Richie Teece Voted 2024 PBA Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award Winner
Teece’s joyous personality recognized by fellow PBA Tour players
England’s Richie Teece has been selected to receive the 2024 PBA Steve Nagy Sportsmanship award.
Nine players earned nominations from PBA players who competed in over half of 2024 PBA Tour events. Teece received a plurality with 25.81% of the votes, followed closely by Tommy Jones at 19.35%.
Two-time Nagy award winner Jake Peters finished third in voting, garnering 12.90% of votes. Deo Benard, Benjy Martinez, Dick Allen, DJ Archer, Marshall Kent and Packy Hanrahan were also nominated and received votes.
“It’s awesome being recognized by your peers,” Teece said. “I try to be happy all the time and make things positive. It makes for a generally better environment on the tour, let alone just for yourself. I’m just happy that my peers have seen that. Being in that group (of Nagy award winners) is special.”
While some PBA Tour players use the offseason to temporarily step away from the lanes, Teece has done the opposite. The 34-year-old, who lives with his wife Katie in England, has traveled to Sweden each of the past three weekends to compete in the Swedish League.
Teece loves the game so much that, for him, between showing too much frustration and “not crossing the class clown line,” he finds the latter to be the more difficult task.
“There’s way more to life than bowling,” Teece said. “Yes, it’s my job and it obviously plays an important part in how I live. I like to look at it as whenever you are happy, you generally tend to do things in the right way and everything all seems to fit in. That mindset really hit me this year. I tried to be positive no matter the outcome and I feel like it resonated with others.”
Teece mentioned two PBA Tour players in particular whose demeanor he admires and respects.
The first was Jake Peters, Teece’s tour roommate and a two-time Nagy award winner. In fact, Peters thanked Teece profoundly during his own Nagy award acceptance speech two years ago.
The second player was another nominee for this year’s award: Packy Hanrahan. Teece said he sees Hanrahan’s infectious joy during all types of competition — from the PBA Tour to league to practice — and tries to emulate it in his own way.
When Teece recently read a text from PBA Commissioner Tom Clark — a message that read “Are you in the U.S. or the U.K.?” — Teece was immediately alarmed. He thought there might be a problem with immigration, which could potentially jeopardize his entire career.
Instead, Teece soon learned he won the Nagy award, and with that honor comes something perhaps more nauseating than dealing with immigration: Giving an acceptance speech at next year’s Hall of Fame banquet.
“I hate public speaking,” Teece said with a laugh. “Having the anticipation of receiving that award, hopefully it will be a nice, little cherry on the top of a better-than-content season. It's always nice to have something to look forward to.”
The PBA’s sportsmanship award honors Steve Nagy, a PBA Hall of Famer and founding member. He was instrumental to the early success of the PBA. The award has been awarded since 1966, the year of Nagy’s death.
Recent PBA Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award Recipients
Richie Teece, 2024
BJ Moore, 2023
Jake Peters, 2022
Jake Peters, 2021
Brad Miller, 2020
Martin Larsen, 2019
Tom Smallwood, 2018
Chris Loschetter, 2017
Tom Smallwood, 2016
Josh Blanchard, 2015
Brett Spangler, 2014