INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) – Carmen Salvino bowled in his 731st career PBA tour event last week in the 60th Anniversary Classic at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis, breaking his own record as the oldest player to compete on the tour.
"Let's put it this way," said Salvino, 84, during an interview before his final round of games. "I'm a living legend. That's the point that's really fun because the guys go 'There's the living legend.'"
Salvino is the only one of seven bowlers still living who met in 1958 in New Jersey and came up with the idea of a professional bowling tour. Later that year, he became one of 33 bowlers who met in Syracuse, New York, and each pledged $50 to found the Professional Bowlers Association. Salvino played in the first ever PBA tournament, the 1959 Empire State Open at Schade's Academy in Albany, New York.
Last week he drove down to Indianapolis from his home in Chicago to compete in the 60th Anniversary Classic. He also played in the 50th anniversary event in Las Vegas 10 years ago at age of 74.
"I still think that I'm Carmen Salvino the legend, but my score kind of didn't back me up. I shot one 255 and I started taking bows like as if I was 28 again. And I loved it. It was worth the trip," he said.
Salvino won 17 PBA Tour titles in his career. He was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 1975. Bowling's most famous showman still celebrates every great roll with a hop or two, a fist pump or some other show of emotion.
"When I rip that ball out my hand, it's like music," said Salvino. "When I get down there and that ball is revving up and revving up and revving up, it's like a crescendo. Whoom! I'll blast those pins! How can I just calmly stand there? I got to react. I'm Italian on top of it. What do you want? You can see I'm talking with my hands."
Salvino bowled right next to professionals who could be his grandsons. He says older athletes in other major sports never get this kind of opportunity.
"Reggie Jackson, for example, on the Yankees. Do you know what he'd pay to sit in the dugout at Yankee Stadium and come to bat? He'd pay a million dollars to do what I'm doing!" he said.
The Chicago native started bowling as a teenager when he found out he could make $3 a night setting pins at a six-lane bowling center. Within three years, he says he was the best bowler in the city.
Salvino says bowling has kept him in shape, showing off his rock hard right biceps. He says he has weighed right around 195 pounds for 60 years.
At age 45, he became interested in the physics of bowling and owns three patents on the dynamic balance of a bowling ball. He later taught himself chemistry in his 60s. He still helps design new bowling balls. He brought six balls, all 15 pounds, to compete with in Indianapolis.
Salvino's wife of 61 years, Ginny, is also a Hall of Fame bowler. She has beaten Carmen three times, he says. Salvino has plans to roll a perfect 300 game 10 years from now in the PBA 70th anniversary event.
"I'm going to lay on the approach and say, "Okay God, I'm ready. You can come and get me. And I told my wife, 'Take care of my public after that. Sign a few autographs because I won't be around.'"
Carmen will keep knocking down the pins with his signature enthusiasm until then.