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00:00Nearly 2,000 of the world's top action players
00:19rolled into Las Vegas this week
00:21for the 8th annual Super Bowl High Roller.
00:25And one will take home a pot of gold worth $100,000.
00:30From the Show Boat Hotel, Casino, and Bowling Center in Las Vegas,
00:37it's the Super Bowl High Roller.
00:40We are inside the beautiful show...
00:49...to watch one bowler win $100,000.
00:54It doesn't get any better than this tonight.
01:01This is what's left of our field of almost 2,000 entries here at the Show Boat.
01:09There are a lot of poppers, icky fans all across the country.
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03:12balls and they have to be recorded. This is where you come every round as long as you're
03:16in the winners. You keep winning and you keep coming. That's right. Let's just get by this
03:20one today and then we'll take it one game at a time like I take my life one day at a time.
03:26Bob had that special talent and whenever anybody talked about Bob Purry, it was always followed
03:34by the sentence, wow he could have been the best. He has so much talent and look how he's
03:38ruining his life. That always followed. It was almost part of his name. Bob Purry, isn't
03:43that the kid's got so much talent and ruined his life? I was born in Patterson, New Jersey,
03:49June 2nd, 1952 in Patterson General Hospital, from what I know of. I have one dead brother
03:58and four living sisters. My brother Charles was the first one born, died of sick dysfibrosis
04:03and I had four sisters, Ann, Joan, Pat and Jean. When I was six years old, my father took
04:11me bowling down in Peerless Lanes. It was in River Street in Patterson and that's where
04:16I first started. I used to get one special lane, lane 5 or lane 6. I had my own ball.
04:21I had a special number I had off the rack, 124 I think it was, I'll never forget it. I used
04:25to throw it all the time, all Friday night long by myself. You know, I didn't really keep score
04:30much. And then when I would come home, I'd have my own little pin and my own ball and
04:34I'd bowl in the living room all the time. My father bowled under Charlie Purry. See,
04:39him and his brother was Chep Perzicki and Charlie Perzicki and they used to all, they couldn't
04:44figure out which was which and they'd spell the name wrong all the time. But when I was six
04:47years old, my father named me Bob Purry and that's the name I stuck with. I mean, Patterson
04:53was a good town. You know, you could keep your door open, you didn't have to lock your door
04:58door open. Not like today. I mean, you know, the urban's moving in everywhere. For certain
05:02parts, that don't look too bad. I mean, but you know, what it looks like now, what it
05:06looked like then is two different things. I used to be a paper boy for all these people
05:09over here. And you know, I'd come and deliver the papers and after a while, half the people
05:14wouldn't pay me. I used to go to the door and knock for the money. We don't want the paper
05:18no more. I was the only guy that had a paper route in New Jersey that used to get in trouble
05:23because the people wouldn't pay me. I didn't, and I used to get scared so I used to just
05:27not deliver it to them no more. I was not a tough guy. I was a small guy. I was the smallest
05:32guy on the block. I was real skinny. You know, I had tough times, my broken arms and my eye,
05:37and you know, I wasn't, I was just one of them little skinny, little skinny kids, little tiny
05:44kids, real thin. This is the playground where I used to play when I was in grammar school.
05:50St. John's Grammar School and St. John's Cathedral High School. They had 40, 30, 40 year old
05:55bowling alleys with real old pins and house balls. And I used to come down here when,
06:00when nothing was going on. And, and the priest, if I was hanging out, he used to let me go downstairs
06:07and I used to set up the pins myself, come back up, throw the ball, go back down, set the pins up,
06:11send the ball back because there were 50 year old lanes. They had no ball return.
06:16House looks exactly the same from 1972. Exactly the same. There's no difference except maybe for
06:21the steps. But it looks close to the same. The first house we had burnt down in 1972 and we had this
06:30one rebuilt. And it's a little bit different, but the foundation's still the same. This is the backyard
06:36I was born and raised when I was growing up. It looks exactly the same. The wall's still the same.
06:43And this is where I was born and raised. We used to play a lot here. Ricky, Ricky lived next door
06:48here. And this is where we used to play a lot. And, uh, we had the pool here. We had a pool here. But
06:55before that, this is the place where I got hit and I got blinded. They had a bowling alley in the
07:00World's Fair, the AMF Pavilion. The winner would get a scholarship to college. But what happened was
07:06I qualified locally and I bowled very well. And I knew I was going to do well. I won the first regional
07:10and we went to the second regional. I won that. And we went to the third regional and I won that.
07:14So we had went into New York and I had won that regional. And, you know, we were going to go to the
07:18finals. And I was doing very well. And I felt that I had a great chance of winning. And I was really up
07:24there. And, you know, then it never got to be done. You know, I never made the final,
07:31final thing in the World's Fair. My father gave me a croquet mallet set. And he says,
07:35I don't want you to play with that at all unless I'm home with my mother. Because we played one day,
07:40me and Ricky next door, played with it outside. And we played in the backyard. And Ricky would hit the
07:44ball like it's a golf ball. He didn't hit it like it was a croquet mallet. And he went to swing it.
07:48As he swung it, he legged over by accident. And then he said, turn around. And as I turned around,
07:53I got it dead in my head. And it crushed half my face. And I was across the street. And the woman,
07:59all of a sudden, we heard my brother screaming. And we ran outside. And he was running down the
08:04driveway, holding his head. And blood was just coming out everywhere.
08:11And a lady across the street thought that I was getting beat up or somebody was beating me up real
08:15bad. And she ran across the street. Diane's mother, Millie, and Millie came in the house and so on.
08:21And she was a nurse, I think. And she said, call your father. And we got to get him to a hospital.
08:25My father worked about 25 minutes away. And for some reason, it was like he was home in three
08:31minutes. And then we were to the hospital. Doctor was trying to do my eye. And then he told my father,
08:36I couldn't see. And he said, it's my left eye, my left one. And he said that, you know,
08:43your son can't see. This is where I think my watching over Bob the rest of my life came in.
08:51Because I was holding his hand in the emergency room. And he was like, don't leave me. Don't leave
08:57me. Please don't leave me. And when I look back now, this is, I think, where my connection really
09:05bonded. I can't see no people or places or make any kind of distinctions out or anything.
09:11So it was determined that I had a shattered retina that scarred and buckled over and twisted
09:16and never healed. So that's what I was dealt with. And then after that, life became really
09:22terrible for a while. That's the guy that used to like always somehow get me inside his house and
09:29then molest me and do bad things to me. And it wasn't a good time. There was a gentleman that lived across
09:36the street from me. He was 17, 18 years old. I was 12. It was right after that. But it was happening
09:42at that time. He used to somehow find a way to get me in his house. And when he got me in his house,
09:47he used to molest me. He used to try to perform sexual acts on me and have me do it on him. And
09:53I was scared to death. I could not handle that. I didn't know how to tell my father. I couldn't tell
09:58anybody because I was scared. Second of all, I didn't think anybody would believe me. Later on down in
10:03my life, I felt that that was one of the reasons that, you know, they tell you that you drink for
10:06several different reasons. And, you know, I didn't get to deal with this until I was 40 years old.
10:11So I carried this thing for like 28 years. And it was a very hard thing to deal with.
10:16Jeannie and I bowled with my mother. We had a league. It was my mother, myself, Jeannie, a cousin,
10:24and then a friend of ours. And when my mother died, that was when we stopped bowling. My mother was very
10:30into bowling. But we bowled a lot of years, though. We bowled in the Catholic Women's League.
10:34Right. We all bowled. I was young when I really didn't bowl long.
10:38My father would sit behind us in the bowling alley. And if you, while we're bowling in the
10:43league, and he'd be behind my mother, we would be on the team and he'd be behind. And he'd come
10:47over the seat and say, you didn't do it right this way. You didn't do it right that way.
10:51Get your ball around your fat ass. Get your ball around your fat ass.
10:55When mommy died, that was it. Nobody had to pick up a bowling ball yet.
10:59If you were sick, my mother couldn't understand if you were sick and you didn't come.
11:02You had to be there. You had to be there.
11:03My father died and we were bowling that night. And Ann said, we're not going bowling. And my mother
11:09said, yes, we are. Your father would have wanted it.
11:12And we were a big family. And we all played sports. And my mother drove us all to sports and all our
11:18friends. We had to. There was a boy before me who died 20 days before I was born. And then there was four
11:24girls. And then there was Bobby. And he's the only male on the one family's side. So he was like,
11:31oh, here's the son. No, but to us. Oh, but to us, he was a toy. I broke his arm twice.
11:36I don't remember anything. Oh yeah, we broke his arm. Yes. Well, when was he got to? We were playing
11:40on the couch and he fell off. I mean, we didn't go to break his arm. He fell off. So we racked it up.
11:46No, no. First we said, look, it's not broken. Oh yeah, we did kick it a little. It's not broken.
11:51It's not broken. Because we would get in trouble that he got hurt.
11:54My friends like their fathers like him. Because, you know, anybody who didn't have a son, you know.
12:00So he was the kid of the neighborhood. Well, my bowling game, I didn't bowl for a while. I didn't
12:04bowl until I was almost 14 years old. I didn't really get to do a lot of things. I was very clumsy. I
12:10would fall down. I couldn't see. I'd walk into things. Everybody said, you're not going to make it. I
12:14think if I was you, I would quit. And I said, I'm not going to quit. I said, I'm going to be a,
12:18I'm going to be a professional bowler. I told everybody. And everybody's laughing. You're
12:21going to be a professional bowler. I said, that's right. I'm going to be a professional bowler.
12:25I started bowling. I threw the ball down the lane. Every ball went in the gutter.
12:28I couldn't even bowl 50. For my, for my kid that was going bowling 190s and 200s and 210s at the age of 12,
12:36at 14, I couldn't bowl 100. It was very, very embarrassing. Because, you know, people were waiting to see me
12:42bowling. I had no idea what to do. So the next year and a half from the age of 14 to 16,
12:48it was really hard on me, but I wouldn't give up. What happened was I got a job working at Arrow
12:52Fastener. It used to be on Route 80 in Saddlebrook, New Jersey. And I worked there all night long from
12:58eight at night to four in the morning and the night shift. And then at eight in the morning
13:03till five at night, I would bowl all day long. I bowled 12 hours a day every day for the entire summer.
13:10And I went to Lodi Lanes and an old friend of my father's, Al Foscorino, was helping me. And I went
13:16from throwing a straight ball to throwing one of the strongest balls in bowling. Bobby disappeared for
13:21about six months. Come back into the bowling alley one day and he says to everybody, he says, I want to
13:28bowl you, I want to bowl you, and I want to bowl you. He says, cause you all stink. And the guy looked at me,
13:35he goes, you're 170 average bowler. I said, whatever I am, you could bowl me. And I went from 170 to like
13:41200 or 220 in one summer. And I walked in a bowling alley and I devastated everybody. Even the best bowlers
13:48always respected and somewhat feared Bob because they knew of his talent. His talent was exceptional
13:55because he was one of those natural bowlers or natural sportsmen as we would say. But the rhythm
14:05that he had, the execution that he had of the bowling ball, the roll on the ball, the power that he had
14:11at the end of the pocket. It was something else. He had like one of the greatest arm swings.
14:19You know, and a lot of the young players today have a high backswing, Pete Webber's backswing,
14:25real high. A lot of those guys have all these high backswings. Well, Bob started that high backswing.
14:29And I went from some kid on the street that was nothing to the best bowler in the East Coast.
14:34I used to go out every Friday night everywhere and bowl everybody for money. It didn't matter.
14:37I went and all these big time money bowlers, they'd walk in, they'd see me, and I'd step on a lane.
14:42After I was done with them, they'd walk out scratching their heads like, where did this kid come from?
14:47We battled each other on the lanes in competition, match play, and he beat me and I beat him,
14:54and he beat me and I beat him. But we had a lot of fun together and he was a great guy to watch.
14:59I was terrific. I won my first professional title. I remember I bowled 12 tournaments, 12 regional
15:05tournaments. The most first place was the $1,000. And I was leading money winner with $6,000.
15:11I was at the American Bowling Congress Championship. I got him in doubles and singles
15:17with another young guy who bowled two or Ty Critchlow. And put the two guys together for the doubles and
15:24singles competition that afternoon. And lo and behold, Bob and Ty won the classic, the professional doubles title
15:31that day. He would bowl against anybody anywhere. He bowled in leagues in maybe 10 different areas
15:40in New Jersey. Almost invariably, he would be the leading bowler in the league. He's rolled 300 games in
15:48800 series in 10 different counties in the state, which is an incredible feat. There's this organization
15:56called the NBA. That's the National Bowling Association. Now, this is a complete black
16:02organization that was formed because initially in bowling, only whites were allowed to bowl. So
16:08they formed their own organization. And each year they have a tournament. So what happens, because of
16:15rules, they have to accept anybody. So one tournament, in walks Bob and he wins the NBA singles championship.
16:23I ended up being a TNBA bowl of the year. I was a black bowl of the year and I was a white guy.
16:28Well, actually in 1972, I bought Encyclopedia Britannica. And every year you get the book of
16:34the year after that. You would, the book of the year would come in the mail. And I opened it one day
16:39and I said, oh, let me look up bowling. And I looked up bowling and there was my brother's name
16:44in Encyclopedia Britannica. I joined the PBA when I was 19. I graduated high school. I think it was the summer.
16:50I had a choice either to go to college or to become a professional bowler. And I became
16:55a professional bowler. This is the Bergen County Bowlers Association. It's one of the only associations
17:01in the United States that owns its own building. This building was, they bought this building in 1973
17:08when they had 30,000 bowlers in this county of Bergen County. And it was one of the largest bowling
17:14associations in America. This is where, uh, if you want to become a great bowler, you needed to bowl
17:19on Monday nights at Paramus. That's where all the famous bowlers bowled in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
17:25Hey, Bob, how you doing? Yuck, shabash.
17:30How's everything? Good, good, good. We came here to see the Hall of Fame.
17:34Oh, good. Nice.
17:35Fellow Hall of Famer, fellow teammate. Thanks.
17:38Joe Tove, so, you know. Good, great. Let's go inside and see everybody.
17:49These are pictures of everybody that's been inducted to the Bergen County Hall of Fame.
17:56A lot of these people I know personally, and a lot of them had an effect on my life.
18:01Uh, the first person that I beat for my first professional title was Ralph Engen.
18:06Uh, Joe was on the same team as Eddie Totola, who was a teammate of mine in Paramus.
18:12Then we have, we have Chuck Pezzano, who was a really personal good friend of mine.
18:16Then we have the greatest bowler, I think, that New Jersey's ever seen.
18:19And that's Tita Simas. That's on top over there, you know.
18:22Uh, he was probably the greatest bowler the state of New Jersey has ever seen.
18:26You know, you think about being put in the Hall of Fame. I mean, it's, it's a great
18:31honor. And, uh, you know, it's a well-deserved honor for a lot of people. I mean, even for me,
18:37it was a well-deserved honor. But, you know, drinking and drugging took a lot of things away
18:42from me. Took the State Hall of Fame away from me. They'll never put me in the State Hall of Fame
18:46because of the, the way they act. I mean, they had the elections again this year and they didn't
18:51put me in. And I've been on a ballot for 15 years. I mean, it's totally ridiculous.
18:55I mean, I had major accomplishments in bowling and never got in, so.
18:59As Bob started getting older and bowling better, a lot of people started showing up
19:08very interested in what Bob was doing. Um, people from Patterson, uh, a lot of people that were,
19:19I don't know how to say this, um, I don't know how to say this. People that were, um,
19:34I don't want to say mafia people, but I want to say
19:38shady people. I, I, that's, that actually, it's not shady people. Maybe powerful people. Maybe
19:49that's the word I'm looking for, because I was impressed also.
19:52Uh, the fat man was, um, a guy named Raymond Szymanski. He was a funny guy. We called him the
20:00fat man because he was always sweating. He was big and heavy, and he had money. We got to know
20:06Raymond. Raymond used to take us here. We'd go here. We'd go there. Raymond was the money man.
20:11Don't worry about it. I'll put up the money. And he'd be the backer. Yeah, I'm trying to ball
20:15for, you know, that's the kind of guy he was. He was the wise guy. Raymond was the wise guy. He was
20:20the wise guy. He was also known as Uncle Raymond. Uncle Raymond. Right. He had them fucking dangerous
20:26eyes. You know what they talk about? People with eyes that can look through you and cut you up. That's
20:30what he had. He'd go like this.
20:32There's a tough element there behind gambling. And if you don't perform, um, you can get hurt,
20:43physically as well as mentally. And, uh, you have to be careful how you, uh, how you're introduced
20:50into gambling in pot games, as we called it back then. Bowling was gambling itself. Um,
20:57they bowled for money all the time. It was like going to a movie and seeing the sheriff of the town
21:04going against the fastest gun. Because when you walked into a bowling center, you would actually
21:10challenge the best bowler in that center. It was fun. You go in the bowling alley, you could be broke
21:15and walk in and they'd all bet on you. You win and they'd give you the money and you go home. It was
21:20great. Friday nights was terrific. If I had 200 or I had nothing, I would come home with a lot of money.
21:24The problem is the money that he did win, very little of it was his money.
21:30So, uh, it was a tough life. And, and naturally being away three, four days at a time,
21:37that would lead to some type of a drug to try to keep you going.
21:41This accident was all my fault. I had to deliver liquor. I was working for this company. We had all
21:50customers in New York City and I had to deliver the Christmas gifts to them, which were bottles of,
21:57um, you know, bottles for Christmas and things like that. So I said to Bob, would you drive me? If you
22:02drive me, I can just run in. So he said, okay. So he drove me. So the first one I had to go to was
22:09Gimbel's department store and he's, Pat, you take too long. I'll go. You drive the car. It's okay.
22:15So I'm sitting in the car and all of a sudden I'm waiting and waiting. I'm illegally parked on 31st street.
22:21Now I'm walking across and, uh, I come to the traffic light and that's where the Avenue of
22:27Americas meets Broadway. I think it's called Herald Square. So I was coming where the one way's coming
22:32down and the one way coming down is on my left. Now you have to understand that I'm blind in one eye
22:38and I'm standing there and I was talking to this gorgeous brunette that was standing next to me.
22:42I'll never forget it. And the light turned green and she said, look out. She says, look out. And she
22:47screamed at me and I turned and I said, oh my God. And I get hit by a cat. And I'm waiting and, um,
22:54somebody knocks on the window and I look up and they said, are you here with your brother?
23:00And I said, yeah. And they said, oh, he just got hit by a cab down on the corner.
23:06And I went, what? The cab hit me. It hit me. It crushed me. It hit me. It dragged me. I went
23:13almost to 32nd street and I ended up hitting an intent of a parked car and it ripped my face back
23:19open again. And I'm laying on the ground and I was laying on the ground. I said to myself,
23:24I can't move from my waist down and my legs hurt and they were swelling, but I couldn't move. So
23:30I said, let me just lay here. My face was bleeding. And this cop walks over and says, this sucker's
23:34dead. And he threw his jacket on top of me. And I'm laying there and I'm going, I'm dead.
23:39I don't believe this. I'm dead. And I said, well, if you're dead, you're supposed to meet somebody,
23:45the God, the devil or something. And I can hear these, these sirens and people screaming and stuff
23:51like that. The people surrounded the cab so they couldn't get away. And my sister comes screaming.
23:56So when I get to the corner, there's my brother laying in the street and they had him covered
24:00with a coat that he was dead. So I started screaming, oh my God, I killed you. I killed you.
24:07I killed you. Look what I did to you. And all of a sudden the coat went flying in the air and he goes,
24:11oh, so I'm not dead. I'm not dead. I'm alive. So. And they took me to Wayne General where I
24:17stayed for the next 169 days or something. On crushes and walker and wheelchair, you know.
24:24And then, you know, I got addicted to Percodans at that time. And I started doing a lot of Percodans
24:29and I started doing a lot of booze. And then I started doing some, a lot of coke. So,
24:33you know, the drugs are trying to, made me move a lot better than what I was moving, you know.
24:38Well, they were saying I couldn't walk again, never mind bull again.
24:41Everyone did drugs. We all did drugs. Okay. Just depended who got hooked and who didn't.
24:48I really got heavily addicted into Percodans as pain killers because my legs hurt a lot.
24:53You know, I remember the day my father died. I remember flushing all the morphine and things
24:57down the sink so my brother couldn't get it. But I mean, it was really a bad time, but he stuck through it.
25:03I was scheduled to go on the PBA tour and I never got to go. I was going to leave the week later
25:08because it starts in January, the first week of January, and never got to go. So.
25:15Well, my father was dying. My brother was a stone drug addict, an alcoholic.
25:21My father finally was diagnosed with lung cancer and he was going to die. And the doctor told him that
25:27you only had six months to live and don't you think you led your life? You shouldn't be upset.
25:31My father was 62 at the time. And I love my father. I never had a chance to say I was sorry to my
25:36father for everything that I did. At that time, you know, I was, I had just started using cocaine then.
25:42I mean, I used it because what it did was it really kept me up and I used it to stay up.
25:47I mean, it also got me high, but at night I couldn't, you know, I used speed and coke and I was staying
25:51up and I wasn't really heavily addicted to that at that time.
25:55And at the end when the liver went to it, the cancer went to his liver, you know,
26:01he didn't want to stay in the hospital anymore. And he asked me if, if he came home, if I could
26:05take care of him, you know, we started to get close again after all the times that we separated.
26:10And for that nine months, like, you know, it was hard because all day long, I was out hustling and
26:16doing what I need to do, trying to earn some money. And at night, my aunt would take care of my dad
26:21during the day and then at night from like nine or 10 at night to nine in the morning. I would stay up
26:24and give me his medicine and stuff like that. It was really hard to watch him die.
26:29So of course I let them down, but you know, you can't go your whole life when you get sober saying
26:34that's the reason I should destroy my life. You know, I wish I would have been in a different
26:39shape and form when people came to the funeral home to see me, you know. I'm not the same person I was
26:45then. That was 15 years ago and 20 years ago. It's 21 years since my dad died, you know.
26:51I mean, it took us to come here for me to come to the grave.
26:58Hey, Dad. Hey, Mom. Long time.
27:02When you're a drug addict and alcoholic, you steal from your family. I mean, you threaten your family.
27:22I could go on for it ever and ever. And my family couldn't take it.
27:27Bob always owed 50 million people. It wasn't long sharks. It was that, you know, thing. But this one
27:32time it was really a serious thing and there was really a contract out on him. And I had given him
27:37the money and I went with him to pay it because I enjoyed it. Thank God.
27:44All right. And he paid it. If he came to your door, you gave him money. And I told all my neighbors,
27:49you give him money. I'm not paying you back. I'm telling you right now, because they all knew Mr.
27:54Bowler. A lot of them didn't know the other side of him. And so he, but they knew us.
28:00Right. So they'd say, okay, here's a hundred. Your sister will give it to me. And I told my neighbors,
28:05you give them money. It's your money. Um, my sisters were strong enough to walk away from him.
28:10I never was. They were strong enough to set limits and boundaries that he wasn't allowed to be in
28:14their lives or this and that. I was never that strong. But the effect that it had on everyone
28:20was devastating. I remember a Thanksgiving at my house after my father had died, he came. He was like,
28:27what you would want to have done was throw him in the shower and scrub him. He was so down and out.
28:32And there was no way we could get him to leave. Shoe leather, skin, um, hair, no teeth, hair, wild,
28:39no teeth, filthy, dirty. And then, um, it was so bad that my mother really didn't want him to leave.
28:47But then I think it took Jean and somebody took him down to a, a motel in Patterson to give him a room.
28:54Remember that one? Yeah. I mean, it was. It was, you wouldn't have known it was him.
28:58You would have thought it was just anybody. But this was not a human being. This was a chemical.
29:02This was, um, he just, there was no understanding. For him, it was survival, whatever he had to do
29:10to survive. There was no right or wrong. And I just told him, get out of my life. You are already dead
29:15because you're nothing but a chemical. Get out of my life and go die because I have had it.
29:26I ran into this drug called crack. I had a guy, I was over his apartment. We were drunk. And he says
29:32to me, why don't you try this? And I smoked it and I got high. And it was one of the best highs I've ever
29:37had in my life. And I couldn't stop. Coke got me sick. Booze got me sick. I'd drink because I
29:44needed it. I'd be trembling. And then I needed a drink to stop trembling. But I wouldn't stop
29:48trembling. I thought I would. Then at the end, it was, I couldn't live with it. And I couldn't live
29:52without it. I would smoke anywhere from 80 to 100 bottles a day. It was nothing for me to do that.
29:58I mean, I was in a blackout one time. I came, I walked into Times Square and I yawned. I opened my
30:04eyes up and I'm in the middle of Times Square. I said, what the hell am I doing here? And I looked
30:08around and, you know, and I said, and I looked in my pocket. I had 20 bucks and six vials of crack.
30:14And I said, wow. And I got on the phone and I dialed my friend Bobby Richardi because he had an 800
30:19number. And I said, let me speak to Bobby. And Bobby gets on the phone and Bobby and I used to drug together. I mean,
30:26God bless his soul, he's dead today. But, you know, uh, him and I drugged a lot together. And,
30:30uh, I said, um, Bob, what's the problem? Everybody's looking for me. He goes, where are you? I said,
30:35I'm in Times Square. I said, what the hell are you doing here? I said, I don't know, but what's the
30:37problem? I said, I was with you last night. He says, no, Bob, that was three weeks ago. And I lived in
30:42a blackout for three and a half weeks. And, you know, I don't know what happened that time. And,
30:46you know, we're talking three weeks of your life go by and you don't remember it. You know, this is dangerous,
30:51but this is about, uh, showing what it's like when, uh, what happened to you, what it was like
30:56and what happened. And, uh, you know, it builds up a lot of bad vibes. I go in here and lean in here,
31:03and I would just take this dam and do it and try to lean here and try to keep cleaning it out and
31:08trying to get high and trying to get high and just maintain my high for the night. That's what I used to
31:13do. And I come over here and this is 8th Avenue, right in these buildings right here,
31:17495, 493, 491. At one time in the 80s, this was a place where we'd buy a lot of our, I'd buy a lot
31:27of my crack, a lot of my coke, a lot of my dope. And I'd spend most of the nights here trying to hang
31:32around with the street people or the, the, the, the dope fiends and the drug dens in these buildings.
31:41And, uh, down here, you see the, um, the crates. We just picked this up. We used to go down
31:47underneath there and that's where we used to smoke the dope and, uh, hang out and hide during the day.
32:07And if you turn around and you look up the street here, I mean, look up the street. I mean,
32:13you think it's, you just feel we're a little warmer today, but think about 20 below with the wind
32:18blowing or 10 below and you know, it's real cold and you got the same clothes on for six months,
32:24same socks, your heads up like this and you're freezing, you're walking around and you're living
32:29right on the street here. I mean, this is it. This is where I did. I walked up and down all the way up
32:33and down these streets. Used to walk up and down, up and down, up and down all night long. I walked up and
32:39down, up and down, up and down all night long. This is what I did.
32:48I used to come in here. I come down here like three or four in the morning. Uh,
32:52Freddy used to work here. Freddy was pretty good. As long as, uh, you know, if I owed him money,
32:57he owed me money, he would, uh, give me 10 or 20 dollars. And as soon as I got 20 dollars,
33:01I'd go around the corner and try to pick up some vials of crack. We'd come over to show world,
33:06like check my pocket to see if I have any quarters left. If I did, or maybe if the guys in there,
33:11I knew I'd go in there and I get a couple of dollars I put in and I get like maybe a half hour
33:17or 45 minutes. And then there was holes in my mouth from the, from my teeth when I pulled them out.
33:23And then that just made the hole bigger and bigger. And it just, the whole piece of my mouth was coming
33:27off because of, uh, the, uh, teeth rotting away and my gums rotting away. I went in the peep show.
33:32I used to go in there and have what booze and drugs I have. I would put the dollars in,
33:37turn the peep show on. Uh, if I had some booze, I'd drink it. And then I would put the crack
33:42in the stem and then suck the devil's dick. That's what they call it. When you smoke a crack,
33:47they say you're sucking the devil's dick.
33:55Now it's the next morning. You have no money. You don't have money for a bus. You don't have
34:00money for a cup of coffee. You don't have any money. You can't go anywhere. You're all blacked out.
34:05You've been up all night long. You're filthy. Your hands are black. Your throat is like ready to close
34:11from the butane. You're coughing, you're spitting and you're walking around. You ain't got no money.
34:15And even if you got money, if you have thirty dollars left, there's nothing to do. Because
34:19everybody that's on the street right now are all, all dead, deadbeat artists. That's all they are.
34:24Deadbeats. Because I was told that three things are going to happen to me if I don't get better.
34:29I was more than saying I would either kill somebody, kill myself, or spend the rest of my life
34:34in an insane asylum. When you reach the point in life of drinking and drugging and you beat yourself
34:42into the submission, I had enough. I was walking down the street and it came to me that I don't
34:48have no more mind. I didn't have any money. I had no chance of getting better. I had ran out of every
34:54possible way, method that I could use to get to exist another day getting high. And it was all over
35:00it. And after being downstairs in the subway, sitting here smoking crack and feeding 30 pound rats,
35:05I felt that there would be no return and if I didn't do something about it. And that the road
35:11back was so long, it was unbelievable. So I just said, this is it. We are done and we need to do
35:18something. And I said, well, what's the most painless thing? Couldn't kill myself drinking and drugging.
35:24All I knew was that the trucks come down the street really fast and if I jump, I'll never feel it.
35:29And I saw the truck coming down the street and I jumped in front of it. But as soon as I jumped in
35:33front of it, I had one minute of sanity and I slipped and so did the truck and it missed me.
35:38And if that guy would have caught me, he would have beat the living crap out of me and I would
35:41have died then. But I ran away. And then I decided from that point on that I needed to do something about
35:47my life.
35:58I was feeling better and they told me I could go to Graymoor, St. Christopher's Inn. And I went up there
36:14and I said, listen, I said, brother, I said, I need help. I need a bed. You got to help me.
36:20He arrived. I had said to him, you know, you've been drinking again. But his driver had left.
36:26You know, we kept him. And I think that was, uh, God wanted him to be here.
36:35It was, it was like, I guess it was like 45 days since I saw you, um, from when he went into
36:41Graymoor, which I didn't even know until later. No, you didn't see me for a long time.
36:44Or even before that. I don't, I don't, time is, time is not something you relate to anymore.
36:52I saw, I saw defeat, but I saw healing. Um,
36:59um, that the shell, maybe to explain it, the shell had come off and there was a beginning of healing.
37:14The emotional inside you could never explain.
37:18I, myself and others pushed him and said, you know, if you're going to be here
37:24and you want to go on with your life, you're going to have to do something. And that's just a
37:27matter of being here. It's not just a matter of, of being in the building and letting all these
37:31activities, but you have to kind of absorb them. You have to kind of make yourself a part of it.
37:36St. Christopher's was probably the biggest inspiration of them all, especially with the
37:41spiritual experience with, uh, Father Paul and, um, knowing that, uh, I had some hope in life and
37:49I got all that from here. I mean, uh, when I left here, I had a good foundation underneath me. I knew I was
37:56going to stay sober and I was determined to stay sober. And according to the way they set in front,
38:01structured me that I, I, I could make it.
38:15You know, God saved my life and the St. Christopher saved my life. So,
38:18you know, you know, I had, I had, I had come here, I probably would have died. Chances are,
38:24I was dead already. So I would have definitely been dead if I wasn't here.
38:27A friend of his had lent a guy money for a business that he wanted to start and his friend died,
38:44Bob Rashardi. And supposedly, um, the brother wanted the money back and the people Bobby knew,
38:54they went at, they went to collect the money and Bob went to Manhattan to tell this guy we wanted
39:00the money back or else. I sat down, I talked to him and I was told certain, say certain, certain things.
39:05And, uh, you know, I kind of like, uh, took it to another level and, uh, try to get the guy to get
39:11the message. And the guy did get the message, but the message not only was being able to the guy,
39:15it was being given to the FBI. You know, I mean, uh, the FBI was there all the time. I didn't know that.
39:21He was charged in a, uh, a very serious crime. He was charged in an extortion. Some of the people
39:27that he was, uh, accused of participating with were, uh, alleged, uh, to have contacts with organized
39:34crime. And he was in a bit of trouble. They handcuffed me and they put me in the back of
39:38a federal car and they took me all these side street and under a tunnel into the federal building
39:44in Manhattan. And they took me up into a room and I'm standing there and they're going through my
39:48wallet. Who's this guy? Who's that guy? And they bring a guy in to me to meet me. And the guy,
39:54and they said, do you know who this guy is? And I said, no, he said, this is the guy that locked up
39:57John Gotti. Bob had been arrested and charged with extortion in federal court in the Southern
40:02District of New York. The U.S. Attorney Clark is telling the magistrate that, that I'm a, uh,
40:10a cop in a gangrino crime family, that I can kill people with the snap of my fingers.
40:15And my lawyer turns to me and says, I thought you were a bowler. What are you talking about?
40:18I said, I had no idea what he's talking about. From the day that I met him, he made it clear that
40:22he wanted to find a way to acknowledge, uh, the criminal activity in which he was involved.
40:29And he was prepared to deal with the consequences. And that was unique among the people I represented.
40:34At the end of the day, Bob was sentenced to a, uh, uh, a time served sentence and a term of supervised
40:42release. In other words, a non-incarcerative sentence. And, uh, as you well know, he was
40:47able to go on with his life and go on with his trade, and he proved the judge's, uh, judgment
40:52about him correct.
40:53Mr. T. Smith, greatest of all time.
41:00Better than everybody. Nobody better than T. Smith.
41:02Mr. T. Smith.
41:04Nielsen, Oh, don't get me wrong. This kid grew up with
41:06Mark Rock. Him and Mark Rock were just as even. In those days. But, you know, one went
41:13another way. He went another way. He could have been one of the best in the world.
41:16Mark,åŠ Sr., Just got a great man!
41:27He would follow this guy wherever he went, and he always,
41:32if his dad didn't come and we went together,
41:34I had to watch over him.
41:36The second dad, let's put it that way.
41:41Yeah, my first night on tour I roomed, I roomed with Teeter.
41:44So he was blessed with me the rest of his life.
41:47We got 40 years later, he's still blessed to meet each other.
41:50It's great, it's great, it's great to see him back.
41:57Good to see you.
42:10Good to see you.
42:11All right, everything's good.
42:13Good, you ready?
42:14Yeah, I'm ready.
42:14All right, let's go home.
42:16You know, it hasn't been an easy life.
42:20Like I said before, he's come out of it.
42:23He's back, he's off the canvas now,
42:25and my son is gonna help him get back,
42:29drilling his equipment.
42:30And once we get everything ready for him,
42:32I think he's gonna be very competitive.
42:55How about it that way?
42:56I'm gonna take care of him.
42:57I'm gonna be very hot.
42:57I'm gonna go all night.
42:58I think I'm gonna play a little bit.
43:00I'm gonna pick it up late.
43:01But when the running around,
43:02you're going to play with him.
43:02I didn't know where he's gonna play.
43:02You're gonna play with the fun go.
43:20You're gonna play with Jordyn.
43:21I started bowling again as Bob Brzezicki when I got sober because I wanted no affiliation
43:28because I'm sober.
43:29My name is Bob Brzezicki.
43:30I wasn't sober as Bob Herry.
43:32You need to just deal with this.
43:35This is recovery, and recovery is keep going forward.
43:38Not look at the past.
43:40I'm not regretting my past, but I'm not going to beat myself up because when I was not sober
43:48that my parents got to see me be a lowlife.
43:51Today, I'm not a lowlife, so they see that.
43:54We don't believe in God, or we believe in our higher power, so I know they're in heaven.
43:58That's all that matters.
43:59Whether I go to heaven is another thing, but we know that they're in heaven.
44:07Well, Earl Anthony, we have arrived.
44:12We have arrived at our championship match of the Super Bowl High Roller, the winner of
44:20this match, $100,000.
44:23Well, I'll tell you what, Bob Brzezicki and Chris James.
44:27Both of these guys are feeling a lot of heat right now, and the opening shots will probably
44:33get down there real quick.
44:35There are a lot of Bob Brzezicki fans all across the country.
44:40That's a nice ball.
44:41There it is.
44:42Outstanding shot there, and you can see they're both using a lot of ball speed.
44:47Bob using a little more than the younger player, Chris.
44:52Besides being the greatest bowler, which he is, there was a higher purpose for him.
45:01And that's the kind of thing, a psychological thing, that's a double for Bob, and it could
45:08affect Chris James.
45:09Only 23, as I mentioned.
45:10Already feeling plenty of pressure just bowling in this circumstance.
45:14Oh, another good shot.
45:16Boy, that's a beautiful ball after that double from Brzezicki.
45:21So somewhere these demons were conquered.
45:23I don't know who conquered them, but I think 99% has to go to Bob.
45:29He conquered his own demons.
45:31He had a determination in his face.
45:35Both bowlers working on a double.
45:38Oh!
45:40Brzezicki!
45:42Well, I'll tell you what.
45:44You've got to feel pretty fortunate, as you can see that.
45:47When he's out there with that bowling ball, you never know.
45:51There might be another hand behind him helping.
45:58In the fifth frame.
45:59Oh!
46:02There's a look at him.
46:06You're getting another chance now.
46:08You can start a new career in what you're doing in an addition in bowling,
46:13where you can again become a national champion.
46:16So take advantage of it right now.
46:19But it really comes down to Chris James needing three strikes minimum
46:23to make Bob Perry get a mark.
46:25Bob Brzezicki, you should say, get a mark.
46:27It's there!
46:28Oh!
46:29Wait a minute!
46:30Look out!
46:31It!
46:32Oh, no!
46:35Unbelievable.
46:36His fourth solid ten of the match.
46:39I think Bob had a tough life.
46:42But he hasn't hit the ten count.
46:44Right now he's on nine and three quarters.
46:47You know, but he's up.
46:49Well, it's a wonderful story.
46:51And he's very open about talking about it,
46:53Perzicki is.
46:54He's a recovering alcoholic.
46:55He works with kids day in and day out.
46:57He gets kids off the streets,
46:59finds jobs.
47:00He'll like it.
47:01He'll like it.
47:02Yes!
47:03All right.
47:04200 to 193.
47:05And Bob Perzicki is the champion of the Super Bowl High Roller here in Las Vegas.
47:13There is a winner, Bob Perzicki, the winner of the High Roller here at the showboat in Las Vegas.
47:30$100,000, $200,193 over Christian.
47:38Bob, we're in the middle of a wonderful moment here at the showboat.
47:41And I don't know if you can find the words, but please try.
47:45This is a moment that you've got your whole life to wait for.
47:51I come from a...
47:52I had a real bad time in life.
47:54And five years ago this was a dream.
47:56And today it's reality.
47:58I owe a lot of people for it.
48:00And I thank God for it.
48:01And without it, I'd have nothing.
48:03Very, very nice.
48:07I think he's fine now.
48:08I think that there won't be no count of ten.
48:12I think from now on he'll be the referee.
48:15Counting for other people.
48:19Happy birthday to you!
48:22Happy birthday to you!
48:24Happy birthday dear Bobby!
48:29Happy birthday to you!
48:33Yay!
48:35Happy birthday dear Bobby!
48:36Happy birthday to you!
48:37I didn't think I was going to make 35.
48:48I didn't think I was going to make 50 years old.
48:50Not at all.
48:5410 years of sobriety.
48:56Sober 10 years this month.
48:58This month is the month that I got sober.
49:02June 27th of 1992.
49:04Like it says in another wonderful book, you know,
49:10love endures all things, it bears all things.
49:12You know, love is what it is, you know.
49:14And I think Bobby got a genuine love for people,
49:16especially people that went through what we went through,
49:18you know, and took the journey that we took.
49:24We started Last Stop in September of last year, 2001.
49:29The first original reason of Last Stop was to start
49:32a motor vehicle agency.
49:34Also, I was doing secondary referrals for treatment centers.
49:37In other words, when people are in treatment for drugs and alcohol,
49:40I would find another treatment center for them to go to,
49:43such for people who are homeless or people that need more treatment
49:47to stay in them for a long-term treatment center.
49:49I would try to find that when I was working at several treatment centers.
49:53So when I came and we started the store,
49:55my sister felt it would be a good idea if we started doing referrals.
49:59In other words, put a sign outside that people have drug and alcohol problems
50:04and need help, because a lot of people in this world don't know what to do
50:07when they have problems with drugs and alcohol.
50:09So I started Last Stop.
50:12It was a train station.
50:13Patsy loved the building.
50:14Patsy's my sister, and she loved the building, and she felt,
50:17and I felt Last Stop would be a great name.
50:19I don't know if I do this because I'm looking for any type of gratitude.
50:23I just do it because it needs to be done.
50:25I mean, there's a lot of people that don't want to do it.
50:28People want to stay sober and don't want to help people,
50:30and there's people that want to stay sober and help people.
50:33The best way I can help them is the people that are dying.
50:36There's a lot of people dying today.
50:38You know, it's good that you help a lot of people.
50:41It's not about money.
50:42I don't charge.
50:44I don't ask for anything.
50:46People that talk about getting better,
50:51a lot of people don't know what it's like to get better.
50:52A lot of people have different ideas,
50:54but when you come from that store, it's a little bit different.
51:22I'm looking for it.
51:29I'm looking for it.
51:32I'm looking for it.
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