Bowling Memoirs With Johnny Petraglia – Marshall Holman Has Always Been a “Good” Guy

As I watch the PBA Tour on ESPN and occasionally see Marshall Holman do color with Randy, I’m impressed at how good a job he does.. Also seeing Marshall every once in a while, I’m impressed with the change in his personality. He is now a good guy all the time. Marshall has always been a good guy, but 40 years ago he would have flare ups when he was upset. This caused him to get the reputation as the PBA’s badboy. This was really unfair because most of his incidents happened on TV, so he ran into the situation of ( If you didn’t see it, it never happened), but on TV everybody saw it and we had 20 million people watching the show back then.

There is however one story that didn’t happen on TV or in the bowling center that’s my favorite.

About 40 yrs ago our legendary tournament director Harry Golden managed to get tee times at a very exclusive country club to play golf, and this story was told by Harry. He and Marshall went to play. When they arrived at the course, Marshall (who was wearing shorts) was informed that if he wanted to play he would have to change into long pants because shorts weren’t permitted on the course. Marshall was very upset, their tee time was approaching, he didn’t have pants with him so he had to buy a pair of pants at the club which naturally were very expensive.

As luck would have it, they were stuck behind a foursome of women who were playing slow, which was getting Marshall more upset. As they approached a par 3, Marshall and Harry had to wait at the tee box for the women to tee off. One of the women recognized Marshall. She introduced herself and asked Marshall if he was enjoying the course. Marshall’s reply was NO! The woman asked why and Marshall answered.

I came here with a perfectly acceptable pair of shorts and was told I wasn’t allowed on the course unless I put on long pants, but they let people like YOU play and hold up the whole course!!

The woman (a member) instead of getting upset said, Oh.. would you like to play thru? Marshall said yes, the ladies let them tee off and play thru. Harry was horrified, he said to Marshall, when we pass these women on our way back to the cart, you apologize to the ladies and say thank you for letting us play thru. Marshall’s reply was No. Harry said, “What do you mean No?”Marshall said “These women know who I am, they also know what I’m like… They know I’m an ASSHOLE and don’t expect an apology!!”

You can’t make this stuff up!

It takes a special person to know when they’re acting stupid. Marshall is special, I hope he continues on ESPN, he adds a lot to the show. I’m also happy to call him a friend.

Happy New Year, cento anni’…. Johnny Petraglia

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