The term “real” job has been around in top-level bowling for as long as I have been part of it, which is more than four decades.
If you had a “real” job — a full-time regular job — you obviously couldn’t be a full-time professional bowler. And many a pro bowler who couldn’t cut it, or tired of the lifestyle, would leave as soon as they could find a “real” job.
I was such a player, though my wrist drove me off the Tour after...