For the 9th Annual Times-News Open both Tom Hickey, Marion Bartnik and Leroy Smith were eyeing their third title. Also, Ray Sheridan was looking to repeat his 1971 TN victory. The tournament followed the traditional 44-game format with the qualifier at Perry Plaza, Frontier, and Eastland with Eastland also being the finals’ host.

Dave Schaeffer picked up an additional $100 bonus offered by Perry Plaza proprietor Mike Rapchick for being the leader after round 1. Dave’s 1,257 bettered Sam DeMichele’s 1,246 and Tim Nick’s 1,245.

Round 2 saw Tom (terrific) Kirk vault into the lead with 1,233 – 2,438, 17 pins better than DeMichele and 18 better than Ron Rakowski.

Rakowski, leading a contingent of youthful performers into the finals shot an 8-game 1,758 for a total of 4,158. Kirk ended up 19 pins back with DeMichele third and Nick fourth.

Smooth rolling Ken Trieber shot 1,807 for the finals’ first 8 games for a bonus total of 2,057. Nick held the second spot with 2,001 while cousin Rick Heaverly was at 2,000. Qualifying champ Rakowski was fourth at 1,987.

23-year old Ron Rakowski surged back into the lead after day 2 with an 8-game block of 1,708 his bonus and previous total left him atop with 3,945. 17-year old Tim Nick remained steady holding down the second spot just 88 pins behind Rakowski.

A huge throng gathered at Eastland (yours truly standing on a ball rack
up by the television just to see the action) for what would turn out to be a simply amazing finish. Ray Sheridan made a move from his previous 5th place spot to second entering the position round but Ron Rakowski remained steady and was holding a comfortable lead. After game 1 of the position round Rakowski’s lead stood at 138 over Sheridan, his competitor, and at 118 over Ken Trieber who was bowling in the #3 v. #4 match. Sheridan started strong with strikes on his first 7 shots while Rakowski struggled. With a 9 spare in the eighth and 4 closing strikes Sheridan had 279 and a shot at the title but both Rakowski and Treiber still had a shot. Rakowski needed to strike out in the 10th and had his dreams shattered as he left a 3-9-10 split on his first attempt.

Meanwhile, on the adjacent pair Ken Treiber was making his bid. Treiber began the final game with 6 strikes before missing a costly 10 pin in the seventh. He followed up with strikes in the eighth, ninth and first one in the tenth needing just one more to overtake Sheridan. Another 10 pin meant that Sheridan had escaped with his second consecutive title by just 2 pins over Treiber. Rakowski ended third, 20 pins back,

Sheridan, who after admitting that a steak n’ eggs breakfast helped him to the title in ’71 repeated that recipe in ’72 as “Steak n’ Eggs” became the first Times-News Open champion
to defend his title.