September 26, 2025 Nolan Hughes

EJ Tackett claimed his fourth career and third consecutive Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year honor in dominant fashion, receiving 86.5% of the vote among PBA members and media. 

Andrew Anderson and Ethan Fiore each received 6% of the vote. Jason Belmonte, Graham Fach, Jesper Svensson and Chris Via were also nominated.

Tackett joins Earl Anthony (1974-76, 1981-83), Mark Roth (1977-79), Walter Ray Williams Jr. (1996-98) and Belmonte (2013-15) as the fifth player to win three consecutive Player of the Year honors.

“I never thought in my life I could do something like that, winning three in a row,” Tackett said. “I’ve gotten to a point in my life and my career that every time I am able to do something, I join a list of people that are considered the greatest ever to play the game. To have my name associated with theirs is something very, very special.”

Tackett’s 2025 season, by many statistical measures, was one of the greatest campaigns in PBA history. He led the tour in points (34,690 — more than the second and third players combined), earnings ($438,540), average (228.60), top-five finishes (11), top-10 finishes (12), top-25 finishes (13) and cashes (15) in his 17 title events.

Tackett set new PBA records by advancing to the championship round in six consecutive title events and seven consecutive singles title events.

His 228.60 average ranked fourth all time and he entered the season’s final event with a chance to break the record of 229.39 set by Jason Belmonte in 2017.

Tackett said a pivotal moment of his season came in one of his few underwhelming performances.

In the PBA Owen’s Illinois Classic, Tackett said he missed more 10-pins than he had in any other single event of his career. He said he went home after missing the cut and practiced shooting the pesky corner-pin for more than an hour.

Tackett led the PBA Pete Weber Missouri Classic, the first tournament after Illinois, and held a narrow lead over Dom Barrett in the title match. With a chance to clinch the title, Tackett left a 10-pin in the ninth frame and another 10-pin on his first shot in the 10th frame.

Tackett said it felt like the bowling gods were testing him. He accepted their challenge, converted both 10-pins, then struck on the fill ball to clinch the title. 

“That was one of those moments that sticks out to me. I took something bad that happened, did something about it and created something good,” Tackett said. “Our mind is the most powerful thing that we have. One of the things that I've always said and I will continue to say is those that believe they can and those that believe they cannot are both usually right.”

His win in Missouri marked the 25th title of his career. Later in the season, Tackett surpassed Don Johnson for 10th all time with his 27th career title.

The two defining moments of his 2025 campaign were his major championship victories, each of which, for different reasons, immensely bolstered his growing legacy. 

“Majors are how we measure ourselves,” Tackett said. “Even though we’re bowling against the same guys, sometimes even on the same patterns, it feels different in a major championship. The air is just different.”

After two rounds of qualifying in the U.S. Open pres. by Go Bowling, Tackett sat in 78th place and almost 200 pins outside the cut. He started the final round with a 186 game to fall even further behind.

The Indiana native responded with a herculean effort, averaging more than 240 under U.S. Open-quality lane conditions, to make the cut to match play by 21 pins. Tackett rose to second place during match play to advance to the stepladder finals, where he defeated Chris Via and top seed Andrew Anderson.

The win marked his second career U.S. Open title, each coming at Indianapolis’ Royal Pin Woodland just over an hour south of his hometown of Bluffton, Ind.

Tackett’s second major victory of the year came in the PBA World Championship, culminating perhaps the greatest week in PBA history.

Tackett made the championship round in all five PBA World Series of Bowling XVI title events, finishing third on Scorpion, second on Viper and fourth on Chameleon before defending his Shark Championship title.

The World Championship title match, which was Tackett’s 123rd game in 18 days during the WSOB, pitted Tackett against Jason Belmonte.

For the second time in three years, Tackett doubled in the 10th frame to defeat his rival. Tackett, in his words, threw the two best shots of his career to complete the sixth major championship threepeat in PBA history.

“I was completely exhausted, mentally, physically and emotionally,” Tackett said. “To go through all of those games, all of those shows, all of those emotions, and still find a way to perform in a major championship, and then also win it, was pretty special.”

In each year Tackett has won the World Championship (2016, 2023-25), he has also been named Player of the Year.

No player has ever won four consecutive majors or four consecutive Player of the Year awards. Next season, Tackett will look to achieve both.

The PBA Player of the Year award bears the name of Chris Schenkel, whose Hall of Fame sports broadcasting career included more than three decades as the voice of the PBA.

Schenkel and Tackett were each born in the small Indiana county of Huntington.

Recent Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year Winners

EJ Tackett, 2025
EJ Tackett, 2024
EJ Tackett, 2023
Jason Belmonte, 2022
Kyle Troup, 2021
Jason Belmonte, 2020
Jason Belmonte, 2019
Andrew Anderson, 2018
Jason Belmonte, 2017
EJ Tackett, 2016

Complete list of Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year winners