BATON ROUGE - At the end of May, the famed Zodiacs of New Orleans made what has been labeled as their final appearance at the USBC Women’s Championship in Las Vegas, according to a feature story by the USBC.

It’s hard to believe this wonderful group of ladies who started a protest over the attire rules has turned into more than 55 years of amazing costumes and passion for sport matched by few.

The Zodiacs – known as the “World’s Best-Dressed Bowling Team” – recently returned to the tournament for the 57th consecutive year at the South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas to pay tribute to the group’s founder, Linda Prattini, who passed away last October.

The group honored the history of the Zodiacs with four teams donning items from their previous costumes designed by Prattini.

In 2017 at the Raising Canes River Center, the Zodiacs paid tribute to Baton Rouge and LSU with some school themed bowling outfits.

The story goes that Prattini, who made her tournament debut in 1967, was not happy with some dress code rules in 1969 so at the San Diego tournament, the Zodiacs made their debut. In a protest to the dress code, the team arrived that year in full-length formal dresses that would break away at the knees once they were ready to bowl.

Since then, the Zodiacs became an annual tradition at the tournament as each team member would hand-craft a new costume based on a theme. The theme often was determined by characteristics of the host city or events taking place in New Orleans.

Prattini made her 50th consecutive appearance at the tournament in 2016 and made her final appearance at the Women's Championships in 2024, marking 57 consecutive trips to compete.

One lady who has been with the Zodiacs for more than 30 years is Muriel Staunton of Metairie, who joined the team with Prattini in 1995 and made her 47th tournament appearance this year in Las Vegas.

“I didn’t go with them until 1995,” Staunton said in a USBC release. “I think because they would bowl every year consecutively, which is why I joined. Other teams I had bowled with said they would go, and when it came time to, they didn’t do it.”

Having the expectation of special costumes became something people looked forward to over the years. It’s a tradition that the Zodiacs had to keep up not only for themselves, but for the bowling community.

One of Staunton’s favorite memories of Prattini was when she had them dress like the characters of “The Wizard of Oz.” The design included many elements of the movie into their outfits, and it was a highlight for Staunton.

“The first time we bowled in Kansas, the whole group dressed like the yellow brick road,” Staunton said. “The costumes had the scarecrows, dogs, rainbows, green stones and all the other elements of the yellow brick road. It was my favorite.”

Prattini was a lady full of passion for bowling and the Zodiacs. The love she shared for her teammates really touched them.

“She just had a zest for life and all things New Orleans,” said Denise Chamberlain of Belle Chasse. who made her ninth tournament appearance with the Zodiacs. “That’s why it shined through with the bowling and all the bling, because, you know, Mardi Gras and New Orleans.”

A toast to a group of wonderful ladies who were truly a part of USBC Women’s Championship lore.

PBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY

This will take a bit of doing on Saturday, but there will be two shows to decide the PBA World Championship at the famed Strobl Arena in the newly renamed AMF Thunderbowl in Allen Park, Michigan.

It is a nine-player stepladder with players 5-9 bowling on the first show at 10 a.m. CT on the CBS Sports Network. Those bowlers will be Jason Belmonte, Brandon Bonta, Zach Wilkins, Jason Sterner and Darren Tang.

Then immediately following on CBS Sports (over-the-air) at Noon CT will be the final five-player stepladder where the player advancing from the first show will join Chris Via, Bill O’Neil, Kris Prather and top seed EJ Tackett in another stepladder show to determine the world champion.

This is the first of two straight weeks of bowling on CBSSN with the Elite League on June 20 and then the renamed Norm Duke Open which will feature five hours of live coverage on June 21.

PBA REGIONAL UPCOMING

The PBA SW Regional Dudley DeBosier Open will be held June 20-21 at All Star Lanes in Baton Rouge. We will get into this next week in our column, but the Greater Baton Rouge Bowling Association is hosting a Pro-Am event the night before the tournament starts on Friday, June 19, at 6 p.m.

Bowlers will get to bowl with three different pros and both adults and youth can participate with youth bowlers winning scholarships while adults can win cash prizes. The local association is adding $1,500 to the prize fund so that’s pretty cool. Entries are available at the lanes and the All Star Baton Rouge website. Even more fun, it will be on a PBA-type shot.

More on this next week.

Until then, good luck and good bowling,

                                                    Kent Lowe