The NBL Fails
The Omaha and San Antonio franchises each folded on December 17, 1961, while Kansas City dropped out six days later. When the LA Toros gave up the ghost on January 15, 1962, the league dropped the divisional setup and declared Detroit the "first half" champion. The league staggered into the spring with the remaining six teams, as Twin Cities claimed the second-half title and faced Detroit in the NBL's "World Series" in May 1962. The Thunderbirds swept the Skippers in three straight matches (drawing about 1,000 spectators for the finale), and claimed the only National Bowling League title. On July 9, 1962, acting commissioner Edward Tobolowski officially announced the end of the NBL.
The book Let's Go Bowling! claimed that "most bowlers hesitated to give up their status as part of the PBA to join (the NBL)." The league even had a whiff of scandal when "rivals claimed one of their ilk tried to bribe Don Carter with promises of a pig farm."
Read more about this topic: National Bowling League
Famous quotes containing the word fails:
“That hour in the life of a man when first the help of humanity fails him, and he learns that in his obscurity and indigence humanity holds him a dog and no man: that hour is a hard one, but not the hardest. There is still another hour which follows, when he learns that in his infinite comparative minuteness and abjectness, the gods do likewise despise him, and own him not of their clan.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)