Harry Monroe Smith (April 29, 1930 – August 8, 2021),[1] nicknamed "Tiger", was a right-handed American ten-pin bowler and charter member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Smith won 12 PBA Tour titles, including two major championships. He is a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.[2][3]
Smith was one of 33 men who each donated $50 in 1958 to launch the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) with sports agent Eddie Elias. Harry competed in the inaugural 1959 season and won his first PBA title in 1961 at the El Paso PBA Open. He would win ten PBA titles, all between 1961 and 1965. Smith also won the 1960 BPAA All-Star (predecessor to the U.S. Open) and 1963 ABC Masters. Due to a PBA rule change in 2008, these events were both retroactively credited as PBA Tour titles and majors if won by a PBA member at the time, giving Smith a revised official total of 12 PBA Tour titles.[4]
1963 was a career year for Smith. He won three standard PBA Tour titles, plus the ABC Masters. He was the subject of a Sports Illustrated article that noted how well-paid professional bowlers were at the time. The November 1963 article stated that Smith had already earned more than the MVPs of the National Football League (Y. A. Tittle) and Major League Baseball's National League (Sandy Koufax) combined.[5] Smith was the PBA Tour's top earner that year with winnings of $30,557, had won an additional $10,000 in non-PBA tournaments (including his ABC Masters win), and was drawing salaries as an advisor for Brunswick and as resident pro for Johnny Unitas' Colt Lanes in Baltimore, all adding up to a yearly income of about $75,000 (about $747,000 in 2023 dollars).[5]
In 1965, Smith won his final three PBA Tour titles over a seven-event span.
Smith curtailed his participation as a full-time bowler in 1971,[6] bowling only a few events per year until fully retiring in 1975. He operated a bowling center in Rochester, New York in the early 1970s, then served as PBA Assistant Tournament Director from 1977 to 1988.[2]
Smith was nicknamed "Tiger" for his fiery attitude and energetic reactions, including frequently "running out" his shots after releasing the ball.[2]
He had an unusual delivery for the era, walking to the left and turning his body sideways, like many power players of today. Long-time PBA Player Services Director and fellow PBA Hall of Famer Larry Lichstein said Smith "was the first power player in our sport. You’d think Mark Roth, but Smitty really was. He would tuck his swing in and that would give him that big heavy hand at the bottom." PBA legend Carmen Salvino, one of Smith's contemporaries, remarked, "Harry looked like he was chasing a fly (ball) going to the foul line. But he could repeat that. If somebody would walk in and see him throwing a ball, they'd want to challenge him – and they'd go home broke!"[2]
Legacy
Smith was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame with the inaugural 1975 class, and the ABC (now USBC) Hall of Fame in 1978.[2] In addition to his PBA victories, he won four Eagles (titles) in the ABC Open Championships. He made the quarterfinals (top eight) at the ABC Masters five times in addition to his 1963 victory.[3] In a 1973 article, he stated he had bowled 52 perfect 300 games, eleven of them in sanctioned competition.[6]
Smith was ranked #28 in the PBA's 2008 list of "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years". The PBA Tour's annual top points earner is now given the Harry Smith PBA Points Leader Award.[7]
