Provitt achieves perfection with money on his mind

While bowling in the Donatelli Seniors League at Boardman Lanes on Dec. 11, Willie Provitt had his mind on the jackpot and not on a 300 game.

In the end, he got both.

Provitt’s second game of the night enabled the 75-year-old to collect some money and to distinguish himself in the 12-team, 55-and-over league on Thursdays.

“When I started that night, I didn’t have any idea I’d bowl 300,” said Provitt. “Basically, I was trying to shoot to get the individual jackpot. I was trying to win the game, but after eight strikes, I started to think, ‘If I’m careful, I may get 300 and that’s exactly what I did.’ ”

His set after bowling with his Scrappers team was 662.

It wasn’t the first 300 for Provitt, who had a perfect game in 1987.

“I have a watch to prove it,” said Provitt, who retrieved the watch and read the date inscribed: 11-11-87.

He rolled it at McGuffey Lanes, then bowled another one shortly thereafter.

Provitt, who graduated from Warren Harding High but didn’t move to Youngstown until the last 28 years, began bowling after Youngstown Sheet & Tube closed down in 1977.

“I had spare time and didn’t want to grow old doing nothing, so a friend asked me to go to the alleys. I got carried way with it. Then he talked me into joining a league. It was better than a monkey in a barrel of peanuts,” Provitt said. “When I realized that I could get money for first place, that’s when I got good and bowling became a second job.”

Years before, Provitt worked several jobs, including his first at a car wash.

“At one point, I was a workaholic,” he said of a job as a Warren city bus driver from 2:15 to 9:15 p.m., followed by midnight shifts as a soak-and-pit craneman in the blooming mill.

“I did that for about 12 years until the bus service stopped.”

Willie’s daughter, Brenda, said her father was the Warren city bus service’s first black driver.

As Provitt has proven, he hasn’t slowed down.

He now bowls six times a week and sometimes seven when including traveling leagues.

“It kind of keeps my mind off of other stuff, plus I meet a lot of nice people,” he said.

George Thomas had 300 in Youngstown Travelers, a league that makes stops in Rochester, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Youngstown during the regular season.

Thomas’ perfect game was rolled at Holiday Bowl on Dec. 13. His set was 700.

Coincidentally, that night, Thomas was a member of the Holiday Bowl No. 1 team captained by Provitt.

Other team members were James Kitchen, Eddie Jackson, John Coley, Glenn Barnett and Maurice Harris.

The Travelers league convention in June, 2009 will be in Detroit.

Another of Provitt’s acquaintances had a perfect game recently.

That would be Napoleon Hill, whose 300 came in Howgren Heating & Cooling at Holiday on Dec. 5.

Mark Ferrara had high set of 815 in Kelley-Robb Funeral Home Classic at Bell-Wick and Andrea Lucente had 300, followed by 225 and 184 for 719 in Wednesday Nite Ladies at Wedgewood on Dec. 10.

Teri Haefke and Lauren Bachinger had co-top three-game sets of 709 in Ladies Trio at Wedgewood on Dec. 16. Barb Baker’s 267 was the top game.