He Cuts Familiar, Striking Figure

On Tuesday nights, when Mike Aulby is not touring the country, he’s back home in Carmel, Ind., bowling in the league he’s been in since he was 19.

“Hi, I’m Mike,” he says as he introduces himself to opponents.

Those who have been around know this man with the rimless glasses and fuzzy brown mustache is not merely Mike. A fair introduction would go something like:

Hi, I’m Mike Aulby, the Professional Bowlers Assn. 1995 bowler of the year and the best left-hander since Earl Anthony. I’ve made $2.5 million in winnings and sponsorship and I’m only 35. Oh, and by the way, in April I will be inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame . . . Good luck.

“Most of them know me by now,” Aulby said the other day. “But every once in a while you get somebody new.”

There will be no such victims in the $270,000 AC Delco Classic starting today at Cal Bowl in Lakewood. Those competing through Saturday for the $48,000 top prize are well aware of Aulby and his station in bowling. He is the best in the sport today.

Aulby gave himself away last season when he joined Billy Hardwick, Johnny Petraglia and Pete Weber as the only bowlers to have won the sport’s triple crown--the PBA National, U.S. Open and Tournament of Champions. Of course, Aulby did the others one better. He also won the ABC masters division, becoming the first to complete the contemporary Grand Slam. Oh, and he won money in 25 of 26 PBA events, also a record.

“It was my best year ever,” Aulby said. “It was the whole all-around picture.”

Aulby’s 1995 success was surprising, considering his 1994 season. Distracted by the stroke-caused death of his father and the responsibility of being PBA president, Aulby earned $32,303 on the tour, his worst showing since his rookie year in 1979.

“When you battle the bad, it makes you appreciate the good that much more,” Aulby said.

He has spent this season reaping the rewards, which have brought him close to some of the Southland’s top names in sports.

He rode a limo to Radio City Music Hall for the ESPY awards Feb. 12 with Jim Harrick, and Ed O’Bannon was on his flight back to Indianapolis the next day.

And Aulby met Keyshawn Johnson on Feb. 24 in Columbus, Ohio, where both were given awards by the Touchdown Club.

It is not as if he needed more of Southern California sports. His 6-year-old son, C.J., is a hockey player, having joined a league after watching the movie “The Mighty Ducks.”

“It’s funny,” Aulby said. “I go out and watch [C.J.’s team] play and they skate around, hitting their sticks on the boards, doing all the things they saw in the movie.”

C.J. bowls too, and has done so since he was 3.

“He is old enough now where he understands what’s going on,” Aulby said. “I come home from a trip and he says, ‘So, did you cash?’ ”

Aulby, like C.J., is a hockey fan, actually a sports nut.

He and a few of his bowling buddies have been known to stay at the lanes five hours after tournaments have ended, organizing their rotisserie league. And, being a Hoosier, Aulby has strong feelings about auto racing and basketball. He worries about the new Indy Racing League’s affect on the Indianapolis 500, and is strongly against a proposition that would break the Indiana state high school basketball tournament into divisions.

“I am big on tradition,” Aulby said. “Don’t change anything.”

But Aulby will quickly seek change if he is not winning. After that 1994 season, he spoke with sports psychiatrist Eva Burridge, bowler Bruce Hamilton’s girlfriend.

“I give her credit for winning the Tournament of Champions,” Aulby said. “She has helped me with the pressure situations and helped with mental self-talk to stay focused.”

Although he enjoys all sports, Aulby is a bowler to the core. He even met his wife, Tami, through bowling. Former PBA tour veteran Steve Cook introduced them. Cook is married to Tami’s sister

“I owe everything to bowling,” he said. “My wife, my house, my friends. Everything.”