PBA Tournament of Champions
Revisiting History

Fans...meet Kelly Kulick.

Kelly...meet the fans.

You remember each other, right? It wasn't that long ago that the PBA Universe and KK were quite familiar with each other. It just took awhile to get to another seminal moment in time. Of course, fans remember Kulick for her historical 2006 Tour Trials, where she finished 6th overall and clinched a full-time PBA exemption for the 2006-07 season. She was unable to attain that exemption after that season and to some extent, was cast aside like a dried up lemon.

Hey, Kell...thanks for all you did and we're sorry you didn't retain your exemption. Thanks for the mainstream media attention, thanks for the comic book sketches and all that jazz, but could you step aside while we take a photo shot of Diandra Asbaty showing off her eyelashes...?

This is not an indicment on Asbaty-well OK, maybe not a total indictment on Asbaty. I mean when USBC is trying to sell their sport, why not promote someone who has won pretty much nothing in this country and has made a living off winning tournaments in Singapore? Have you seen this woman?? Anyway, let's get back on topic...we did forget about Kulick and yet, for some strange reason, we don't have a real good excuse for forgetting about her and what she did. Did Liz Johnson's historical run in the 2005 Banquet Classic dull our senses about a woman ballin' with the boys? Did Asbaty's sense of self-promotion for the game make us have memory loss? Did Kim Terrell and Trish Reid's US Open title match, which broke racial barriers, make us prisioners of the moment and not of the past? Exactly, what happened to Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey.

Sounds rather blunt but basic: we forgot about Kulick because we were looking for something bigger, bolder, sexier, and maybe even scandalous from bowling to push it to another level. She is the greatest generational victim of women's bowling in that she did not have enough time to garner success on the defunct PWBA Tour because she was too young while stars from the past, such as Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Terrell, and Johnson had established themselves as elite. She also suffered from going through many physical changes in her game when the Women's Series started, making her late to the prom when Asbaty, Missy Bellinder, and Stefanie Nation were win, place, and show at the end. She also suffered from what every other female pebble pitcher has suffered from: lack of actual things to bowl in.

We just had a case of forgetfulness, that's all. Now let's come back to the present moment, the thing that matters the most to all of us. We now have Kelly Kulick back in the brightest spotlight in bowling. She is seeded second for tomorrow's Tournament of Champions stepladder final after firing a sterling 267 game in the position round portion of matchplay (the 48th and final game of 3 grueling days of bowling, in Las Vegas, AND a PBA Major no less). With one match win, she can join Johnson as the only female to compete in a PBA championship match (her opponent with a win...? Mr. Chris Barnes, who really cannot win no matter what the situation is), make infinite PBA, bowling, sports, and gender history but most importantly to fans, Kelly Kulick will matter once again to us.

Arguably, the PBA's marquee event could arguably have the association's biggest storyline in their 51 year history tomorrow morning/afternoon and how about no other major sports on TV, along with a tremendous lead-in (Sunday NFL Countdown-championship week)??? No football games until 3pm, no major college basketball games, no big hockey games-really, who watches hockey anymore on NBC, or the National Backstabbing of Conan as they are more commonly referred to as of this moment. If fans thought Thomas Smallwood's rags to riches story winning the PBA World Champions was going to garner some mainstream attention, wait until this possible historic moment occurs. We are witnesses to history...that is, until the next big moment for bowling fans comes along to provide meaning for our sport.