Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 >> Nearly 2,000 of the world's top action players rolled into Las Vegas this week for
00:21 the eighth annual Super Bowl high roller.
00:25 And one will take home a pot of gold worth $100,000.
00:32 From the showboat hotel casino and bowling center in Las Vegas, it's the Super Bowl high
00:38 roller.
00:39 We are inside the beautiful showboat.
00:40 So watch one bowler win $100,000.
01:00 Earl, four bowlers, $100,000 on the line.
01:03 It doesn't get any better than this tonight.
01:09 And this is what's left of our field of almost 2,000 entries here at the showboat.
01:14 >> There are a lot of Bob Berzicki fans all across the country.
01:31 >> What a clap.
01:41 >> The high roller tournament has paid over $62 million in prizes.
02:01 >> What are you doing?
02:02 >> Good, buddy.
02:03 How are you doing?
02:04 >> How are you?
02:05 >> Very well.
02:06 >> Good.
02:07 Good.
02:08 >> What's your match?
02:09 >> 1 o'clock.
02:10 When's yours?
02:11 >> Same time.
02:12 >> Oh, are you?
02:13 >> Hopefully we don't cross paths yet.
02:14 >> The whole point is these are one game matches, single matches.
02:17 It doesn't matter what you bowl, how high you bowl, as long as you win.
02:23 That's what it's about.
02:24 Win your in, lose your out.
02:26 That's how this is going on.
02:27 >> Nobody ever told me that I could have been the greatest, the best there ever was, even
02:32 though I knew that I could have been one of the best.
02:35 Because I beat the best.
02:36 I beat, when I was 20, all the people that became the best when we were 20, I was the
02:40 best out of all of them.
02:42 So and I broke their butts.
02:44 That's how we became good friends.
02:45 Because I would bowl them and beat them.
02:47 And after I got done beating them, we became friends.
02:53 >> 6B.
02:54 >> 6B.
02:55 >> How are you?
02:56 >> Good luck.
02:57 >> We're on 6B, guys.
02:58 So I'm going to get my balls and we'll go down there.
02:59 >> When you go on -- >> This is the sheet that everybody has to
03:00 list their balls on.
03:01 >> Yes.
03:02 >> Everybody gets to use four bowling balls and they have to be recorded.
03:03 >> That's right.
03:04 >> This is where you come every round as long as you're in the winner's bracket.
03:05 You keep winning, you keep coming.
03:06 >> That's right.
03:07 >> Let's just get by this one today and then we'll take it one game at a time, like I
03:11 take my life one day at a time.
03:26 >> Bob had that special talent.
03:29 And whenever anybody talked about Bob Purry, it was always followed by the sentence, "Wow,
03:35 he could have been the best.
03:36 He has so much talent and look how he's ruining his life."
03:39 That always followed.
03:40 It was almost part of his name.
03:42 Bob Purry, isn't it that the kid's got so much talent and ruined his life?
03:47 >> I was born in Paterson, New Jersey, June 2nd, 1952, in Paterson General Hospital,
03:53 the one I know of.
03:55 I have one dead brother and four living sisters.
03:59 My brother Charles was the first one born, died of sickness, fibrosis.
04:04 And I had four sisters, Angela, Pat, and Jean.
04:08 I was six years old.
04:10 My father took me bowling down in peerless lanes.
04:12 It was in River Street, Paterson.
04:15 And that's where I first started.
04:17 I used to get one special lane, lane five or lane six.
04:19 I gave my own ball.
04:20 I had a special number I had off the rack, 124, I think it was.
04:24 I'll never forget it.
04:25 And I used to throw it all the time, all Friday night long by myself.
04:29 You know, I didn't really keep score much.
04:31 And then when I would come home, I'd have my own little pin and my own ball, and I'd
04:34 bowl in the living room all the time.
04:35 My father bowled under Charlie Purry.
04:38 See him and his brother was Chet Perzycki and Charlie Perzycki, and they used to all
04:42 -- they couldn't figure out which was which, and they spelled the name wrong all the time.
04:46 But when I was six years old, my father named me Bob Purry.
04:49 And that's the name I stuck with.
04:51 I mean, Paterson was a good town.
04:55 You know, you could keep your door open.
04:56 You didn't have to lock your door then.
04:58 Not like today.
04:59 I mean, you know, the urban's moving in everywhere.
05:01 But certain parts, that don't look too bad.
05:03 I mean, but, you know, what it looks like now and what it looked like then is two different
05:06 things.
05:07 I used to be a paper boy for all these people over here.
05:11 And you know, I'd come and deliver the papers, and after a while, half the people wouldn't
05:14 pay me.
05:15 I used to go to the door and knock for the money.
05:17 We don't want the paper no more.
05:18 I was the only guy that had a paper route in New Jersey that used to get in trouble
05:22 because the people wouldn't pay me.
05:25 And I used to get scared, so I used to just not deliver to them no more.
05:29 I was not a tough guy.
05:30 I was a small guy.
05:31 I was the smallest guy on the block.
05:32 I was real skinny.
05:33 You know, I had tough times.
05:34 I had broken arms and my eye.
05:35 And you know, I wasn't, I was just one of them little, little, little skinny, little
05:42 skinny kids.
05:43 Little tiny kids, real thin.
05:45 This is the playground where I used to play when I was in grammar school.
05:49 It was St. John's Grammar School and St. John's Cathedral High School.
05:53 They had 40, 30, 40-year-old bowling alleys with real old pins and house balls.
05:59 And I used to come down here when nothing was going on, and the priest, if I was hanging
06:04 out, he used to let me go downstairs, and I used to set up the pins myself, come back
06:09 up, throw the ball, go back down, set the pins up, send the ball back, because they
06:12 were 50-year-old lanes.
06:14 They had no ball return.
06:15 The house looks exactly the same from 1972.
06:18 Exactly the same.
06:19 There's no difference, except maybe for the steps.
06:22 But it looks close to the same.
06:25 The first house we had burned down in 1972, and we had this one rebuilt.
06:30 And it's a little bit different, but the foundation's still the same.
06:34 This is the backyard I was born and raised in.
06:37 Growing up, it looked exactly the same.
06:38 The wall's still the same, the steps are still here.
06:39 And this is where I was born and raised.
06:40 I used to play a lot here.
06:41 Ricky lived next door here.
06:42 And this is where we used to play a lot, and we had the pool here.
06:54 We had a pool here, but before that, this is the place where I got hit, and I got blinded.
06:59 They had a bowling alley in the World's Fair, the AMF Pavilion.
07:03 The winner would get a scholarship to college, but what happened was, I qualified locally,
07:07 and I bowled very well, and I knew I was gonna do well.
07:09 I won the first regional, and we went to the second regional, and I won that.
07:12 And we went to the third regional, and I won that.
07:14 So I went into New York, and I had won that regional, and we were gonna go to the finals.
07:19 And I was doing very well, and I felt that I had a great chance of winning.
07:23 And I was really up there.
07:25 And that never got to be done.
07:29 I never made the final thing in the World's Fair.
07:32 My father gave me a croquet mallet set.
07:34 And he says, "I don't want you to play with that at all, unless I'm home with my mother."
07:38 Because we played one day, me and Ricky next door, played with it outside.
07:42 And we played in the backyard.
07:43 And Ricky would hit the ball like it's a golf ball.
07:45 He didn't hit it like it was a croquet mallet.
07:47 And he went to swing it.
07:48 As he swung it, he leapt over it by accident.
07:49 And then he said, "Turn around."
07:50 And as I turned around, I got it dead in my head, and it crushed half my face.
07:57 And I was across the street, and the woman, all of a sudden, we heard my brother screaming.
08:01 And we ran outside, and he was running down the driveway, holding his head, and blood
08:07 was just coming out everywhere.
08:11 And a lady across the street thought that I was getting beat up, or somebody was beating
08:14 me up real bad.
08:16 She ran across the street, Diane's mother, Millie.
08:19 And Millie came in the house and so on.
08:21 She was a nurse, I think.
08:22 And she said, "Call your father, and we've got to get him to a hospital."
08:25 My father worked about 25 minutes away.
08:29 And for some reason, it was like he was home in three minutes.
08:31 And then we were to the hospital.
08:33 The doctor was trying to do my eye, and then he told my father I couldn't see.
08:37 And he said, "It's my left eye, my left one."
08:40 And he said that, you know, "Your son can't see."
08:45 This is where I think my watching over Bob the rest of my life came in, because I was
08:52 holding his hand in the emergency room, and he was like, "Don't leave me.
08:56 Don't leave me.
08:57 Please don't leave me."
08:58 And when I look back now, this is, I think, where my connection really bonded.
09:06 I can't see no people or places or make any kind of distinctions out or anything.
09:11 So it was determined that I had a shattered retina that scarred and buckled over and twisted
09:16 and never healed.
09:18 So that's what I was dealt with.
09:20 And then after that, life became really terrible for a while.
09:25 That's the guy that used to, like, always somehow get me inside his house and then molest
09:30 me and do bad things to me.
09:33 It wasn't a good time.
09:35 There was a gentleman that lived across the street from me.
09:37 He was 17, 18 years old.
09:38 I was 12.
09:39 I was right after that, but it was happening at that time.
09:43 He used to somehow find a way to get me in his house.
09:45 And when he got me in his house, he used to molest me.
09:48 He used to try to perform sexual acts on me and have me doing it on him.
09:53 And I was scared to death.
09:54 I could not handle that.
09:56 I didn't know how to tell my father.
09:57 I couldn't tell anybody because I was scared.
09:59 And second of all, I didn't think anybody would believe me.
10:02 Later on down in my life, I felt that that was one of the reasons that, you know, they
10:05 tell you that you drink for several different reasons.
10:07 And, you know, I didn't get to deal with this till I was 40 years old.
10:11 So I carried this thing for, like, 28 years.
10:13 And it was a very hard thing to deal with.
10:15 Jeannie and I bowled with my mother.
10:19 We had a league.
10:20 It was my mother, myself, Jeannie, a cousin, and then a friend of ours.
10:26 And when my mother died, that was when we stopped bowling.
10:28 My mother was very into bowling.
10:30 But we bowled a lot of years, though.
10:32 We bowled in the Catholic Women's League.
10:33 Right.
10:34 Catholic Women's League.
10:35 Friday nights.
10:36 Right.
10:37 We all bowled.
10:38 I was young.
10:39 I really didn't bowl long.
10:40 My father would sit behind us in the bowling alley.
10:41 And if you-- while we were bowling in the league, and he'd be-- my mother-- we would
10:45 be on the team, and he'd be behind.
10:47 And he'd come over the seat and say, you didn't do it right this way.
10:50 You didn't do it right that way.
10:51 Can you get your ball around your fat ass?
10:53 Get your ball around your fat ass.
10:55 When Mommy died, that was it.
10:56 Nobody had to pick up a ball and bowl again.
10:59 If you were sick, my mother couldn't understand if you were sick and you didn't come.
11:02 You had to be there.
11:03 You had to be there.
11:04 My father died, and we were bowling that night.
11:05 And Aunt said, we're not going bowling.
11:06 And my mother said, yes, we are.
11:07 Your father would have wanted it.
11:12 And we were a big family.
11:13 And we all played sports.
11:15 And my mother drove us all to sports and all our friends.
11:18 We had to.
11:19 There was a boy before me who died 20 days before I was born.
11:23 And then there was four girls.
11:24 And then there was Bobby.
11:25 And he's the only male on the one family's side.
11:30 So he was like, oh, here's the son.
11:32 No, but to us.
11:33 Oh, but to us, he was a toy.
11:34 He broke his arm, too.
11:35 I don't remember anything.
11:36 Oh, yeah, we broke his arm.
11:37 Yes.
11:38 Well, what was the accident?
11:39 We were playing on the couch, and he fell off.
11:40 I mean, we didn't go to break his arm.
11:44 He fell off.
11:45 So we wrapped it up.
11:46 No, first we said, look, it's not funny.
11:47 Oh, yeah, we did kick it a little.
11:48 We said, it's not funny.
11:49 It's not funny.
11:50 Because we would get in trouble that he got hurt.
11:51 My friends, like their fathers, liked him.
11:52 Because, you know, anybody who didn't have a son, you know.
11:53 So he was the kid of the neighborhood.
11:54 Well, my bowling game, I didn't bowl for a while.
11:55 I didn't bowl until I was almost 14 years old.
11:56 I didn't really get to do a lot of things.
11:57 I was very clumsy.
11:58 I would fall down.
11:59 I couldn't see.
12:00 I'd walk into things.
12:01 Everybody said, you're not going to make it.
12:02 I think if I was you, I would have been in trouble.
12:03 I said, I'm not going to quit.
12:17 I said, I'm going to be a professional bowler.
12:19 I told everybody.
12:20 And everybody used to laugh at me.
12:21 You're going to be a professional bowler.
12:22 I said, that's right.
12:23 I'm going to be a professional bowler.
12:25 I started bowling.
12:26 I threw the ball down the lane.
12:27 Every ball went in the gutter.
12:28 I couldn't even bowl 50.
12:31 When a kid that was going to bowl in the 190s and 200s and 210s at the age of 12, at 14,
12:36 I couldn't bowl 100.
12:37 It was very, very embarrassing because people were waiting to see me bowl.
12:42 I had no idea what to do.
12:44 So the next year and a half, from the age of 14 to 16, it was really hard on me.
12:49 But I wouldn't give up.
12:50 What happened was I got a job working at Arrow Fastener.
12:52 It used to be on Route 80 in Saddlebrook, New Jersey.
12:56 And I worked there all night long, from 8 at night to 4 in the morning and the night
13:00 shift.
13:01 And then at 8 in the morning till 5 at night, I would bowl all day long.
13:06 I bowled 12 hours a day, every day for the entire summer.
13:10 And I went to Lodi Lanes, and an old friend of my father's, Al Foscarino, was helping
13:14 me.
13:15 And I went from throwing a straight ball to throwing one of the strongest balls in bowling.
13:20 Bobby disappeared for about six months.
13:23 Come back into the bowling alley one day, and he says to everybody, he says, I want
13:28 to bowl you.
13:29 I want to bowl you.
13:30 I want to bowl you.
13:31 He says, because you all stink.
13:34 And the guy looked at me and goes, you're a 170 average bowler.
13:36 I said, whatever I am, you could bowl me.
13:39 And I went from 170 to like 200 or 220 in one summer.
13:43 And I walked into a bowling alley, and I devastated everybody.
13:46 Even the best bowlers always respected and somewhat feared Bob, because they knew of
13:52 his talent.
13:54 His talent was exceptional, because he was one of those natural bowlers, or natural sportsmen,
14:01 as we would say.
14:02 But the rhythm that he had, the execution that he had of the bowling ball, the roll
14:08 on the ball, the power that he had at the end of the-- in the pocket, it was something
14:15 else.
14:16 He had one of the greatest arm swings.
14:19 You know, a lot of the young players today have a high backswing, Pete Webber's backswing,
14:25 real high.
14:26 A lot of those guys have all these high backswing.
14:27 Well, Bob started that high backswing.
14:29 And I went from some kid on the street that was nothing to the best bowler on the East
14:32 Coast.
14:33 I used to go out every Friday night, everywhere, and bowl everybody for money.
14:36 It didn't matter.
14:37 I went, and all these big-time money bowlers, they'd walk in, they'd see me, and I'd step
14:42 on a lane.
14:43 After I was done with them, they'd walk out scratching their heads, like, where did this
14:45 kid come from?
14:47 We battled each other on the lanes in competition, match play, and he beat me, and I beat him,
14:54 and he beat me, and I beat him.
14:55 But we had a lot of fun together, and he was a great guy to watch.
14:59 I was terrific.
15:00 I won my first professional title.
15:02 I remember I bowled 12 tournaments, 12 regional tournaments.
15:06 The most first place was the $1,000.
15:09 And I was leading money winner with $6,000.
15:12 I was at the American Bowling Congress Championship.
15:14 I got them in doubles and singles with another young guy who bowled two-er, Ty Critchlow,
15:22 and put the two guys together for the doubles and singles competition that afternoon.
15:26 And lo and behold, Bob and Ty won the professional doubles title that day.
15:33 He would bowl against anybody, anywhere.
15:37 He bowled in leagues in maybe 10 different areas in New Jersey.
15:42 He's -- invariably, he would be the leading bowler in the league.
15:46 He's rolled 300 games in 800 series in 10 different counties in the state, which is
15:52 an incredible feat.
15:54 There's this organization called the NBA.
15:57 That's the National Bowling Association.
15:59 Now, this is a complete black organization that was formed because initially in bowling,
16:06 only whites were allowed to bowl.
16:08 So they formed their own organization.
16:10 And each year, they have a tournament.
16:13 So what happens, because of rules, they have to accept anybody.
16:18 So one tournament, M walks Bob, and he wins the NBA singles championship.
16:23 I ended up being TNBA bowler of the year.
16:26 I was black bowler of the year, and I was a white guy.
16:28 Well, actually, in 1972, I bought Encyclopedia Britannica.
16:31 And every year, you get the book of the year after that.
16:36 You would -- the book of the year would come in the mail.
16:38 And I opened it one day, and I said, "Oh, let me look up bowling."
16:42 And I looked up bowling, and there was my brother's name in Encyclopedia Britannica.
16:46 I joined the PBA when I was 19.
16:48 I had graduated high school.
16:49 I think it was the summer.
16:50 I had a choice either to go to college or to become a professional bowler, and I became
16:55 a professional bowler.
16:56 This is the Bergen County Bowlers Association.
16:59 It's one of the only associations in the United States that owns its own building.
17:04 This building was -- they built this building in 1973 when they had 30,000 bowlers in this
17:10 county, in Bergen County.
17:11 And it was one of the largest bowling associations in America.
17:16 This is where, if you wanted to become a great bowler, you needed to bowl on Monday nights
17:19 at Varanus.
17:20 That's where all the famous bowlers bowled in the '60s, '70s, and '80s.
17:23 Hey, Bob, how you doing?
17:24 Yakshabash!
17:25 How's everything?
17:26 Good, good, good.
17:27 Good?
17:28 We came here to see the Hall of Fame.
17:34 Oh, good, nice.
17:35 Fellow Hall of Famer, fellow teammate.
17:36 Thanks.
17:37 Joe Tove, so, you know.
17:38 Good, great.
17:39 Let's go inside and see everybody.
17:40 These are pictures of everybody that's been inducted to the Bergen County Hall of Fame.
17:53 A lot of these people I know personally, and a lot of them had an effect on my life.
18:02 The first person that I beat for my first professional title was Ralph Fennin.
18:06 Joe was on the same team as Eddie Totolo, who was a teammate of mine at Varanus.
18:11 Then we have Chuck Pisano, who was a really personal, good friend of mine.
18:15 Then we have the greatest bowler I think that New Jersey's ever seen, and that's Tito Semez,
18:20 that's on top over there, you know.
18:23 He was probably the greatest bowler the state of New Jersey has ever seen.
18:27 You know, you think about being put in the Hall of Fame, I mean, it's a great honor.
18:33 And you know, it's a well-deserved honor for a lot of people.
18:36 I mean, even for me it was a well-deserved honor.
18:38 But you know, drinking and drugging took a lot of things away from me.
18:42 It took the state Hall of Fame away from me.
18:44 They'll never put me in the state Hall of Fame because of the way they act.
18:48 I mean, they had the elections again this year and they didn't put me in.
18:52 And I've been on the ballot for 15 years.
18:54 I mean, it's totally ridiculous.
18:55 I mean, I had major accomplishments in bowling and never got in, so.
19:00 As Bob started getting older and bowling better, a lot of people started showing up, very interested
19:09 in what Bob was doing.
19:14 People from Patterson, a lot of people that were, I don't know how to say this, people
19:31 that were, I don't want to say mafia people, but I want to say shady people.
19:44 I, that's, actually it's not shady people, maybe powerful people.
19:49 Maybe that's the word I'm looking for, because I was impressed also.
19:52 The fat man was a guy named Raymond Szymanski.
19:57 He was a funny guy.
19:58 We called him the fat man because he was always sweating.
20:01 He was big and heavy.
20:02 And he had money.
20:04 We got to know Raymond.
20:05 Raymond used to take us here, we'd go here, we'd go there.
20:09 Raymond was the money man.
20:10 Don't worry about it.
20:11 I'll put up the money.
20:12 And he'd be the backer.
20:14 Yeah, I'm throwing a ball for him.
20:16 That's the kind of guy he was.
20:17 He was the wise guy.
20:19 Raymond was the wise guy.
20:20 He was the wise guy.
20:21 He was also known as Uncle Raymond.
20:23 Uncle Raymond.
20:24 He had them fucking dangerous eyes.
20:26 You know, they talk about people with eyes that can look through you and cut you up.
20:30 That's what he had.
20:31 He'd go like this.
20:35 There's a tough element there behind gambling.
20:38 And if you don't perform, you can get hurt, physically as well as mentally.
20:45 And you have to be careful how you're introduced into gambling in pot games, as we called it
20:53 back then.
20:54 Bowling was gambling itself.
20:57 They bowled for money all the time.
20:59 It was like going to a movie and seeing the sheriff of the town going against the fastest
21:05 gun, because when you walked into a bowling center, you would actually challenge the best
21:11 bowler in that center.
21:13 It was fun.
21:14 You go into a bowling alley.
21:15 You could be broke and walk in, and they'd all bet on you.
21:16 You win, and they give you the money, and you go home.
21:19 It was great.
21:20 Friday nights was terrific.
21:21 And if I had 200 or I had nothing, I would come home with a lot of money.
21:24 Problem is, the money that he did win, very little of it was his money.
21:30 So it was a tough life.
21:33 And naturally, being awake three, four days at a time, that would lead to some type of
21:39 a drug to try to keep you going.
21:44 This accident was all my fault.
21:46 I had to deliver liquor.
21:48 I was working for this company, and we had all customers in New York City, and I had
21:51 to deliver the Christmas gifts to them, which were bottles of, you know, bottles for Christmas
21:58 and things like that.
22:00 So I said to Bob, "Would you drive me?
22:01 If you drive me, I can just run in."
22:05 So he said, "Okay."
22:06 So he drove me.
22:07 So the first one I had to go to was Gimbel's department store, and he's, "Pat, you take
22:11 too long.
22:12 I'll go.
22:13 You drive the car.
22:14 It's okay."
22:15 So I'm sitting in the car, and all of a sudden, I'm waiting and waiting.
22:18 I'm illegally parked on 31st Street.
22:22 Now I'm walking across, and I come to the traffic light, and that's where the Avenue
22:26 of Americas meets Broadway.
22:28 I think it's called Herald Square.
22:30 So I was coming where the one-way's coming down, and the one-way coming down is on my
22:35 left.
22:36 Now you have to understand that I'm blind in one eye.
22:38 And I'm standing there, and I was talking to this gorgeous brunette that was standing
22:41 next to me.
22:42 I'll never forget it.
22:43 And the light turned green, and she said, "Look out."
22:46 She says, "Look out," and she screamed at me, and I turned, and I said, "Oh, my God,"
22:49 and I got hit by a car.
22:51 And I'm waiting, and somebody knocks on the window.
22:55 And I look up, and they said, "Are you here with your brother?"
23:00 And I said, "Yeah."
23:01 And they said, "Oh, he just got hit by a cab down on the corner."
23:06 And I went, "What?"
23:07 The cab hit me.
23:08 It hit me.
23:09 It crushed me.
23:10 It hit me.
23:11 It dragged me.
23:12 I went almost to 32nd Street, and I ended up hitting an antenna of a parked car, and
23:18 it ripped my face back open again.
23:20 And I'm laying on the ground.
23:22 And I was laying on the ground.
23:23 I said to myself, "I can't move from my waist down."
23:27 And my legs hurt, and they were swelling, but I couldn't move.
23:29 So I said, "Let me just lay here."
23:30 My face was bleeding.
23:31 And this cop walks over and says, "This sucker's dead," and he threw his jacket on top of me.
23:36 And I'm laying there, and I'm going, "I'm dead.
23:39 I don't believe this.
23:40 I'm dead."
23:41 And I said, "Well, if you're dead, you're supposed to meet somebody, the God, the devil,
23:46 or something."
23:47 And I can hear these sirens and people screaming and stuff like that.
23:51 The people surrounding the cab, so they couldn't get away.
23:54 And my sister comes screaming.
23:56 So when I get to the corner, there's my brother laying in the street, and they had him covered
24:00 with a coat that he was dead.
24:03 So I started screaming, "Oh, my God.
24:05 I killed you.
24:06 I killed you.
24:07 I killed you.
24:08 Look what I did to you."
24:09 And all of a sudden, the coat went flying in the air, and he goes, "I'm not dead.
24:13 I'm not dead.
24:14 I'm alive."
24:15 And they took me to Wayne General, where I stayed for the next 169 days or something.
24:21 I'm crushed as a walker in a wheelchair.
24:24 And then I got addicted to Percodans at that time.
24:27 And I started doing a lot of Percodans, and I started doing a lot of booze.
24:30 And then I started doing a lot of coke.
24:32 So the drugs were trying to make me move a lot better than when I was moving.
24:37 Well, they were saying I couldn't walk again.
24:40 Never mind bowling again.
24:41 Everyone did drugs.
24:42 We all did drugs.
24:44 It just depended who got hooked and who didn't.
24:47 I really got heavily addicted into Percodans as painkillers because my legs hurt a lot.
24:53 You know, I remember the day my father died.
24:55 I remember flushing all the morphine and things down the sink so my brother couldn't get it.
24:59 But, I mean, it was really a bad time, but he stuck through it.
25:03 I was scheduled to go on the PBA tour, and I never got to go.
25:06 I was going to leave the week later because it starts in January, the first week of January,
25:11 and never got to go.
25:13 When my father was dying, my brother was a stone drug addict and alcoholic.
25:21 My father finally was diagnosed with lung cancer and he was going to die.
25:25 And the doctor told him that, you know, you had six months to live and don't you think
25:29 you led your life?
25:30 You shouldn't be upset.
25:31 My father was 62 at the time.
25:33 And I loved my father.
25:34 I never had a chance to say I was sorry to my father for everything that I did.
25:38 At that time, you know, I was -- I had just started using cocaine then.
25:42 I mean, I used it because what it did was it really kept me up, and I used it to stay
25:46 up.
25:47 I mean, it also got me high, but at night I couldn't -- you know, I used speed and coke
25:51 and I was staying up.
25:52 And I wasn't really heavily addicted to that at that time.
25:56 And at the end, when the liver went to -- the cancer went to his liver, you know, he didn't
26:01 want to stay in the hospital anymore, and he asked me if he came home, if I could take
26:04 care of him.
26:05 You know, we started to get close again after all the times that we separated.
26:11 And for that nine months, like, you know, it was hard because all day long I was out
26:15 hustling and doing what I need to do, trying to earn some money.
26:18 And at night, my aunt would take care of my dad during the day, and then at night, from
26:22 like 9 or 10 at night to 9 in the morning, I would stay up and give him his medicine
26:25 and stuff like that.
26:26 It was really hard to watch him die.
26:29 So of course I let them down, but, you know, you can't go your whole life when you get
26:33 sober saying that's the reason I should destroy my life.
26:37 You know, I wish I would have been in a different shape and form when people came to the funeral
26:41 home to see me.
26:42 You know, I'm not the same person I was then.
26:45 That was 15 years ago and 20 years ago.
26:47 It's 21 years since my dad died, you know.
26:51 I mean, it took us to come here for me to come to the grave.
26:56 Hey, Dad.
26:58 Hey, Mom.
27:00 Long time.
27:03 When you're a drug addict and alcoholic, you steal from your family.
27:19 I mean, you threaten your family.
27:22 I could go on for an ever and ever, and my family couldn't take it.
27:26 Bob always owed 50 million people.
27:28 If it wasn't loan sharks, it was that, you know, thing.
27:31 But this one time it was really a serious thing, and there was really a contract out
27:36 on him.
27:37 And I had given him the money, and I went with him to pay it.
27:42 Because I didn't trust him.
27:43 And he paid him.
27:44 If he came to your door, you gave him money.
27:47 And I told all my neighbors, you give him money, I'm not paying you back.
27:52 I'm telling you right now.
27:53 Because they all knew Mr. Bowler.
27:55 A lot of them didn't know the other side of him.
27:59 And so he...
28:00 But they knew us.
28:01 So they'd say, "Okay, here's 100.
28:02 Your sister will give it to me."
28:04 And I told my neighbors, "You give him money, it's your money."
28:07 My sisters were strong enough to walk away from him.
28:10 I never was.
28:11 They were strong enough to set limits and boundaries that he wasn't allowed to be in
28:14 their lives or this and that.
28:15 I was never that strong.
28:18 But the effect that it had on everyone was devastating.
28:21 I remember a Thanksgiving at my house after my father had died.
28:25 He came.
28:26 He was like, what you would want him to have done was throw him in the shower and scrub
28:30 him.
28:31 And he would go down and out.
28:32 And there was no way we could get him to leave.
28:34 Shoe leather skin, hair, no teeth, hair wild, no teeth, filthy, dirty.
28:42 And then it was so bad that my mother really didn't want him to leave.
28:47 But then I think it took Gene and somebody took him down to a motel in Patterson to give
28:53 him a room.
28:54 Remember that one?
28:55 Yeah.
28:56 I mean, it was...
28:57 You wouldn't have known it was him.
28:58 You would have thought it was just anybody.
28:59 But this was not a human being.
29:01 This was a chemical.
29:02 This was...
29:04 He just...
29:05 There was no understanding.
29:06 For him, it was survival.
29:09 Whatever he had to do to survive.
29:10 There was no right or wrong.
29:12 And I just told him, get out of my life.
29:13 You are already dead because you're nothing but a chemical.
29:17 Get out of my life and go die because I have had it.
29:26 I ran into this drug called crack.
29:29 I had a guy, I was over his apartment, we were drunk.
29:32 And he says to me, why don't you try this?
29:33 And I smoked it and I got high.
29:34 And it was one of the best highs I've ever had in my life.
29:38 And I couldn't stop.
29:41 Coke got me sick.
29:42 Booze got me sick.
29:43 I'd drink because I needed it.
29:44 I'd be trembling and then I needed to drink to stop trembling.
29:47 But I wouldn't stop trembling.
29:48 I thought I would.
29:49 Then at the end, it was I couldn't live with it and I couldn't live without it.
29:53 I would smoke anywhere from 80 to 100 bottles a day.
29:56 It was nothing for me to do that.
29:58 I mean, I was in a blackout one time.
30:00 I came, I walked into Times Square and I yawned.
30:03 I opened my eyes up and I'm in the middle of Times Square.
30:06 I said, what the hell am I doing here?
30:07 And I looked around and I said, and I looked in my pocket.
30:11 I had 20 bucks and six vials of crack.
30:14 And I said, wow.
30:15 And I got on the phone and I dialed my friend Bobby Ricciardi because he had an 800 number.
30:19 And I said, let me speak to Bobby.
30:21 And Bobby gets on the phone and Bobby and I used to drive together.
30:25 I mean, God bless his soul, he's dead today, but you know, him and I drugged a lot together.
30:30 And I said, Bob, what's the problem?
30:33 Everybody's looking for me.
30:34 He goes, where are you?
30:35 I said, I'm in Times Square.
30:36 He said, what the hell are you doing here?
30:37 I said, I don't know, but what's the problem?
30:38 I said, I was with you last night.
30:39 He says, no, Bob, that was three weeks ago.
30:41 And I lived in a blackout for three and a half weeks.
30:43 And you know, I don't know what happened that time.
30:46 And you know, we're talking three weeks of your life go by and you don't remember it.
30:50 You know, this is dangerous, but this is about showing what it's like when, what happened
30:55 to you, what it was like and what happened.
30:58 And you know, it builds up a lot of bad vibes.
31:01 I go in here and lean in here and I would just take the stem and do it and try to lean
31:05 here and try to keep cleaning it out and trying to get high and trying to get high and just
31:10 maintain my high for the night.
31:11 That's what I used to do.
31:12 And I come over here and this is 8th Avenue, right in these buildings right here, 495,
31:20 493, 491.
31:23 At one time in the 80s, this was a place where we buy a lot of our, I buy a lot of my crack,
31:28 a lot of my coke, a lot of my dope.
31:30 And I'd spend most of the nights here trying to hang around with the street people or the
31:34 home, the dope fiends and the drug dens in these buildings.
31:41 And down here you see the crates.
31:44 We just picked this up.
31:46 We used to go down underneath there and that's where we used to smoke the dope and hang out
31:50 and hide during the day.
31:51 And if you turn around and you look up the street here, I mean look up the street.
32:12 I mean you think it's, you just feel we're a little warmer today but think about 20 below
32:17 with the wind blowing or 10 below and you know it's real cold and you got the same clothes
32:22 on for six months, same socks, your head's up like this and you're freezing, you're walking
32:27 around and you're living right on the street here.
32:30 I mean this is it.
32:31 This is where I did it.
32:32 I walked up and down, all the way up and down these streets.
32:34 I used to walk up and down, up and down, up and down, all night long.
32:38 I walked up and down, up and down, up and down, all night long.
32:42 This is what I did.
32:42 I used to come in here.
32:49 I come down here like three or four in the morning.
32:51 Freddy used to work here.
32:53 Freddy was pretty good.
32:54 As long as, you know, if I owed him money, he owed me money, he would give me 10 or 20
32:59 dollars and as soon as I got 20 dollars I'd go around the corner and try to pick up some
33:03 piles of crack.
33:04 We'd come over to Show World, I'd check my pocket to see if I had any quarters left.
33:09 If I did or maybe if the guy's in there I knew, I'd go in there and I'd get a couple
33:13 dollars I'd put in and I'd get like maybe a half hour or 45 minutes.
33:18 And then there was holes in my mouth from my teeth when I pulled them out and then that
33:23 just made the hole bigger and bigger and just the whole piece of my mouth was coming off
33:27 because of the teeth rotting away and my gums rotting away.
33:31 I went in the peep show.
33:32 I used to go in there and have what booze and drugs I have, I would put the dollars
33:37 in, turn the peep show on, if I had some booze I'd drink it and then I would put the crack
33:42 in the stem and then suck the devil's dick, that's what they call it.
33:45 When you smoke a crack, they say you're sucking the devil's dick.
33:48 Now it's the next morning, you have no money, you don't have money for a bus, you don't
33:59 have money for a cup of coffee, you don't have any money, you can't go anywhere, you're
34:04 all blacked out, you've been up all night long, you're filthy, your hands are black,
34:09 your throat is like ready to close from the butane, you're coughing, you're spitting and
34:14 you're walking around and you ain't got no money.
34:15 And even if you got money, if you have $30 left, there's nothing to do because everybody
34:19 that's on the street right now are all deadbeat artists.
34:22 That's all they are, deadbeats.
34:25 Because I was told that three things are going to happen to me if I don't get better.
34:28 I was told I would either kill somebody, kill myself or spend the rest of my life in the
34:34 sand on this island.
34:38 When you reach the point in life of drinking and drugging and you beat yourself into submission,
34:43 I had enough.
34:44 I was walking down the street and it came to me that I don't have no more mind, I didn't
34:49 have any money, I had no chance of getting better, I had ran out of every possible way,
34:55 method that I could use to exist another day getting high.
35:00 And it was all over with.
35:01 After being downstairs in the subway, sitting there smoking crack and feeding 30 pound rats,
35:06 I felt that there would be no return if I didn't do something about it.
35:10 And that the road back was so long, it was unbelievable.
35:14 So I just said, "This is it.
35:16 We are done and we need to do something."
35:19 And I said, "Well, what's the most painless thing?"
35:22 Couldn't kill myself drinking and drugging.
35:24 All I knew was that the trucks come down the street really fast and if I jump, I'll never
35:28 feel it.
35:29 And I saw the truck coming down the street and I jumped in front of it.
35:32 But as soon as I jumped in front of it, I had one minute of sanity and I slipped and
35:36 saw the truck and it missed me.
35:38 And if that guy would have caught me, he would have beat the living crap out of me and I
35:41 would have died then.
35:43 But I ran away and then I decided from that point on that I needed to do something about
35:47 my life.
35:48 I was feeling better and they told me I could go to Graymoor, St. Christopher's Inn.
36:14 And I went up there and I just listened.
36:15 I said, "Brother, I need help.
36:18 I need a bed.
36:19 You gotta help me."
36:20 He arrived, I had said to him, "You know, you've been drinking again."
36:24 But his driver had left.
36:26 We kept him.
36:27 And I think that was, God wanted him to be here.
36:35 It was like, I guess it was like 45 days since I saw you.
36:40 From when he went into Graymoor, which I didn't even know until later.
36:42 No, you didn't see me for a long time.
36:43 Or even before that, I don't, time is not something you relate to anymore.
36:52 I saw defeat, but I saw healing.
37:04 That the shell, to explain it, the shell had come off.
37:12 And there was a beginning of healing.
37:14 The emotional inside you could never explain.
37:18 I, myself and others, pushed him and said, "You know, if you're gonna be here and you
37:24 wanna go on with your life, you're gonna have to do something.
37:26 And that's just a matter of being here.
37:28 It's not just a matter of being in the building and letting all these activities, but you
37:32 have to kind of absorb them.
37:34 You have to kind of make yourself a part of it."
37:36 St. Christopher's was probably the biggest inspiration over them all.
37:40 Especially with the Spirio experience, with Father Paul, and knowing that I had some hope
37:48 in life and I got all that from here.
37:51 I mean, when I left here, I had a good foundation underneath me.
37:55 I knew I was going to stay sober.
37:57 And I was determined to stay sober.
37:59 And according to the way they set and structured me, that I could make it.
38:03 You know, God saved my life and St. Christopher's saved my life.
38:18 So, you know, if I had died and I had come here, I probably would have died.
38:23 Chances are I was dead already, so I would have definitely been dead if I wasn't here.
38:27 A friend of his had lent a guy money for a business that he wanted to start and his
38:43 friend died, Bob Rashardi.
38:46 And supposedly, the brother wanted the money back and the people Bobby knew, they went
38:55 to collect the money.
38:57 And Bob went to Manhattan to tell this guy we wanted the money back or else.
39:01 I sat down, I talked to him, and I was told certain things.
39:05 And I kind of like took it to another level and tried to get the guy to get the message.
39:12 And the guy did get the message.
39:13 But the message not only was being given to the guy, it was being given to the FBI.
39:19 The FBI was there all the time.
39:20 I didn't know that.
39:21 He was charged in a very serious crime.
39:24 He was charged in an extortion.
39:26 Some of the people that he was accused of participating with were alleged to have contacts
39:33 with organized crime.
39:34 And he was in a bit of trouble.
39:36 They handcuffed me and they put me in the back of a federal car and they took me all
39:40 the side street and under a tunnel into the federal building in Manhattan.
39:45 And they took me up into a room and I'm standing there and they're going through my wallet,
39:48 who's this guy, who's that guy.
39:51 And they bring a guy in to meet me.
39:54 And they said, "Do you know who this guy is?"
39:55 And I said, "No."
39:56 They said, "This is the guy that locked up John Gotti."
39:58 Bob had been arrested and charged with extortion in federal court in the Southern District
40:02 of New York.
40:03 The U.S. Attorney Clark is telling the magistrate that I'm a cop in a gangrene or crime family,
40:12 that I can kill people with a snap of my fingers.
40:15 And my lawyer turns to me and says, "I thought you were a buller.
40:17 What are you talking about?"
40:18 I said, "I have no idea what he's talking about."
40:19 From the day that I met him, he made it clear that he wanted to find a way to acknowledge
40:24 the criminal activity in which he was involved and he was prepared to deal with the consequences.
40:31 And that was unique among the people I represented.
40:34 At the end of the day, Bob was sentenced to a time served sentence and a term of supervised
40:41 release, in other words, a non-incarcerative sentence.
40:45 And as you well know, he was able to go on with his life and go on with his trade and
40:50 he proved the judge's judgment about him correct.
40:54 This is T.S.
40:56 Smith, greatest of all time.
41:00 Better than everybody.
41:01 Nobody better than T.S.
41:02 Smith.
41:03 My friend for 30 years.
41:04 40 years.
41:05 Don't get me wrong.
41:06 When this kid grew up with Mark Roth, him and Mark Roth were just as even in those days.
41:11 But, you know, one went another way, he went another way.
41:15 He could have been one of the best in the world.
41:17 I used to stay at his house.
41:20 When I grew up, this was it.
41:22 His father was one of the greatest men I ever met.
41:25 And he always followed this guy wherever he went.
41:30 And he always, if his dad didn't come and we weren't together, I had to watch over him.
41:36 The second dad, let's put it that way.
41:40 Yeah, my first dad on tour, I roomed.
41:42 I roomed with T.S.
41:43 Smith, so he was blessed with me the rest of his life.
41:46 Here we are 40 years later, still blessed with each other.
41:49 It's great.
41:50 It's great.
41:51 It's great to see him back.
41:52 Good to see you.
42:10 Good to see you.
42:11 Everything's good.
42:12 Good, you ready?
42:13 Yeah, I'm ready.
42:14 All right, let's go home.
42:15 You know, it hasn't been an easy life.
42:19 Like I said before, he's come out of it.
42:22 He's back, he's off the canvas now.
42:25 My son is going to help him get back, drilling his equipment.
42:29 And once we get everything ready for him, I think he's going to be very competitive.
42:34 [music]
42:38 [music]
42:41 [music]
43:06 [music]
43:09 [music]
43:16 [music]
43:22 I started bowling again as Bob Perzicki when I got sober,
43:26 because I wanted no affiliation because I'm sober.
43:29 My name is Bob Perzicki, and I wasn't sober as Bob Curry.
43:32 You need to just deal with this.
43:34 This is recovery, and recovery is keep going forward, not look at the past.
43:40 I'm not regretting my past, but I'm not going to beat myself up
43:45 because when I was not sober that my parents got to see me be a lowlife.
43:51 Today I'm not a lowlife, so they see that.
43:54 We all believe in God, and we believe in our higher powers,
43:56 so I know they're in heaven, that's all that matters.
43:59 Whether I go to heaven is another thing, but we know that they're in heaven.
44:03 [music]
44:06 [applause]
44:12 Well, Earl Anthony, we have arrived.
44:15 We have arrived at our championship match of the Super Bowl High Roller.
44:19 The winner of this match, $100,000.
44:23 Bob Perzicki and Chris James.
44:26 Both of these guys are feeling a lot of heat right now,
44:30 and the opening shots will probably get down there real quick.
44:35 [laughter]
44:36 There are a lot of Bob Perzicki fans all across the country.
44:41 That's a nice ball. There it is.
44:44 Outstanding shot there, and you can see they're both using a lot of ball speed.
44:49 Bob using a little more than the younger player, Chris.
44:52 Besides being the greatest bowler, which he is,
44:58 there was a higher purpose for him.
45:01 And that's the kind of thing, a psychological thing,
45:03 that's a double for Bob and, in effect, Chris James.
45:07 Only 23, as I mentioned.
45:10 Already feeling plenty of pressure just bowling in this circumstance.
45:15 Oh, another good shot.
45:17 Boy, that's a beautiful ball after that double from Perzicki.
45:20 So somewhere these demons were conquered.
45:24 I don't know who conquered them, but I think
45:27 99 percent has to go to Bob.
45:29 He conquered his own demons.
45:32 See the determination in his face.
45:35 Both bowlers working on a double.
45:37 Oh!
45:39 Perzicki!
45:42 Well, I tell you what, you've got to feel pretty fortunate, as you can see.
45:47 When he's out there with that bowling ball, you never know.
45:51 There might be another hand behind him helping.
45:55 In the fifth frame.
45:58 Oh!
46:00 There's a look at him.
46:03 You're getting another chance now.
46:07 You can start a new career in what you're doing,
46:11 in addition in bowling, where you can again become a national champion.
46:15 So take advantage of it right now.
46:18 But it really comes down to Chris James needing three strikes minimum
46:22 to make Bob Perzicki get a mark in the 10 count.
46:26 It's there!
46:28 Oh!
46:29 Wait a minute.
46:30 Look out!
46:31 Oh, no!
46:33 Unbelievable.
46:35 His fourth solid 10 of the match.
46:38 I think Bob had a tough life, but he hasn't hit the 10 count.
46:43 Right now he's on 9 and 3/4.
46:47 But he's up.
46:49 Well, it's a wonderful story, and he's very open about talking about
46:52 what Perzicki is.
46:53 He's a recovering alcoholic.
46:55 He works with kids day in and day out.
46:57 He gets kids off the streets, finds jobs.
47:00 He'll like it.
47:01 [Cheering]
47:04 200 to 193, and Bob Perzicki is the champion
47:10 of the Super Bowl high roller here in Las Vegas.
47:14 [Applause]
47:25 There is your winner, Bob Perzicki, the winner of the high roller
47:30 here at the Show Boat in Las Vegas.
47:32 $100,000.
47:35 200, 193 over Chris James.
47:38 Bob, we're in the middle of a wonderful moment here at the Show Boat,
47:41 and I don't know if you can find the words, but please try.
47:45 This is a moment that you've got your whole life to wait for.
47:51 I come from a--I had a real bad time in life, and five years ago this was a dream,
47:56 and today it's reality.
47:58 I owe a lot of people for it, and I thank God for it.
48:01 And without it, I'd have nothing.
48:03 Very, very nice.
48:07 I think he's fine now.
48:08 I think that there won't be no count of 10.
48:12 I think from now on he'll be the referee, counting for other people.
48:18 ♪ Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Bobby,
48:29 happy birthday to you. ♪
48:33 [applause]
48:44 I didn't think I was going to make 35.
48:48 I didn't think I was going to make 50 years old, not at all.
48:54 Ten years sobriety, sobered 10 years this month.
48:58 This month is the month that I got sober, June 27th of 1992.
49:06 Like it says in another wonderful book, love endures all things, it bears all things.
49:12 Love is what it is, and I think Bobby got a genuine love for people,
49:16 especially people that went through what we went through
49:18 and took the journey that we took.
49:24 I started Last Stop in September of last year, 2001.
49:29 The first original reason of Last Stop was to start a motor vehicle agency.
49:34 Also, I was doing secondary referrals for treatment centers.
49:37 In other words, when people are in treatment for drugs and alcohol,
49:40 I would find another treatment center for them to go to,
49:43 such for people who are homeless or people that need more treatment
49:47 to stay in for a long-term treatment center.
49:49 I would try to find that when I was working at several treatment centers.
49:53 So when I came and we started the store, my sister felt it would be a good idea
49:57 if we started doing referrals.
50:00 In other words, put a sign outside if people have drug and alcohol problems
50:04 and need help because a lot of people in this world don't know what to do
50:07 when they have problems with drugs and alcohol.
50:09 So I started Last Stop. It was a train station.
50:13 Patsy loved the building. Patsy's my sister.
50:15 She loved the building, and I felt Last Stop would be a great name.
50:19 I don't know if I do this because I'm looking for any type of gratitude.
50:23 I just do it because it needs to be done.
50:25 I mean, there's a lot of people that don't want to do it.
50:27 People want to stay sober and don't want to help people,
50:30 and there's people that want to stay sober and help people.
50:33 The best way I can help them is the people that are dying.
50:36 There's a lot of people dying today.
50:38 You know, it's good that you help a lot of people.
50:41 It's not about money. I don't charge.
50:44 I don't ask for anything.
50:46 There's a lot of people that talk about getting better.
50:51 A lot of people don't know what it's like to get better.
50:53 A lot of people have different ideas,
50:55 but when you come from that store, it's a little bit different.
50:59 [Music]
51:01 [Music]
51:05 [Music]
51:09 [Music]
51:12 [Music]
51:21 [Music]
51:29 [Music]
51:38 [Music]
51:41 [Music]
51:50 [Music]
51:57 [Music]
52:04 [Music]
52:07 [Music]
52:14 [Music]
52:21 [Music]
52:29 [Music]
52:32 [Music]
52:35 [Music]