carter was a leading force in the formation of the PBA in 1958 and became a charter member of the PBA Hall of Fame in 1975.
Carter ruled the lanes with the likes of Dick Weber, Ray Bluth, Pat Patterson, Carmen Salvino and Billy Welu. But Carter was clearly at another level. His name might not cast quite the light as such contemporary sports luminaries as Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas or Arnold Palmer, but it was close.
“Don was the greatest bowler of his era,” Bluth said. “There was no one like him.”
He also did something that no one in baseball, football or golf ever did. He became the first athlete in American sports history to sign a $1 million marketing endorsement contract, with bowling ball manufacturer Ebonite in 1964.
