BATON ROUGE - Another Monday it seems in recent times when this column has to take a turn that is not fun when you realize that one of the voices of a generation in our sport has left us.

Randy Pedersen, who was one of the top 50 bowlers of the first 50 years of the Pro Bowlers Association, and from 2001-25 was the primary analyst on every network broadcast of the PBA Tour, passed away this past week at the age of 64.

It is been stated that Pedersen, who bowler Chris Barnes said on a podcast had been battling depression, ended his own life.

Pedersen was the longest serving analyst in the history of the PBA Tour, which dates back to the early 1960s. Longer than Nelson Burton Jr., who was the primary analyst for the majority of time on the old ABC telecasts. He worked from network to network serving on ESPN, CBS and FOX Sports primarily.

How good was Randy Pedersen as a broadcast booth colleague? All you have to do is look at social media and see almost all of the broadcasters Pedersen worked with, offering beautiful tributes. Dave Ryan, Dave Lamont, Rob Stone, Mike Jakubowski, Lon McEachern and John Fanta among others.

Both Ryan, Lamont and Stone all worked with him at both ESPN and FOX Sports, along with the long- standing Ryan-Pedersen combination at CBS. Stone admitted he knew nothing about bowling when he first started on the coverage on ESPN, but on both networks Stone and Pedersen would bring a fun, entertaining element to the telecasts which brought a new, younger demographic to the PBA Tour.

Fanta talked about the last two years of the PBA contract with FOX when he was asked by the network to fill in for Stone, who was away for more and more assignments hosting football and soccer events, including the World Cup. Pedersen and Fanta blended well together and Fanta’s enthusiasm with Pedersen were looking like they might be the future announcement crew for the tour.

However, the FOX contract ended after the 2025 season ended and Fanta would sign a much bigger deal at NBC. It was obvious that the six years of FOX Sports coverage was ending when Stone and Pedersen teamed one final time on the Tournament of Champions and at the end with a little extra time Rob and Randy basically said good bye to each other.

“Bowling is better with you in my life, my friend. I’ll tell you that,” Stone said to Pedersen. Pedersen responded: “Rob, our bowling on the PBA Tour was always better with you.”

Announcers work with a lot of analysts in their career and in bowling a good analyst can carry you a long way. Pederson was part of some of the great broadcast pairings of the PBA Tour history and there can be no doubt about that.

Now I’m not forgetting Chris Schenkel and Burton, or Denny Schreiner and Mike Durbin, who were very good pairings, but Pedersen’s ability to work with different announcers at different times made him special and his ability to throw some “Randyisms” out there along with his analysis made the shows that much better.

While I understand The CW wanted to do their own thing when it came to announcers, some of the joy and fun was missing this year in the booth and it was certainly a surprise when Pedersen was not on the CBS telecasts this year. He did make some appearances on Bowl TV this year calling early round streaming action and that was very welcome.

What you also cannot forget about Randy Pedersen was that he was tremendous bowler, winning 13 times on the PBA National Tour (with a major) and once on the PBA 50 tour before injuries forced him to retire the equipment.

Who will ever forget the famed “Stone 8” pin leave in the 10th frame that caused him to lose by a pin in the 1995 Touring Players Championship? Every eight-pin left on TV with Pedersen in the booth usually brought some type of comment for sure.

Pedersen was voted No. 35 on the list of the 50 Greatest PBA Players of the first 50 years of the Association.

While Pedersen was not a part of the over-the-air telecasts in 2026, hopefully in 2027 the right things to be done to honor on air this remarkable bowler/announcer/Hall of Famer who made bowling telecasts a lot more entertaining for all of us. RIP Randy and thank you.

Back with you next week. Until then good luck and good bowling.