page_title: Earl Anthony
section_title: Personal life and death
hierarchical_section_title: Earl Anthony / Personal life and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Signed and attested scratch 64 golf score by Earl Anthony
context_page_description: Earl Roderick Anthony was a left-handed American professional bowler who amassed records of 43 titles and six Player of the Year awards on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour. For over two decades, his career title count was listed as 41. The count was amended to 43 in 2008, when the PBA chose to retroactively award PBA titles for ABC Masters championships if won by a PBA member at the time. He is widely credited for having increased bowling's popularity in the United States. He was the first bowler to earn over $100,000 in a season, and the first to reach $1,000,000 in lifetime PBA earnings. His ten professional major titles—six PBA National Championships, two Firestone Tournament of Champions titles, and two ABC Masters titles—are the second most all time, tied with Pete Weber and three behind Jason Belmonte.
  Never brash or flashy in a crew-cut and plastic-frame "marshwood" style eyewear, Anthony was dubbed "Square Earl" by fellow pro bowlers.
  A new biography of Earl was published in October 2019 by Luby Publishing. Compiled by sportswriter Barry Sparks, it is titled Earl: The Greatest Bowler of All Time.
context_section_description: Anthony was born in Tacoma, Washington to Earl Anthony and Laura Davis. He was a minor league baseball pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles organization before his days as a professional bowler. He was also an excellent golfer, achieving a near-scratch handicap at the age of 60.  He once set the course record at Crow Canyon Country Club in Danville, California with a scratch score of 64.
  He was married to Susie Anthony; and had a son, Mike, and two daughters, Tracy and Jeri.
  Anthony missed some time on the PBA Tour during the 1978 season after suffering a heart attack in June of that year. Less than three months later he was back on Tour, finishing third in the Waukegan (IL) Open.
  Earl Anthony died in 2001, succumbing to head injuries suffered after falling down a flight of stairs at his friend Ed Baur's home in New Berlin, Wisconsin. He was 63 years old. 
  The "Earl Anthony Memorial Scholarship Fund" was established through funding by the ABC Championship Tournament, in order to provide scholarships to young bowlers. It is now administrated by the Bowling Foundation.
  In January 2002, the PBA began the year with a tournament named after Anthony, "The Earl Anthony Memorial Classic."  It was first held at TechCity Bowl in Kirkland, Washington.  It was won by left-handed pro bowler Parker Bohn III, who beat Patrick Healey, Jr. in the final match 235 to 215.  It later moved to Medford, Oregon and re-titled as "The Earl Anthony Medford Classic." In 2010 and 2011, the event took place in Dublin, California and was titled the Earl Anthony Memorial.
caption: Signed and attested scratch 64 golf score by Earl Anthony
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