Walter Ray Williams

Walter Ray Williams (riva.org)

5-time PBA Bowler of Year, who won 6 World Horseshoe Pitching titles, Walter Ray Williams is arguably the best bowler in the world. He was born on October 6, 1959 in Stockton, California. He started out as a child who loved horseshoe pitching, he then as a teenager took up bowling to his interest and became a professional in his 20s and started to earn his way up as he continued to to win awards. He won three national awards in 1986. He was the first bowler in history to earn more than $2 million in career earnings, achieving this in 1997.

He currently holds 46 PBA career titles in total and resides in Ocala, Florida with his wife Paige Pennington and daughter Rebecca. He is nicknamed "Deadeye" for his accuracy in bowling and horseshoes. He got his nickname when a person who was working pinned a piece of paper that said: ”Deadeye.” He then got so many strikes people started using the name.

The reason that I chose Walter Ray for my report, was that he looked like a very nice person who loved to bowl. I also chose a bowler like him because bowling is like a hobby to me. I love bowling. I admire him for his skill and experience in bowling and for his knack of getting many, if not all, awards and cups. My family loves to bowl and are amazing at getting strikes. I however am the odd one out. Even though I love bowling, I kind of suck at getting a strike or even rarely winning.

Here is a question from an interview that he answered: “How and when did you get started in bowling? Could you foresee then what you would accomplish in bowling?”
“I bowled one year when I was 11. I got back into bowling when I was a Senior in high school. I was a junior world horseshoe pitching champion when I was 11, so I knew that I had a very good underhand arm swing. When I was 19 I improved in bowling and started to bowl in more tournaments. At that time I started to have visions of bowling for a living.”

I chose this question specially because of all the information sources. I could not find any on his childhood, so I decided to add this for my lack of information on his early years.