FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2000
The Flagship Open sails
by Michael Frawley
managing editor
In a town that doesn't have much
in the way of things to do, bowling
has become a community pastime.
With 23 different bowling alleys in
the area, with various public houses
and private clubs, and 6400
registered league bowlers in 300
leagues in Erie, bowling is the most
played recreation sport in Erie. With
all of these dedicated bowlers
around, it is no surprise that when
the Professional Bowlers Tour came
to Erie to participate in the Flagship
Open, people came out by the
hundreds to see some of the best
bowlers in the world show their stuff.
The Flagship Open, which is now
in its tenth year, has become one of
the most popular tour stops among
the pros, and opened on Sunday,
October 22. The bowling on Sunday
consisted of a qualifying round of 2
nine game blocks. Monday, the top
24 bowlers from the qualifying round
entered into match play with each
The eerie tales of Erie and beyond
by Sarah Orr
staff writer
As we near the Halloween
holiday, eerie stories begin to
crop up about things that go
bump in the night. With a
history dating to the 18 ,h cen
tury, Erie provides countless
opportunities for ghoulish
happenings. Here are only a
few of the prime legends that
haunt Northwest Pennsylva-
One of the most well
known tales to Erie residents
involves an axe, a lover, and
a jealous husband. The tale
of Axe Murder Hollow is as
unsettling as its name. At the
turn of the 20 lh century, a
farming family lived in the
remote wooded area near
present day Sterrettania
Road in Millcreek. The
lonely wife’s attention wan
dered from her family, and
she consequently took on a
lover. Predictably, the hus-
band became aware of the
adulterous affair. The secret
relationship as well as the
family became the target of
enraged husband’s jealousy.
Wielding an axe, he murdered his
wife and children. Legend has it
that the farmer’s spirit still stalks
the area to this day. Residents and
hikers have reported mysterious
happenings in the surrounding
woods. Local lore tells of disem
bodied laughter and spontaneous
bursts of light throughout the hol
low. Witnesses swear that the en
vious farmer, axe in hand, still
roams the woods in search of the
lover. The crumbling remains of
the farmer’s house are a haunting
reminder of the atrocities that oc
curred there more than 100 years
The home of the next legend is
Girard. Just west of Erie, Girard
houses a covered bridge that many
TEN LITTILE INDI
FINAL SHOW DATES THIS W
The cast of
Ten Little Indians
at the Studio Theatre
Penn State Erie, The
Behrend College,
is shown here.
The performance schei
ule for this Agatha
Christie mystery-come
is as follows: October
at 8:00 pm, and
October 28 at 2:30 pm
bowler participating in 3 rounds of
8 games each. The final round of
match play took place Tuesday
morning. The top eight finishers
then moved on to the TV finals,
which were held Tuesday night at 8
pm, and were broadcast live on
ESPN. Entering the TV finals
Robert Smith held l' 1 place,
followed by Danny Wisemen, Jason
Couch. C hris Barnes, Walter Ray
Williams Jr., Steve Hoskins. Ryan
Shafer, and Doug Kent.
Unfortunately for the hometown
Erie tans. Bob Learn, who hails
from Erie and is one of the best
bowlers on the tour now, placed It)' 1 ’
and did not make it into the TV
finals. Learn is a past Flagship
Open winner from 1996, when he
won in dramatic fashion, bowling a
perfect 300 game during the TV
finals, winning the tournament and
pocketing an extra $lO,OOO for his
300 game.
A stepladder final was held to
crown the champion of the
Flagship. In a stepladder final, three
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Covered bridge in Girard with eerie tale.
allege to be haunting grounds of
a ghostly mule named Gudgeon.
In the late 18()()'s a man at
tempted to lead his mule aeross
the covered bridge spanning Elk
Creek. Coming to the entrance of
the bridge, the mule refused the
attempts of the man it) compel it
to go any farther. Upon his
master’s insistence to cross, the
mule began to bray. The owner
beat the mule, trying in vain to
coerce the animal to continue,
but to no avail. The beating con
tinued until the mule was blud
geoned to death and was buried
at the base of the bridge.
As the tale is told, those cross
ing the bridge today sometimes
hear the distant echoes of a mule
braying in agony. Locals in the
area claim to have seen a head
bowlers square off against each other, see Williams, who is considered to
with the winner moving on to the next
match. After three such matches, the
winner then faces the top seed in a
one on one match. The first match
took place between Ryan Shafer,
Doug Kent and Steve Hoskins.
Hoskins moved on after beating Kent
in a bowl-off when the match ended
in a tie. The second match took place
between Hoskins, Chris Barnes, and
fan favorite Walter Ray Williams Jr.
Many in attendance were excited to
less horseman, black cape waving
in the wind, galloping wildly
across the covered bridge at night.
The final story dates back to the
American Revolution. General
Anthony Wayne, or Mad Anthony
as he was known, took on a case
of gout and died before he could
receive medical attention. The war
hero Was promptly buried on
Presque Isle, but years later, his
family wished to have his remains
transported to their mausoleum
across the state. Upon exhumation
of the body twelve years later, it
was discovered Anthony was
fairly well preserved. A local sur
geon boiled the body and removed
the remaining flesh from the
bones. The flesh and uniform were
reburied in their original location,
while the bones were packaged to
be the best bowler on the tour, bowl.
Among chants for Williams, he
handily defeated Barnes and
Hoskins. The next match pitted
Williams against Danny Wisemen
and Jason Couch. Williams again
won the match, bringing fans to their
feet in anticipation of the final match
between Williams and tournament
leader Robert Smith. Williams was
not able to keep his winning streak
going, falling to Smith 239-233.
PHOTO BY JEFF MILLER
be transferred. Anthony's brother,
who held a vendetta against his
sibling, was put in charge of the
transportation. Along the bumpy
wagon journey, several bones
slipped from the open bag and
scattered along the earth below. At
midnight on New Year’s Eve, Mad
Anthony calls for his horse, and
rides along the trail, lantern in
hand, desperately seeking his
missing bones.
Though none of these stories
have sound scientific backing,
their witnesses would swear on
their lives that what they have
seen and heard was real. Are these
occurrences a mere coincidence,
or is the supernatural a part of our
daily lives?
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into Erie
Smith pocketed $ 19,000 tor his first
place finish.
Disappointing to many in
attendance was Williams' loss. He
had won the previous two
tournaments and winning a third
would have tied Williams for the
most tournament, wins in a row,
along with bowling greats Pete
Weber and Johnny Petraglia.
For those of you who have never
attended an event like this, you don't
know what you are missing. While
watching something like this on TV
may be boring, being up in the
stands cheering the bowders on and
knocking back Heinekins make for
an exciting night. And of course,
constantly seeing yourself on TV
can be quite a thrill. And for those
people who were lucky enough to
get to the tournament early, there
were seats available on the sides of
the alleys which gave spectators a
view of the ball coming right toward
you. which is something that you
usually don’t get to see.
While many people may think that
Choir, Concert Band fill
Commons with music
by Karl Benacci
features co-editor
On Tuesday. October 24, at 8:00
p.m., the Penn State Behrend College
Choir, along with the Penn State
Behrend Concert Band performed for
a large crowd in the Reed Commons.
The College Choir began the concert,
under the guidance of conductor Dr.
Daniel Barnard. The choir flawlessly
sang a number of songs including
"Magnificent," by T. Terius Noble
and "Alleluia," by Linda Spevaeck.
Barnard was happy with the
performance. "I was very pleased
with our performance, particularly
since the four selections we
performed were quite difficult works
and required a great deal of rehearsal
time to perfect.”
Following the College Choir’s
performance, the Behrend Concert
Band mesmerized the crowd with a
number of selections, including
"Americans We," by Henry Fillmore
and Frederick Fennell and “In my
Native Country," by Hdvard Grieg
and arranged by Brant Karrick.
T he most entertaining piece of
music was a selection entitled "The
Hymn of St. Francis," by Daniel
Bukvich. The musical selection was
based upon a nature theme, with
musicians using their instruments to
emulate the sounds of various
The Behrend Concert Band performs in the Reed Commons
bowling is easy, bowling under the
conditions that the pros do can be
nearly impossible for regular bowlers.
On a regular bowling alley that you
would bowl on for open bowling, they
place 3 units of oil; on an alley set up
for a pro tournament, they place 50-
60 units of oil. This greatly slows
down your ball, and makes it much
harder to control. Also the pins that
are used by the pros are much heavier
than standard pins. So if you have
trouble knocking pins down to begin
with, imagine if they were even
heavier.
Bowling has been growing in
popularity-in the past five years, with
bowling centers trying to find ways
to draw in younger bowlers. Many
alleys now offer glow bowling on
Friday and Saturday nights. During
glow bowling, alleys use lights, fog, :
and live music to make your bowling
experience more enjoyable. Many
different alleys in town do glow
bowling, with Eastland Lanes on
McClelland Avenue holding one of the
best in town 5 minutes from campus.
animals. During the piece, there were
periodic pauses, where poetry was read
by Mr. George Looney, assistant
professor of English, who composed
the poetry himself.
Dr. Gary Viebranz, conductor of the
Behrend Concert Band, was pleased
with the Band’s performance. “As an
ensemble, we set high musical
expectations that, frankly, are never
met. It’s one of the reasons we display
consistent improvement and
development. In a performance
though, my only expectation is tfyttt
everyone gives their best effort,
their best performance at any given
moment.” This group never fails to
reach that expectation in concert.
The crowd in attendance gave a
warm applause to the Concert Choir!
and the Concert Band at the conclusion j
of their performance. '
The College Choir is comprised of
52 students from every academic
major imaginable, except music. They,
meet three times per week to rehearse
and represent Behrend in
performances both on and off campus.
Any student may enroll in the Concert
Choir at the beginning of each
semester.
The Behrend Concert Band
rehearses twice weekly, and any
student with instrumental experience
may enroll