March 18, 2022 Mark Miller

Within minutes of the news of his passing spreading through the bowling world, friends, former co-workers, athletes and others began sharing stories and prayers with each other.

The East Troy, Wisconsin, resident and Professional Bowlers Association media consultant from 2009-2020 died March 16, three days after suffering a stroke on his 79th birthday. He had attended the PBA World Series of Bowling in nearby Wauwatosa just days earlier where a number of those people had spoken to him directly.

Vint spent more than four decades in a variety of communications roles for the sport. He served as media director for the former Ladies Professional Bowlers Tour (now the Professional Women’s Bowling Association) in the 1980s before joining the former American Bowling Congress as editor of Bowling Magazine in 1991. He later edited ABC’s American Bowler publication as well as multiple other titles for ABC, the Women’s International Bowling Congress, Young American Bowling Alliance, Bowling, Inc. and United States Bowling Congress.

“His dedication to the sport of bowling, and his service to it working for organizations like PWBA, YABA, USBC and through the influential publications he founded, ran, published and contributed, is unmatched,” said PBA Commissioner Tom Clark on Facebook.

“I am forever grateful for the role he and his business partner, Jerry Schneider, played, running the PBA media relations and communications from 2009-2020. I am mostly thankful for all of Bill’s help and every conversation. He stirred his iced tea, talked, and it was all wisdom, integrity and belief in this game.

“He was a talented man. Loyal, smart, opinionated, fearless. Some saw him as a bit of curmudgeon, but he was one of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet.”

He co-founded Sleeping Dogs Communications from 1997 focused on the bowling industry, a company he had until retiring in 2020.

A Marshalltown, Iowa, native, Vint earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Iowa State University in 1966 and started his career as a sportswriter with the Orlando (Florida) Sentinel-Star and Rockford (Illinois) Register Star. He worked for a publications firm called Market Communications from 1972-1979 and was executive director of the World Snowmobile Racing Federation in 1979-1980 before joining LPBT as director of marketing in 1981.

He and wife Lisa started Windy City Bowling News, a publication reporting on bowling in the Chicago area and beyond. They continued publishing until 2017. For many years they worked with Mail Pouch Barnstormers including Bill as its executive director.

Among his many honors were the Bowling Writers Association of America (now the International Bowling Media Association) Mort Luby Senior Meritorious Service, National Women Bowling Writers (now part of IBMA) Alberta E. Crowe Crowe and Midwest Bowling Writers Golden Quill Awards. He also won multiple PBA writing/photography awards, two American Society of Association Executives honors and numerous APEX honors.

No memorial or service will be held following his wishes.