Just chatting with a PBA bowler

When the message came from high school classmate Charlie Holm, I was surprised to say the least. Charlie had recently come into contact with a professional athlete at a golf course near Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The man who excelled at golf, but made his living bowling on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour said he would be willing to do a phone interview with me. Charlie wanted to know if I was interested.I must admit I was a little leery at first. Interviewing a professional athlete had not appeared on my resume. Would I be up to the task? Eventually I decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Charlie gave me a phone number, I dialed it and if you want to know what I was doing last Tuesday afternoon, well the title of this column will give you a clue.The phone call started with a disclaimer on my part. Letting the man know that I was an amateur writer and that he would not stand to gain much by answering my questions, I gave him the chance to back out before even starting. Much to my delight E. J. Tackett graciously allowed me to ask anything I wanted. He was pleasant, forthright and our conversation lasted the better part of an hour.Here then is what we talked about.It started with his name. When one goes by their initials inquiring minds want to know what they stand for. This was simple. Tackett was named for his father Eddie and thus was a Junior. His parents started calling him E. J. at birth. Like I said, a simple explanation.His nickname was a little more complicated. It's Squirrel and the explanation he gave me was interesting. Apparently when a tour bowler starts throwing a lot of strikes, his fellow competitors refer to him as having the nuts.Now this was a phrase I had never heard of and as I thought back to my career as a league bowler I could not recall anyone ever saying that to me. Perhaps it was because no one knew the term, or more likely, because I never threw enough strikes to warrant the plaudit!On the morning after E. J. had a particular good day on the lanes, a fellow pro walked up to him and said "good morning Squirrel." Tackett reacted with a what are you talking about look and the guy said, you have the nuts. E. J. then explained that he might have contributed to the nickname gathering steam by using it himself at a tournament in Portland, Maine. At that house if a bowler recorded a perfect game he got his name on a brick in the wall. The only requirement was he had to use a nickname rather than his given name, so he suggested they use Squirrel.These days if you ask any tour member who the Squirrel is, they will know.After solving the initials and the nickname conundrum, I wanted to know how E. J. got started in the sport and when he first dreamed of becoming a pro. I also wanted to know at what point he realized he had a future in the professional ranks. Again his response was both obvious and unexpected.Tackett's father owned (and still does) a bowling establishment. The elder Eddie had bowled in regional PBA events and was an avid golfer. According to E. J. he had either a bowling ball or a golf club in his hand from the time he started walking. OK, the start question was answered.As for dreaming about bowling as a profession, well that never really happened. It seems that E. J. was more interested in being on the links than being on the lanes. It was while he was in college playing on the golf team that he came to the realization that he was not good enough to play golf professionally.So he turned his attention to bowling and the rest, as they say, is history. Within months he became a full time member of the PBA Tour and to say he has been successful would be a huge understatement.Charlie told me that E. J. would not be available until Tuesday because he was bowling in a tournament in Puyallup, Washington over the weekend. That set my mind to thinking about how he gets to the various tournaments that he enters. Travel costs were on my mind.I asked him how he normally arrives at tournament locations. Typically he would drive to tournaments. For the one in Washington he flew. He gave two reasons for preferring to drive his own vehicle. One was that he could transport more bowling balls driving than he could if he flew. For example, he took just six balls with him on his flight this past week.By driving he could load up the car with many more bowling balls. Yes I did ask him how many bowling balls he owns and the number (I'll let you know eventually) will likely astound you. He also confided to me that there were tax write offs for driving. He is aware of how much he can deduct per mile for travel expenses.One thing stood out to me about the conversation involving the recent tournament. After discussing several things – one thing does lead to another – I decided that I should inquire how he did in the tournament. His answer was quick and short."Oh, I won" he said. He said it with such nonchalance that I had to chuckle. He was not being egotistical, just honest and matter of fact. Now granted this was not a big PBA Tour event, but one does not win simply by showing up. There were other quality bowlers in the field.When I looked up the results online, one glaring statistic jumped out at me. E. J. averaged an amazing 260 for the tournament. No one else came closer that 30 pins to that mark!Well, I did mention that our "chat" lasted for nearly an hour. There is so much more to report, but I'm out of space. Check out next week's A-T for more about one E. J. Tackett – professional bowler.