HISTORY OF THE PASSAIC COUNTY USBC OFFICERS
Local bowlers started to join up with the American Bowling Congress (ABC) in 1929 when Harry Morris, Frank “Duke” Feher, Perce Robinson, James “Lefty” Carroll and Ray Gormley held meetings in Carroll Brothers Sporting Goods store. These were the men who laid the ground work for the ABC organization that, by 1969, had hundreds of teams bowling in sanctioned leagues in Passaic County.
The Paterson Bowling Association was chartered in 1929, and later, in 1932, the name was changed to the Passaic County Bowling Association.
In the beginning, the ABC had some rough times as bowlers were few in number, other sports were more popular, and it was a hard battle just to get leagues to join up. Another difficult situation was to get alley owners to re-surface their lanes; however, bowling began to grow in popularity and active County organizations such as the Passaic County Bowling Association were needed.
By 1960, Passaic County was one of the finest County Associations affiliated with the ABC. Many factors were involved such as, under the direction of Lloyd Young, the president for several years, practically every league in the County received sanction from ABC. Another was how Henry Einerman, became the person who approved the work of resurfacing the alleys before the ABC certifies them and under the guidance of John Hamilton, who was Passaic County Bowling Association secretary for 40 years and also tournament manager, the entry lists for the Passaic County Championship grew longer every time.
In the early 1960’s, Joseph Cusmano assembled two teams of outstanding local young bowlers from 16 to 20 years old to promote the sport of bowling. Joe Tolvay, Johnny Carnemolla, Dave Rutherford, Sy DeVito, John Terstra, Rick Mackajay, Butch Paprieto, and Paul Gaspar were all outstanding bowlers with averages ranging from 205 and higher and were considered the best in the area. They were sponsored by Pepsi Cola and were called the Pepsi Dream “Teem” after a new soda, “Teem” which Pepsi had just introduced. They were also called the Wonder Winners after Wonder Bread. They put on exhibitions all over the tri state area and also on a Detroit, Michigan television show in an effort to promote the sport of bowling.
From 1949 thru 1970 bowling had grown rapidly and with expansion came many problems. One such problem was public relations. Although many of the association's problems were handled by the dedicated and hardworking members of the Passaic County Bowling Association, they also needed a great deal of help from many newspapermen like Chuck Pezzano, Bill Harvey & Bob Whitig, of the morning call, George “Little Oscar” Gross of the Paterson news, Author McMahon & Joe Lovas of the Passaic Record and Al DelGrecco of the Bergen Evening Record. Their publicity, game and score coverage was very important and helped to promote the sport of bowling.
Bowling remained a popular sport throughout the 1970s & 1980s with most centers hosting an early (6pm) and a late (9pm) league on most nights of the week. In the mid 1990s bowling slowly started to decline in membership, with work and family demands being greater and people had little time left for bowling. Bowling centers began to close due to the lack of bowlers, higher rents and insurance costs leaving most of these centers to be taken over by big box stores or turned into shopping centers.
In 2005, due to another membership decline, the ABC, WIBC and YABA merged to form the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). In 2006 the Passaic County Bowling Association merged with the Women and Youth to become the Passaic County USBC, the first fully merged Association in the State of New Jersey.
At the peak of bowling, Passaic County had over 25 active bowling centers hosting league play every night. Now, in 2015, there are only three centers hosting a handful of leagues.
Passaic County Presidents:
1929-1936 Lloyd E Young
1937-1946 Harry Einerman
1947-1948 William Corkery
1949-1950 Walter Bieszard
1951-1952 Harry Dunn
1953 Paul Vanderwende
1954 Charles Lehmann
1955 Oakley Smith
1956 William Reith
1957 Michael Spinelli
1958 George Tunkel
1959 Al Ulrich
1960 John Sanclimenti
1961 Frank Novotny
1962 William Bianchi
1963 Dick Riccobono
1964 Charles Trunzo
1965 Joseph Macaluse
1966 Frank Pielaet
1967 Roy Stagg
1968 Joseph Cusmano
1969 Richard Ferraro
1970 Mel LaScola
1971 Henry Petite
1972 Augie Lucente
1973 Charles June
1974 Caemen Passalacqua
1975 Paul S. Cavaliere
1976 Clifford Braun
1977 Jay Hanenberg