One of the most fortunate things that has happened to me in my 15 or so years operating 11thFrame.com is connecting with Eric Hartman.

I don’t recall how it happened, but would bet that Hartman initiated our contact and remembers it: that’s just how the famed bowling historian operates.

Hartman wrote The Historical Dictionary of Bowling with John Grasso and has been an invaluable resource for me.  

I long ago lost track of the number of times I’d be watching a PBA, PBA50 or PWBA show, something noteworthy would happen that I would want to include the history on in a story, and he’d send me the information before I could even message him to ask about it.

He’s nominated numerous players for the USBC and PWBA Halls of Fame, created databases of eligible Hall of Fame candidates, researched and fact-checked important events in bowling history, and created three important data sets that live free at 11thFrame.com: the complete historical records of PBA Tour titles, PBA50 Tour and PBA60 titles, and the history of women’s professional bowling.

Since Hartman did all the work, with just some editorial guidance from me, I have no paywall on any of those datasets.

Hartman’s latest amazing offering came out of the blue in a recent email to me, and has required just a few tweaks to become the offering attached to this story.

It is a comprehensive history of PBA PTQs since the 2004-05 season.

The database includes the size of each PTQ field, the players who qualified and their scores, the high non-members, with highlights over the names of the players who made championships rounds (TV shows) and won titles.

Here’s a great trivia question no one would get without looking at the database: Name the players who have won titles coming from the PTQ since 2004-05.

The answer: Sean Rash, Mike Mineman, Rhino Page, Jason Belmonte, Anthony LaCaze, Brian Ziesig, Matt O'Grady, Keven Williams, and Boog Krol.

Clarification: PBA was typed where PWBA was meant to be in one spot in an earlier version of this story. And Jason Belmonte's win in the 2009 Bowling Foundation Long Island Classic and Matt O'Grady's TOC win from the PTQ were left out of an earlier version of this story.