Black bowler's goal: Role model, trendsetter

September 27, 2006, Chicago Tribune

It never mattered to Billy Oatman as he watched Earl Anthony, his idol Steve Cook and the other stars on the Pro Bowlers Tour in the 1970s that no one looked like him. He would still get up early each Saturday morning, walk the two blocks to Palisade Bowl at 116th and Halsted Streets and dream of being just like them.

"It was sort of an automatic assumption there were no black bowlers out there, but I still loved it," Oatman said. "Then George Branham III and Curtis Odom (who bowled in the 1980s and '90s) gave me hope. I looked up to them as role models and thought if they can do it, why not me?"

Oatman no longer has to ask that question because this week he became the first African-American to earn a full-season tournament exemption on the PBA Tour. Now it's his turn to be a role model.

At 40, Oatman is hardly an overnight sensation. But talk to him for a few seconds and he sounds every bit the excited kid who grew up listening to Chris Schenkel. Working in a steel mill and at his current job driving a food delivery truck while building a successful career as an amateur bowler, Oatman earned his exemption at his first tour trials in Hammond, finishing just out of the top 10 but edging in because of an injury to tour pro Ritchie Allen.

"I am more than excited," Oatman said. "I mean, I'm actually out there. You're a kid bowling, then all of a sudden you're 40 years old and you're a part of the guys you used to watch, you're on their level."

His friends thought he was crazy, of course.

"I'd bowl all day, then go play outside," he said. "My friends didn't know what I was doing. I see them now and they're like, `Oh, man, he's still doing that?'"

Oatman bowled at Crane High School, leading his team to the city championship. He went on to bowl on national championship teams for Vincennes University and Wichita State. Traveling to tournaments to qualify was too expensive more often than not, and for a while, bowling on weekends was good enough.

"I was just thanking God I was good enough to make a living off that and my job," he said. "I'm comfortable. I have a meager lifestyle. I had money in my pocket after expenses. I was happy. Then the tour trials came to the bowling center where I was in a league, and I said, `This is my shot.'

"My parents took me to junior tournaments. They allowed me every opportunity to bowl. I could not have been blessed with two finer human beings as parents. I really want them to have their son do something to be proud of."

And bowling professionally is just a part of it.

"The PBA," Oatman said, "is just a window to broadcast my real agenda. Of course I want to succeed on tour, but there's a lot more to Billy Oatman than just bowling.

"I want to start up a fund for one or two African-Americans because while there were a few people at points in time who sponsored me, as far as the money coming out of their pockets for me to get on the PBA, no one ever really gave me a chance."

As he spoke, the ideas bubbled forth.

"That's it," he said. "I'll call it the Billy Oatman Give-'em-A-Chance Fund. There are so many good African-American bowlers who need to be out there, but it's hard for them. Yeah, the Give-'em-A-Chance Fund. I want to build something bigger than me."

He's a talented bowler, say those who know Oatman, but he is hardly expecting parades in his honor when he shows up at his first tournament, the season-opening USBC Masters the week of Oct. 22-29 in Wauwatosa, Wis. If being a left-hander isn't odd--and in some bowling circles resented--enough, then being a rookie should assure that tour veterans will treat Oatman with not much more than casual indifference.

Asked if Oatman's presence was good for the tour, Allen said: "There are so many different people out here. I can say the same thing about Mike Edwards, who's the first American Indian, or the first female (Kelly Kulick)."

Like any pro tour, only the strong survive. On the 19-tournament bowling tour, you are guaranteed $1,500 a week. Oatman is looking for more, and he's capable, but he's not going to get rich.

"The main reason I finally took a chance," he said, "is so I would never grow old and say I woulda, coulda, shoulda."

He knows there could be added attention because of his race. If he wins a tournament, he will be only the second African-American to do so after Branham, who won five.

Beyond that, it's not about him.

"Because I'm the first [to be exempt], there are going to be a lot of eyes on me," Oatman said.

"But I know one thing. It's only a blessing if it helps others. Only if my agenda is a success am I a success."