Thunderbowl owner Tom Strobl, bowling 'legend' who helped save PBA, dies at 81

Earlier this month, outside Milwaukee, the latest World Series of Bowling was contested.

Almost certainly, there wouldn't have been a first — let alone a 14th — without Tom Strobl.

"He was willing to take a chance on it," said Vicki Ingham, longtime general manager of Allen Park's Thunderbowl Lanes, owned by Strobl since the 1990s. "And now here we are, at World Series of Bowling XIV.

"It's not simple to do that, taking your regular business and putting that aside for all those days."

Strobl, a lawyer from Bloomfield Hills, had a lot of passions throughout his life, but few rose above bowling, having grown up at bowling centers around Metro Detroit before he bought Thunderbowl Lanes with his brother, Jim, in 1997. Two years later, he helped launch the World Series of Bowling, a major boon for the Professional Bowlers Association, which at the time was financially in the gutter, but since has found its footing and even landed a television deal with Fox Sports.

Strobl died of a heart attack Thursday, April 20, the start of the PBA World Championship in Milwaukee. He was 81.

Before the start of the finals Sunday, the PBA held a moment of silence in Strobl's honor.

"WSOB I, in 2009, was an experiment, a bet, a movement, to grow the game globally while saving the PBA during a national economic recession. Thunderbowl was the perfect host for the PBA and the WSOB. I knew the minute I met Tom and took a tour of the facility," Tom Clark, commissioner of the PBA Tour, said in a Facebook post last week. "Because of Strobl, the WSOB went on to reach its goals.

"Tom Strobl is a legend."

Strobl was born in Detroit in 1942, the same year his family got into the bowling business. He worked at several centers across the region, as early as grade school, hanging coats and cleaning bathrooms. Strobl and brother Jim bought their first bowling alley in 1972, and then bought Thunderbowl in 1997, and quickly helped once again make it a destination for the highest levels of the game. With 90 lanes, Thunderbowl is the biggest bowling center in the country, and the centerpiece of bowling in Detroit, long considered the bowling capital of the world.

The first World Series of Bowling, in 2009, was born more of necessity than anything, given the tough economic circumstances in the country. Putting the PBA's marquee events in one location, near a major airport with an adequate supply of hotels, made sense, financially for the circuit, if not for Strobl himself.

The first World Series of Bowling required 19 days of competition at Thunderbowl, from mid-August through early September, cutting down on his recreational-bowling business. And Strobl loved the rec-bowling business, known for regular strolls through the Thunderbowl house to talk with customers.

"He was just genuinely a really nice guy," said Ingham, who has known Strobl for a quarter-century. "Every person he came across, at the law firm or customers at the bowling center, he always had time to talk to people to see how they genuinely were. And he meant it. I'm gonna miss him."

Six tournament championships were contested at that first World Series of Bowling, with one of the game's greats, Norm Duke, winning the first one, the Cheetah Championship.

For the next eight years, the World Series moved to Nevada, mostly Las Vegas but also Reno, before turning to Thunderbowl for World Series of Bowling X, in 2019.

The PBA had just landed Fox Sports as a television partner in 2019, and Fox Sports pushed for nearly a week of live coverage from Thunderbowl, with its legendary arena.

Clark called the 2019 World Series of Bowling "a pinnacle moment in our game."

Under Strobl's ownership — he eventually became sole owner of Thunderbowl — the house has hosted all the major bowling tournaments, including the PBA Players Championship, PBA Tournament of Champions, the Teen Masters and the World Bowling Youth Championships, with events televised on ESPN and CBS Sports Network. Thunderbowl hosted the USBC Masters earlier this year, and Thunderbowl will host the 2024 NCAA women's championships as the Strobl family plans to keep the house in the family.

"He never gave up on competitive bowling," said Ingham, "and continued to make Thunderbowl the home for competitive bowling."

In 2021, Strobl was presented a lifetime achievement award from the Detroit Bowling Hall of Fame.

Strobl earned a bachelor's in business from Michigan State, before earning a master's in business from the University of Michigan. He earned his law degree from Detroit College of Law. He opened his practice, Strobl PLLC, in 1989, moving his young family from Grosse Pointe Park to Bloomfield Hills.

According to his obituary, "Tom never retired. Not sure he even knew that was an option."

Aside from bowling, he was a golf enthusiast, as a longtime member at Detroit Golf Club. He always had the newest gadgets, and prided himself on the games of his three grandchildren, thanks to Sunday lessons with Grandpa during the winters.

Strobl also was a longtime member at the Detroit Athletic Club, and was a fitness fanatic, even joining Equinox at 80 years older and working with a trainer multiple times a week. Known as "Good Time Tom," he enjoyed his boat rides, meals at Moro's in Allen Park, Tigers and Red Wings games, and euchre (Strobl and wife Kathy claimed to be "unbeatable," according to his obituary). He read the Wall Street Journal, but also was up on celebrity gossip. Strobl also supported a number of charities, including Southfield's Angels Place, where he sat on the Board of Directors.

"If you knew him, you are lucky," Clark wrote. "If you didn't, just know he is the kind of person you want to be."

Strobl is survived by Kathy, wife of nearly 58 years, and three daughters, Pam, Sandy and Katie, as well as grandchildren Max, Jake and Sydney. His funeral was Wednesday in Troy.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tonypaul1984