Kelly Kulick
Encyclopedia
Kelly Kulick is an American professional bowler
from Union Township, New Jersey
. She has won eight professional women's bowling titles (six of them majors) and one PBA Tour
title.
tour title, winning the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas
on January 24, 2010. (See: PBA Bowling Tour: 2009-10 season
.) After finishing the weekly qualifying as the #2 seed, she defeated #3 qualifier Mika Koivuniemi
to advance to the final against 12-time titleist and 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year Chris Barnes. In the final, she threw 10 strikes in a dominating 265-195 win. She now has a 2-year exemption to compete on the PBA Tour
.
(The previous high finish for a female in a regular PBA Tour event was second place, accomplished by Liz Johnson at the 2005 Banquet Open. The first woman to defeat a man in a televised championship bowling match was Lynda Barnes, who defeated Sean Rash
in the finals of the 2008 USBC Clash of the Champions -- a non-PBA made-for-TV event broadcast nationally in the U.S. on CBS-TV.)
Billie Jean King
, former tennis superstar and head of the Women's Sports Foundation, summed up the impact of Kulick's TOC victory: "Kelly Kulick's win at the PBA Tour's Tournament of Champions is not only historic, it serves as a motivational and inspirational event for girls and women competing at all levels all around the world." Kulick was also one of the invitees to the International Women’s Day reception, hosted by President
and Mrs. Obama
and held in the East Room of the White House
on March 8, 2010.
Kulick is a former two-time Collegiate Bowler of the Year and two-time All-American from Morehead State University
. She graduated from Morehead State with a degree in Physical and Health Education. As an amateur, Kulick has been a seven-time member of Team USA (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2011). She was part of the 2011 team that took home the United States' first gold medal in the team event since 1987.
Kulick began her professional career with the now defunct Professional Women's Bowling Association
(PWBA), winning the 2001 Rookie of the Year Award. She also won the 2003 U.S. Women's Open
. After the demise of the PWBA, Kulick began bowling in the PBA Eastern Region. In 2005-06, Kulick cashed in 12 of the 14 regional events in which she competed.
The PBA opened its membership to women in April 2004 after the Professional Women's Bowlers Association folded. The PBA Tour switched to an all-exempt field in 2004-05, with 58 bowlers earning full-time exemptions for each season. Two women — Liz Johnson and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard
— had previously gained entry to PBA Tour events through weekly qualifying.
On June 4, 2006, Kulick made history by becoming the first female professional bowler to earn a PBA Tour exemption (see PBA Bowling Tour: 2005-06 season
). This allowed her to compete in every PBA event of the 2006-07 season. Kulick was quoted in 2006 as saying, "To be the first woman is huge...words can't even describe the feeling. I feel confident I can be a good enough competitor to stay out on Tour. My next goal is to make a television show and become the first woman to win a PBA Tour title." During the 2006-07 season, however, Kulick only made five cuts, finished 54th in points, and lost her PBA exempt status. Kulick was also unsuccessful in her attempt to regain an exemption for the 2007-08 season at the 2007 PBA Tour Trials.
Kelly did rebound by winning the USBC Queens
event in May, 2007.
In recent years, Kelly defeated Shannon Pluhowsky, 219-204, to win the inaugural PBA Women's World Championship -- the first women's major tournament under PBA sanction. The finals were contested September 6, 2009, and aired October 25 on ESPN
. With the win, Kulick earned a spot in the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions, where she was the first-ever female competitor in the field. In this event, which took place in January of 2010, Kulick soundly defeated the field of male bowlers to become the first woman to win any PBA Tour event that was also open to men. She also locked up a two-year PBA Tour exemption.
Kulick's amazing 2010 continued when she won her second USBC Queens crown on April 28, 2010, then won the U.S. Women's Open
on May 12, 2010. For her efforts, she was presented with three awards at the PBA Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on January 22, 2011: the 2010 Bowlers Journal Person of the Year, the 2010 World Bowling Writers International Bowler of the Year, and the 2010 Glenn Allison
Hero Award.
On June 30, 2011, Kelly had the chance to be the first woman in 32 years to successfully defend a U.S. Women's Open
title, when she averaged over 241 and qualified as the #1 seed for the event in Arlington, Texas
. But Kulick rolled her lowest game of the entire tournament in the televised finals, getting upset by Leanne Hulsenberg
, 218-183.
Attended Morehead State University
http://www2.moreheadstate.edu/bowling/
's cast, as friend and former girlfriend of Flash Thompson
, starting with Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
#20. She was written into the comic after bowling a pro-am event with the daughter of one of the Spider-Man writers. Her main goal was to have an actual role in the movie, such as Parker's girlfriend. It was not to be due to Kulick's objection to a wet-shirt make out scene in Spiderman.
Kulick has also endorsed several clothing lines, including many bathing suit lines, following her win at the Tournament of Champions.
Kelly posed nude (with strategically placed shadows) for ESPN The Magazine
s annual "Bodies We Want" issue in October, 2011. The issue featured Kulick along with 19 other professional athletes, both male and female. Kulick is the first bowler to ever appear in this issue.
Bowler (ten-pin)
A bowler is someone participating in the sport of bowling, either as an amateur or professional. In American ten-pin bowling, a bowler is most commonly a member of a team of three to six people...
from Union Township, New Jersey
Union Township, Union County, New Jersey
Union is a Township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. In the 18th century, the area that is now Union was then called Connecticut Farms...
. She has won eight professional women's bowling titles (six of them majors) and one PBA Tour
PBA Tour
The Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the PBA Tour consists of "exempt" bowlers who are a part of the almost 4,300 members worldwide...
title.
Bowling accomplishments
Kulick is the first woman ever to win a regular Professional Bowlers AssociationProfessional Bowlers Association
The Professional Bowlers Association is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the PBA membership consists of almost 4,300 members worldwide...
tour title, winning the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
on January 24, 2010. (See: PBA Bowling Tour: 2009-10 season
PBA Bowling Tour: 2009-10 season
- Tournament Schedule and Recaps :In a cost-cutting move, the PBA held the first half of the 2009-10 season in Allen Park, MI under the name PBA World Series of Bowling. Preliminary rounds of the televised tournaments were held in August, with television tapings on Labor Day weekend...
.) After finishing the weekly qualifying as the #2 seed, she defeated #3 qualifier Mika Koivuniemi
Mika Koivuniemi
Mika Juhani Koivuniemi is a Finnish ten-pin bowler, currently on the Professional Bowlers Association tour in the United States, who has won bowling titles in 12 different countries in his career....
to advance to the final against 12-time titleist and 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year Chris Barnes. In the final, she threw 10 strikes in a dominating 265-195 win. She now has a 2-year exemption to compete on the PBA Tour
PBA Tour
The Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the PBA Tour consists of "exempt" bowlers who are a part of the almost 4,300 members worldwide...
.
(The previous high finish for a female in a regular PBA Tour event was second place, accomplished by Liz Johnson at the 2005 Banquet Open. The first woman to defeat a man in a televised championship bowling match was Lynda Barnes, who defeated Sean Rash
Sean Rash
Sean Rash is a right-handed ten-pin bowler from Anchorage, AK, and is considered one of the brightest young players on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour. He now resides in Montgomery, Illinois.Rash joined the PBA in 2005...
in the finals of the 2008 USBC Clash of the Champions -- a non-PBA made-for-TV event broadcast nationally in the U.S. on CBS-TV.)
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King has been an advocate against sexism in sports and society...
, former tennis superstar and head of the Women's Sports Foundation, summed up the impact of Kulick's TOC victory: "Kelly Kulick's win at the PBA Tour's Tournament of Champions is not only historic, it serves as a motivational and inspirational event for girls and women competing at all levels all around the world." Kulick was also one of the invitees to the International Women’s Day reception, hosted by President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and Mrs. Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
and held in the East Room of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
on March 8, 2010.
Kulick is a former two-time Collegiate Bowler of the Year and two-time All-American from Morehead State University
Morehead State University
Morehead State University is a public, co-educational university located in Morehead, Kentucky, United States in the foothills of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Rowan County, midway between Lexington, Kentucky, and Huntington, West Virginia. The 2012 edition of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S...
. She graduated from Morehead State with a degree in Physical and Health Education. As an amateur, Kulick has been a seven-time member of Team USA (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2011). She was part of the 2011 team that took home the United States' first gold medal in the team event since 1987.
Kulick began her professional career with the now defunct Professional Women's Bowling Association
Professional Women's Bowling Association
The Professional Women's Bowling Association formed in 1960. After the organization struggled, a group of female professional bowlers left the PWBA to form the Ladies' Professional Bowlers Association in 1974. The two merged again in 1978, forming the Women's Professional Bowlers Association,...
(PWBA), winning the 2001 Rookie of the Year Award. She also won the 2003 U.S. Women's Open
U.S. Women's Open (bowling)
The United States Women's Open, a.k.a. U.S. Women's Open, a.k.a. Women's U.S. Open, is an annual tournament for women, dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. From its inception in 1949 until its cancellation in 2004 , the event was held every year except for 1953, 1997 and 2002...
. After the demise of the PWBA, Kulick began bowling in the PBA Eastern Region. In 2005-06, Kulick cashed in 12 of the 14 regional events in which she competed.
The PBA opened its membership to women in April 2004 after the Professional Women's Bowlers Association folded. The PBA Tour switched to an all-exempt field in 2004-05, with 58 bowlers earning full-time exemptions for each season. Two women — Liz Johnson and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard
Carolyn Dorin-Ballard is one of the top female ten-pin bowlers in the World. She was a member of the PWBA and has bowled in PBA Tournaments as well. She was an exempt competitor in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 PBA Women's Series seasons, which were sponsored by the United States Bowling Congress...
— had previously gained entry to PBA Tour events through weekly qualifying.
On June 4, 2006, Kulick made history by becoming the first female professional bowler to earn a PBA Tour exemption (see PBA Bowling Tour: 2005-06 season
PBA Bowling Tour: 2005-06 season
This is the 2005-2006 season in review for the Professional Bowlers Association Tour.-Season Highlights:* Sean Rash became the first bowler to win a title from a non-exempt position by defeating Mike DeVaney in the West Virginia Championship....
). This allowed her to compete in every PBA event of the 2006-07 season. Kulick was quoted in 2006 as saying, "To be the first woman is huge...words can't even describe the feeling. I feel confident I can be a good enough competitor to stay out on Tour. My next goal is to make a television show and become the first woman to win a PBA Tour title." During the 2006-07 season, however, Kulick only made five cuts, finished 54th in points, and lost her PBA exempt status. Kulick was also unsuccessful in her attempt to regain an exemption for the 2007-08 season at the 2007 PBA Tour Trials.
Kelly did rebound by winning the USBC Queens
USBC Queens
The USBC Queens is an annual ten-pin bowling event for amateur and professional female bowlers, sanctioned by the United States Bowling Congress...
event in May, 2007.
In recent years, Kelly defeated Shannon Pluhowsky, 219-204, to win the inaugural PBA Women's World Championship -- the first women's major tournament under PBA sanction. The finals were contested September 6, 2009, and aired October 25 on ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
. With the win, Kulick earned a spot in the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions, where she was the first-ever female competitor in the field. In this event, which took place in January of 2010, Kulick soundly defeated the field of male bowlers to become the first woman to win any PBA Tour event that was also open to men. She also locked up a two-year PBA Tour exemption.
Kulick's amazing 2010 continued when she won her second USBC Queens crown on April 28, 2010, then won the U.S. Women's Open
U.S. Women's Open (bowling)
The United States Women's Open, a.k.a. U.S. Women's Open, a.k.a. Women's U.S. Open, is an annual tournament for women, dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. From its inception in 1949 until its cancellation in 2004 , the event was held every year except for 1953, 1997 and 2002...
on May 12, 2010. For her efforts, she was presented with three awards at the PBA Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on January 22, 2011: the 2010 Bowlers Journal Person of the Year, the 2010 World Bowling Writers International Bowler of the Year, and the 2010 Glenn Allison
Glenn Allison
Glenn Richard Allison is an American professional ten-pin bowler and a charter member of the Professional Bowlers Association . He was born in Whittier, California to Leo Allison, a car salesman, and Stella Bradford. He won 5 PBA titles and one Senior PBA title, and was inducted into the PBA Hall...
Hero Award.
On June 30, 2011, Kelly had the chance to be the first woman in 32 years to successfully defend a U.S. Women's Open
U.S. Women's Open (bowling)
The United States Women's Open, a.k.a. U.S. Women's Open, a.k.a. Women's U.S. Open, is an annual tournament for women, dedicated to ten-pin bowling in the United States. From its inception in 1949 until its cancellation in 2004 , the event was held every year except for 1953, 1997 and 2002...
title, when she averaged over 241 and qualified as the #1 seed for the event in Arlington, Texas
Arlington, Texas
Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas within the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. According to the 2010 census results, the city had a population of 365,438, making it the third largest municipality in the Metroplex...
. But Kulick rolled her lowest game of the entire tournament in the televised finals, getting upset by Leanne Hulsenberg
Leanne Barrette
Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg, currently of Roseville, CA , was one of the top female professional bowlers on the now-defunct Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour. In a career that spanned 17 years, she won 26 PWBA titles and was twice named PWBA Player of the Year...
, 218-183.
Attended Morehead State University
http://www2.moreheadstate.edu/bowling/
In the media
Kelly Kulick was featured as a supporting character in Spider-ManSpider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
's cast, as friend and former girlfriend of Flash Thompson
Flash Thompson
Eugene "Flash" Thompson is a supporting character in Marvel Comics’s Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 ....
, starting with Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was a comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The title is derived from a trademark self-referential comment often made by Spider-Man , ironic in that Spider-Man is often falsely considered by the general public to be a dangerous vigilante and/or a criminal,...
#20. She was written into the comic after bowling a pro-am event with the daughter of one of the Spider-Man writers. Her main goal was to have an actual role in the movie, such as Parker's girlfriend. It was not to be due to Kulick's objection to a wet-shirt make out scene in Spiderman.
Kulick has also endorsed several clothing lines, including many bathing suit lines, following her win at the Tournament of Champions.
Kelly posed nude (with strategically placed shadows) for ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine is a bi-weekly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut in the United States. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998....
s annual "Bodies We Want" issue in October, 2011. The issue featured Kulick along with 19 other professional athletes, both male and female. Kulick is the first bowler to ever appear in this issue.