October 18, 2024 Nolan Hughes

Following a 16-title event season, the 2024 PBA50 Tour award winners have been announced.

John Janawicz earned PBA50 Player of the Year honors by winning five titles, including two majors, and leading all players in points. Read more on Janawicz’ outstanding season here.

South Carolina’s Randy Weiss earned PBA50 Rookie of the Year honors by leading all first-year players in competition points.

Florida's Walter Ray Williams Jr. led PBA60 players in points to earn his second career PBA60 Player of the Year honor.

Ohio's Donald Hogue, a native Canadian, was voted by his peers as the Dick Weber Sportsmanship award recipient.

PBA50 Rookie of the Year: Randy Weiss

Randy Weiss found some downtime during the 2024 PBA50 Tour season, so he went to the gym. There, he ran into John Janawicz, who was named this season’s PBA50 Player of the Year.

“Well, I must be doing something right,” Weiss said to himself.

The South Carolina native was correct. He earned 2024 PBA50 Rookie of the Year honors after leading all first-year players in points.

Weiss totaled 12,515 points, four top-10 finishes, including a season-high finish of third in the USBC Senior Masters, and $21,050 in his 14 events. He averaged 216.43 across his 266 games this season.

“You only get one chance at something like this, so to come away with it is pretty special and something I'll never forget,” Weiss said. “I feel like it's not something you go out and you try to do. But if you go out there and you try to bowl your best every week and it happens, I mean, there's nothing better.”

His gym runs are part of his rededication to his physical and mental health. The former PBA Tour player took a step back from competing about a decade ago. But the lanes have been calling for him back over the past few years, and the 50-year-old answered.

“As I was rebuilding my life, I decided I’ve got to make myself happy. I love bowling, so I started bowling more. I never completely quit bowling, but I wasn't bowling at the major level,” Weiss said. “I put a serious emphasis on taking care of myself, mentally and physically, and it seems to be paying off. I’ve trimmed up quite a bit, quit drinking, and I started to pay attention to what I put into my body. I feel like I'm in better shape now than I was in my 20s. I try to not think about my age as a limiting factor.”

Weiss finished seventh in his PBA50 Tour debut. Through more than half the season, no other ROY contender had emerged — until Mario Quintero crashed the party.

Quintero made his debut in the Bud Moore PBA50 Players Championship, which was Weiss’ eighth event, and the Mexico native earned a 30th-place finish.  The next event, the PBA50 World Series of Bowling II, which included three standard titles and one major, changed the complexion of the race. 

Quintero entered the WSOB II trailing Weiss by 8,100 points; he left trailing by just 10. Quintero earned four match play appearances, finishing no lower than 13th, and won the PBA50 World Championship.

Quintero usurped Weiss following the PBA50 South Shore Classic, the season’s penultimate event, which meant Weiss needed to make up a 490-point gap in the season-ending PBA50 Tournament of Champions.

Weiss’ eighth-place finish to Quintero’s 21st place got it done.

The photo finish reminded Weiss of a season in which himself and Dick Allen found themselves in a tightly contested PBA South Region. The stakes were higher then, as the top player earned exempt status on the PBA Tour, Weiss recalled.

“Dick Allen and I were neck and neck the entire season,” Weiss said. “It came down to the very last tournament, the very last day, even the very last game, and I came out on top.”

Weiss applied the same philosophy he used that season to this one. 

“You have to focus on bowling and do your best,” Weiss said. “If you go out there and do your best, whatever happens, you have to be fine with it if you give it your all. But if you press and try too hard, and then that caution does not make it, that's not acceptable.”

PBA60 Player of the Year: Walter Ray Williams Jr.

There are few honors in professional bowling that Walter Ray Williams Jr., the PBA Tour’s all-time leader in titles (47) and Player of the Year awards (seven, tied with Jason Belmonte), does not possess. 

After adding the latest trophy to his collection — the 2024 PBA60 Player of the Year award — that remains true. Williams previously won the award in 2021.

Williams led all aged-60-and-over players on the PBA50 Tour in competition points, besting the likes of Parker Bohn III, Tom Adcock, Chris Warren and Jack Jurek.

“I like to compete, but getting any kind of award is obviously nice,” Williams said. “I definitely had a decent season, but it's also not as good as I was hoping for. I had several events that, for me, were very substandard. That happens when you’re getting older.”

Williams notched two runner-up finishes this season, including the PBA60 Tristan’s T.A.P.S. Memorial Open, five top-10 finishes and $27,050 in earnings in his 17 events. He averaged 217.08 across 345 games.

Bohn finished second to Williams in points, trailing “Deadeye” by about 1,500 points. The Hall of Fame lefty competed in just 12 events — all on the PBA50 Tour — earned five top-10 finishes and won the PBA50 The Villages Classic.

Ultimately, Williams’ persistence won out. He surpassed Bohn for the PBA60 points lead with a seventh-place finish in the PBA50 season finale TOC, which Bohn did not bowl.

“I was pretty fortunate [Bohn] didn't bowl as many tournaments as I did,” Williams said. “It would have felt better had I had a season closer to what Parker did, but for the full season. He actually bowled a better season than I did; he just didn't bowl as many events.”

Williams said the competitiveness between the two hasn’t changed much over their four-plus decades squaring off against each other.

“You want to beat anybody you're bowling against, but most of us are good friends,” Williams said. “On the lanes, we all want to kick each other's butt. I guess it’s toned down a tiny bit on the senior tour, because we're not trying to make a living out here, but that’s still our competitive nature.”

Dick Weber Sportsmanship Award: Donald Hogue

One of the PBA50 Tour’s four season awards — the PBA50 Dick Weber Sportsmanship award — is determined by a vote. Voting for the award, given to the player who represented Dick Weber’s class and sportsmanship, was open to PBA50 players who participated in at least half of the 2024 PBA50 Tour events.

The players decided Donald Hogue of Akron, Ohio and Canada to be the man most deserving of the honor.

“I met Dick Weber and to be anything like him is an unbelievable honor,” Hogue said. “He's like a saint, the bowling saint. Just being around him, in his presence, was pretty awesome. He would show up for clinics and he'd stay all day. When it was over, he'd stick around with the kids. I'm honored to have even known the man, to say that I got a chance to breathe the same air as him.”

“I just try to be myself. It’s nice that people think I'm a nice guy,” Hogue added. “It's really more about the competition, being able to compete at that level against some of the guys you watched on TV growing up.”

Hogue competed in 13 events this PBA50 Tour season, cashing six times. He earned a season-high finish of 10th in the PBA Senior U.S. Open.

Hogue said being able to use his knowledge from 40+ years in the pro shop business to help his friends and competitors, such as laying out a ball for Jason Couch or talking about the day’s competition with Dino Castillo, is an honor.

“We're all out there with hopes of winning. We know that, in order to win, there are certain steps that you have to go through,” Hogue said. “You have to earn the respect of others by the way you act and the way you perform. Then you hope to get some checks, make some cuts, get to some match plays, beat a few guys, and hopefully make a show. You’ve got to build your way up.”

Steve Badovinac, Dave Johnson, Jeff Johnson (the 2022 recipient of this award) and Jack Jurek also received nominations.

Past PBA50 Rookie of the Year Award Winners

2024 — Randy Weiss
2023 — John Janawicz
2022 — Dino Castillo
2021 — Tom Hess
2020 — no award (COVID, season canceled)
2019 — Eugene McCune
2018 — Rolando Sebelen
2017 — Michael Haugen Jr.
2016 — Eddie Graham
2015 — Mike Scroggins
2014 — Norm Duke
2013 — Pete Weber
2012 — Amleto Monacelli
2011 — Ricky Beck
2010 — Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2009 — Brian Voss
2008 — Wayne Webb
2007 — Sam Zurich
2006 — Bob Kelly
2005 — Tom Baker
2004 — David Ozio
2003 — Don Sylvia
2002 — Vince Mazzanti Jr.
2001 — Mark Roth
2000 — Guppy Troup
1999 — Mike Pullin
1998 — Johnny Petraglia
1997 — George Pappas
1996 — Dale Eagle
1995 — Pete Couture
1994 — Larry Laub

Past PBA60 Player of the Year Award Winners

2024 — Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2023 — Pete Weber
2022 — Lennie Boresch Jr.
2021 — Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2020 — no award (COVID, season canceled)
2019 — Ron Mohr
2018 — Ron Mohr
2017 — Ron Mohr
2016 — Ron Mohr

Past Dick Weber Sportsmanship Award Winners

2024 — Donald Hogue
2023 — Tom Adcock
2022 — Jeff Johnson
2021 — Mark Sullivan
2020 — no award (COVID, season canceled)
2019 — Sammy Ventura
2018 — Chris Keane
2017 — Ted Staikoff
2016 — Kerry Fulford
2015 — Tom Carter
2014 — Chris Keane
2013 — Robert Harvey
2012 — Dave Soutar
2011 — Ray Randall
2010 — Robert Harvey
2009 — Larry Graybeal
2008 — Fred Baldwin