HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES: Darwin “Auggie” Dale, left, and Scott Culp display their Genesee Region USBC Hall of Fame plaques at Saturday night’s Annual Banquet at Batavia Downs Gaming.
Scott Culp and Darwin “Auggie” Dale are at different stages of their bowling careers but – after Saturday night’s Genesee Region USBC Annual Banquet – both have one important thing in common: they’re Hall of Famers.
Culp of Honeoye Falls, a regular league bowler on Monday nights at Mancuso Bowling Center in Batavia, and Dale of Piffard, who competes in the Wednesday night league at Mount Morris Lanes, were enshrined at the banquet at Batavia Downs Gaming.
GUEST SPEAKER AND SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT: Paul Peck, noted Buffalo sports personality and host of the Beat the Champ TV bowling show, congratulates Hunter Clark, this year’s recipient of the Barbara J. Kreiley Scholarship. Hunter plans to attend the SUNY Niagara Culinary Institute and has aspirations of someday becoming a fire chief.
About 90 people attended the event, which also recognized Hunter Clark of Perry as the Barbara J. Kreiley Scholarship recipient, and association tournament champions and season leaders.
Paul Peck, host of the Buffalo-based TV bowling show, Beat the Champ,” was the guest speaker.
The GRUSBC also announced that a new award will be given annually, starting with the 2025-26 season, in honor of Joe Mortellaro, the former Batavia Bowling Association president and two-time GRUSBC Hall of Famer, who passed away on Dec. 27 of last year. Details of the award are expected to be announced in August.
SEASON, TOURNAMENT CHAMPS: Association tournament and league leaders this season were honored at the banquet. From left are Scott Culp, association tournament doubles; Tracy Gustke, association tournament women’s singles and all-events, and season leader for women in average (219), series (833) and game (299); Karen Allis and Jane Chaddock, association women’s doubles, and Rob Gustke, association doubles, singles and all-events.
SCOTT CULP: OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
Ron Legler Jr. of Rochester “presented” Culp for induction, noting that Culp’s bowling friends at Brongo Bowl in Honeoye Falls gave him the nickname, Petey, in deference to PBA standout Pete Weber.
Legler mentioned that Culp, who started as a junior bowler and worked for the Brongo family – where he could practice when not on the job – has amassed more than 50 800 series and more than 100 300 games.
Culp, in accepting his plaque for Outstanding Achievement, thanked the GRUSBC, stating, “I’m honored that my accomplishments over the years have been recognized by my peers.”
The 47-year-old high-revving right-hander acknowledged his many family members as well as Donna Brongo and her son, Larry, who were in attendance, while noting that “this year has been bittersweet for my family with the loss of our mom in January — the foundation of our family.”
Culp said he admired Rochester NY USBC Association greats Mike Rose Jr. and Ryan Kretchmer, who grew up in the Honeoye Falls area, and thanked Scott Alexander, a former PBA member, for teaching him about bowling balls, making adjustments and competing on tough lane conditions.
“Thanks to Scott, my game went from so-so to … what I have been able to accomplish … going to my 20th USBC Open Championships (this spring) and also, in October, being inducted into the Canandaigua USBC Hall of Fame.”
DARWIN DALE: OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, VETERAN
Dave Keller of Geneseo was the presenter for Dale, a 65-year-old righty who returned to bowling in 2018 after a serious neck injury and other ailments kept him on the sideline for 15 years.
Keller, a teammate of Dale for many years, talked about the 836 series that Dale rolled in 2003 and mentioned that it was Mike Kime, who was at the banquet, who convinced Dale to return to the sport.
Dale, in accepting his Outstanding Achievement, Veteran plaque, thanked Keller, Jerry Davis and John LaGeorge for his nomination, and his wife, Clara, for supporting him. He also mentioned Bob Goodwin, the former Perry Bowling Association manager, who finally was able to present his award for the 836 series in 2018 – long after the achievement.
“Bob said that his duties as Perry association manager are officially over when he gave me the award.” Dale said. The Perry association merged with the Batavia Bowling Association and Genesee Valley Women’s Bowling Association to form the GRUSBC in 2006.
“This is truly a great honor to be inducted,” Dale concluded, “and it means a lot to me.”
PAUL PECK: BOWLING IS SO IMPORTANT IN WNY
Paul Peck has been a fixture on the Western New York television and radio sportscasting scene for 37 years, relocating from New Jersey to the Buffalo area after graduating from Syracuse University.
In his 20-minute talk, he spoke about his introduction to the sport of bowling, working with the late Van Miller at the Buffalo Masters tournament, and eventually realizing “what a passionate community bowling is – whether it’s Buffalo, Rochester or here in the Genesee Region.”
Calling Miller “the greatest mentor in my life and one of the greatest men I’ve ever been around,” Peck said he learned so much from Miller – the face of the original Beat the Champ show on Channel 4 – “and I miss him to this day.”
“Very quickly in my time working with Van I understood how important not only he was to the community of Western New York but how much the sports community of all sports was important to him,” he said.
After covering his first Buffalo Masters, he said he appreciated the dedication of the bowling community to the sport and “the incredible welcoming attitude of the bowling people.”
Peck then talked about how he became involved with the revival of the Beat the Champ show, which was aired on WBBZ-TV from 2016-2020 and – after a COVID-19 induced layoff – returned this past season on MSG Network.
“So, I understood how important the show was so when the call comes in 2016 that the (Buffalo) bowling proprietors want to revive the show. they had reached out to me and asked me if I was interested in being the host,” he said.
“And of course I understood the history of it but I’m not really a bowler and I was very hesitant to want to get involved in broadcasting a show of a sport that I just didn’t have this inherent knowledge and live it like the people in this room and the people that were on the show.”
Peck said he didn’t feel as though he was worthy of doing the show “but after a lot of pressuring” he accepted, thinking to himself, “that Van would really have loved me to have a little role in keeping his legacy alive.”
“So, I took it as a challenge and I always take a challenge of doing a sport that I don’t inherently know like I might know football or basketball or hockey. I said OK, give me a couple of weeks. give me some people to talk to and give me an incredibly smart and talented co-host and I can make this work.”
At that point, Sue Nawojski, a Buffalo bowling Hall of Famer, came on as the show’s analyst, and the duo has been together ever since.
“She’s one of the best female bowlers in Western New York history just an incredible person and incredible personality,” Peck said. “This told me that I didn’t need to know about oil patterns. I just need to know to ask her about the oil patterns. That’s her job she’s the expert.”
Peck admitted that he’s heard “some pushback from people” about his lack of bowling knowledge – “I’m sure there might be some people in this room thinking this guy doesn’t know anything he’s talking about” – but he can handle that.
“That’s OK. Any broadcast, any sportscast, whether it’s bowling or any other sport, it’s the job of the broadcaster is to identify the participants, tell you their story and then guide the action along,” he explained. “Recognize when there are moments within the matches or within the broadcast where something important is happening, and that applies to any sport that you watch or that I’ve ever called.”
Peck credited Joe Ciccone, a former PBA member, for stepping up to produce the latest version of the show, and Justin Wyman of Rochester for building a set that compares to the PBA Tour set on national TV. He said that the taping of the season one shows is complete, and plans are to launch season two in the fall.
“We have over a million views on YouTube,” he said. “If you don’t get the MSG Network you can go on YouTube and watch the shows.”
WOMEN’S TEAM CHAMPION: The Pretty Sweet Bakery team from Albion took first place in the association tournament women’s division. From left are Emily Cassidy, Sarah Cassidy and Pamela Jenks. Judy Ward also was on the winning squad
YOUTH HIGH ROLLERS: Season leaders for youth bowlers honored at the banquet are, from left, Gianna LaPiana of Mount Morris, girls’ high game (224) and high series (522); Omer Fugate of Albion, boys’ high game (280), and Shyann Covell of Perry, girls’ high average (152).
YOUTH TEAM TOURNAMENT CHAMPS: Recognized for winning the Youth Team Tournament this season are, from left, Jacob Salamone, Jackson Bennett and Jerami Kane of Mount Morris.
YOUTH DOUBLES TOURNAMENT WINNERS: The Le Roy duo of Liam Beagle, left, and Hudson Klein were recognized at the banquet for winning the A Division of the Youth Doubles Tournament this season.