Walter Ray Williams Jr.

At age 59, Williams opened the 2019 PBA50 season with three consecutive victories, including the PBA50 National Championship, giving him three majors among his 14 PBA50 Tour titles. He is now tied with John Handegard for the most PBA50 Tour titles of all-time, making Williams the career titles leader on both the PBA Tour and PBA50 Tour. With a third place finish in the second-to-last event of the 2019 PBA50 Tour season, Williams clinched his third career PBA50 Player of the Year award.

"As long as I feel good and stay competitive, I’ll keep on bowling. I don’t want to be out here if I’m not competitive; I’d be too frustrated. When I can’t compete, when it isn’t fun, I’ll retire. I have no issue with that. But I feel like I’m still doing pretty well."

As of 2019, Williams is still competing in the majority of events on the standard PBA Tour, as well as PBA50 Tour, PBA Regional Tour and PBA50 Regional Tour events. "As long as I still have my sponsors, I’m going to keep bowling," said Williams at an April 2018 PBA Tour event where he made it to the semifinal round.

In his later career, Williams has experimented with a two-handed "shovel style" delivery, and began using it in some PBA50 tournaments. At the River City Extreme Open in July, 2019, he shot a 300 game in qualifying using the two-handed approach.

Williams won the 2014 USBC Senior Masters to become only the second bowler to win both the USBC Masters and USBC Senior Masters (following Dave Soutar). On June 11, 2017, Williams won his second USBC Senior Masters, becoming the only player in history to win the USBC Masters and USBC Senior Masters twice each.

On December 18, 2016, Williams became the first player in history to reach 100 total PBA titles (combined PBA Tour, PBA Regional Tour, PBA50 Tour, PBA50 Regional Tour). The total is now 115 through 2019.

On December 10, 2016, Williams made it to the final match of the PBA Shark Championship in Reno, NV. A victory would have made Williams the oldest player (57 years, 65 days) to ever win a regular PBA Tour event, but he was defeated in the finals by Canadian François Lavoie. John Handegard continues to hold the distinction as oldest PBA Tour champion at 57 years, 55 days.

Williams won three PBA50 titles in 2013 and earned his second PBA50 Player of the Year award.

Williams won two Senior titles in 2012 and earned his first Senior PBA Player of the Year award.

In the 2011 PBA Senior season, Williams again had a chance to match Soutar as the only bowlers to win both the USBC Masters and Senior USBC Masters. But he again came in second, this time falling to Dale Traber in the finals, 707-695.

After turning 50, Williams announced that he would participate in the 2010 PBA Senior Tour (called the PBA50 Tour since 2013), but in limited events due to Team USA and other obligations.

Williams made his PBA Senior Tour debut on May 3, 2010, at the Miller High Life Senior Classic in Mooresville, NC. To the surprise of no one, he won the tournament three days later. On June 18, 2010, Williams had a chance to become just the second bowler to win the USBC Masters and USBC Senior Masters in a career (joining Dave Soutar), and the first to win both in the same year. Williams made the three-game final, but he was denied the title when he fell, 705-628, to fellow PBA Hall of Famer Wayne Webb.

Williams did bowl enough on the Senior Tour to earn 2010 PBA Senior Rookie of the Year honors.

Although Pete Weber is frequently presented to the general public as the poster-boy of the PBA, Williams might be the most respected and popular player on tour. This is because of his cool, confident demeanor, and his unparalleled success over the last two decades. Williams's longevity is further evidenced by the fact that more than one-third of his 47 titles (17) and 6 of his 8 majors have come after he reached age 40. Williams' most recent title in the 2010 USBC Masters came after he reached age 50. In fact, Williams swept every major PBA statistical category in the 2009-10 season, leading the tour in earnings ($152,670), average (222.89), match play appearances (15), and overall competition points. (See PBA Bowling Tour: 2009-10 season.)

Upon winning the 2009 Motor City Open championship, Williams extended his record of winning at least one PBA Tour title per season to 17 consecutive seasons, two years more than Earl Anthony's 1970–84 run. Williams' streak ended when he failed to win a title in the 2010-11 season.

On his longevity and future plans, Williams said in 2009:

In the 2008–09 season, the PBA's 50th, the PBA commissioned a panel of bowling experts to recognize the "50 Greatest Players of the Last 50 Years." Williams finished second on the list, behind only Earl Anthony. On an ESPN telecast January 25, 2009, Nelson Burton Jr. noted that the voting was close, but Anthony reached the #1 spot primarily for having more major titles than Williams (10 to 7 at the time). Williams was gracious in accepting second-place honors:

In August 2008 Williams joined Team USA to participate in that year's FIQ World Men's Championships in Thailand. For the first time professionals were allowed to compete in this truly international event with over 330 participants from 56 countries. Williams was the most successful bowler, winning four medals: Gold in Masters, Gold in Singles, Gold in Team and a Bronze medal in Trios.

In 2008 he also won a gold medal in the singles of the WTBA World Championships.

In the 2007–08 season, at age 48, Williams established the second-highest average in PBA history for a single season — 228.34. Only Norm Duke's 2006–07 mark of 228.47 was higher at the time, though that has since been broken by Jason Belmonte's 228.81 in the 2012–13 season. Through the 2019 PBA50 season, he has bowled 110 career 300 games in PBA competition, second only to the 114 perfect games tallied by Parker Bohn III.

He was married to Paige Pennington. The couple lived in Oxford, FL, and adopted a daughter in 2007. Williams and Pennington divorced in 2017. He is currently married to Fancy Allen. The couple has residency in Oxford. In addition to being a champion in both bowling and horseshoes, Williams plays golf and at one time had a 1 handicap.

On September 24, 2006, Williams eclipsed Earl Anthony's then-recognized career record of 41 PBA regular tour titles with his 42nd win at the Dydo Japan Cup over Pete Weber in a 289–236 single game pinfall. [Note: Anthony's title count was amended to 43 in 2008, when the PBA chose to include ABC Masters titles earned by a PBA member as PBA Tour titles.] Williams has been known as "Deadeye" in PBA fan circles, but he actually first got the nickname in horseshoes, when he threw 45 ringers out of a possible 50 in a junior tournament when he was 10 years old. He is known for several PBA achievements:

Williams was named "Male Bowler of the Decade" (2000–2009) in the Winter, 2010 issue of U.S. Bowler—an incredible accomplishment considering he started the decade at age 40. He won his unprecedented seventh PBA Player of the Year award in 2010, becoming the oldest player in history (50) to earn that honor.

Williams has also won six Men's World Horseshoe Pitching titles. He was invited to pitch horseshoes at the White House with President George H. W. Bush in 1989. He finished 2nd in the 2005 World Horseshoe Pitching Championships after switching from right handed to left handed.

Williams is a seven-time PBA Player of the Year (1986, '93, '96, '97, '98, 2003, 2010) which is one more than Earl Anthony for the most Player of the Year awards. He has won a record eight Bowling Writers Bowler of the Year awards and is also the all-time leading money winner on the PBA Tour. He has the most PBA money titles (seven). He was the first bowler in history to surpass $2 million in career earnings, achieving this in 1997. With his win in the 2003 U.S. Open, he also became the first $3 million career winner, while also becoming the first $4 million career winner in 2008. Williams also has the highest monetary winnings in a single season, with $419,700 during the 2002–03 PBA season.

Williams graduated from Cal Poly Pomona in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and a minor in mathematics. He has stated that if he wasn't a successful bowler, "I would have gone to work for NASA."

Walter Ray Williams Jr. (born October 6, 1959) is an American professional bowler and competitive horseshoes pitcher. He currently holds the record for all-time standard PBA Tour career titles (47) and total PBA earnings (over $4.9 million through 2019). He is a seven-time PBA Player of the Year, and won at least one PBA Tour title in 17 consecutive seasons (1993 through 2009-10); both of these feats are also PBA records. He starred in the ten-pin bowling sports documentary A League of Ordinary Gentlemen. He is currently active on both the PBA Tour and the PBA50 Tour (formerly PBA Senior Tour). He is a three-time PBA50 Tour Player of the Year and has won 14 titles (three majors) on that Tour. This ties Williams with John Handegard for the most career PBA50 titles, making him the all-time titles leader on both the PBA and PBA50 Tours. He has rolled 110 career perfect 300 games in PBA competition.