Don Carter

Who was Don Carter?

Donald James Carter was a right-handed American professional bowler. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he learned the game while working a childhood job as a pinsetter. Carter went on to become one of the legends of ten-pin bowling and a founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association in 1958. He was six-time bowler of the year, and became known simply as "Mr. Bowling." He was voted the Greatest Bowler of All-Time in a 1970 Bowling Magazine poll, and ranked #11 on the PBA's 2008 list of "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years." At the vanguard of celebrity endorsement, he capitalized on his fame during televised bowling's most popular period to become the first athlete of any kind to earn $1,000,000 in a single endorsement deal, for Ebonite International.