By Kayla Boardman (@kaylarboardman):
Darren Tang and Michael Tang have been bowling since they were kids. Little did they know that their dreams of being professional bowlers would one day come true.
The San Jose State alumni brothers both had impressive careers with the bowling team. They were both named first team collegiate all-americans twice and were part of the 2014 USA Junior Team.
Growing up in San Francisco, the two started bowling from a young age. Darren, the older of the two, started bowling when he was eight. Michael started bowling at six.
“Mom bowled in a league every week so we were in a bowling center all the time,” Darren said. “Dad used to own a pro shop, [but] the bowling center closed where he worked so everything kind of just ended up in our garage.”
In 2006, Michael was the youngest bowler in the world to bowl a perfect 300-point game. He held the title for roughly nine months until someone younger in Japan beat the record.
In high school, he was named Storm Bowling’s next bowling prodigy after winning a contest. The company still sponsors him and his brother in their professional careers today, along with the SJSU bowling team.
The choice to go to SJSU was pretty simple for the Tang Brothers—Michael followed in his older brother’s footsteps. Darren, however, drew his inspiration from the late Tony Reyes, another SJSU alumnus who went pro.
“He was a professional bowler, he won on tour, he bowled 300 on TV, he was a really great guy,” Darren said. “He was really friendly, very personable, talked to us and he was pretty much the deciding factor for me.”
The two made a large impact while at SJSU on the bowling team and worked to build up everyone’s skills.
“That desire and drive that they individually had translated and really kind of rubbed off on all the other players and they were able to make everyone else better,” said head coach Lindsey Wong. “They were always willing to help other folks.”
The Tang brothers also accomplished a lot in their collegiate careers. Most notably, Michael was the first male bowler to win a national title for SJSU.
“Winning the national singles collegiate title was pretty cool knowing that I am the only male that has even won a national championship for the school,” Michael said.
Darren graduated in spring 2016 with a degree in mechanical engineering and Michael graduated in spring 2017 with a degree in psychology. However, both plan to bowl professionally for as long as they can.
“I think the best thing about it is meeting new people at the professional level,” Michael said. “Actually talking to and bowling with professionals that I have looked up to my whole life, that is probably the coolest part about it.”
Darren and Michael have both traveled around the country and internationally to compete in professional tournaments. Recently, the two just returned from bowling in Thailand.
Not only do the brothers travel and compete together, they even end up going against each other.
“We have been super competitive with everything we have done no matter what it is: basketball, bowling, video games, whatever so that always has a familiar element to it when we bowl against each other,” Michael said.
“I try to look at it the same as anybody else,” Darren said. “He is just an opponent and I don’t want any kind of mental barriers when bowling anybody in particular, so I try to treat him like anybody else.”
Since bowling is not as popular as most major sports, it is difficult to make a living as a professional bowler. However, Darren said that if it doesn’t work out, he hopes to use his engineering degree to help design bowling balls and impact the game.
For now, both brothers spend time at 4th Street Bowl helping the SJSU bowling team during practice and teaching their skills. Coach Wong said that it has been helpful to show the players what it takes to compete at that level and learn from them.
“They are willing to put in the time and effort to still pass on their knowledge that they did when they were still on the team,” Wong said.
The Tang brothers have a bright future ahead of them as they look toward building their professional careers as well as giving back to the SJSU team that means so much to them.