Marshall’s love for bowling started at an early age, influenced by watching the PBA Tour on TV. When he was 10 years old, he would watch his father, Phil, bowl at the Medford Bowling Center and by the time he turned 12 he decided he wanted to learn to bowl. His father asked Andy Anderson, owner of the lanes, if he would get Marshall started. Andy did and recalls Marshall’s first score was a solid 71…after that the Holman’s couldn’t keep their son away from the lanes.

During Marshall’s Junior and Senior High days, Phil would receive calls that “the boy” had not arrived for his classes. Very simple to figure out where Marshall was in Medford Bowling Lanes. This became a constant problem for his father and bowling became his enemy. He did everything he could to discourage his son from spending so much time at the lanes, a war that lasted 7 years. Marshall worked at the lanes so that he could have bowling privileges and when tournaments came along his mother, Marge, saw that he had the needed funds to participate.

When Marshall was 16, he needed money to make a trip to Eugene, hoping to win the $1000 in a televised tournament. Dad said no, but Mom didn’t say no. That $1000 was the start…At 18 he won a pro spot roll-off gaining him entry in the 1973 Portland Open.  He was the only amateur to make the top 24. Marshall is the youngest person ever to win the Firestone Tournament of Champions, the only person to win 2 US Opens, the youngest player to have won 10 PBA Titles.  He now has won a total of 18 events and is the most consistent player on the PBA tour in the last 5 years and held high average in 1982 and 1984.

Marshall, nicknamed the “Medford Meteor”, also does quite well on the golf course, playing to a 5 handicap. He says his week at home for the Southern Oregon Tournament is one of his favorite times.

Marshall is in the Jewish Athletes Hall of Fame, has made the Bowlers Journal All America Team 5 times, and in collaboration with a New York sportswriter, has written a book “Guide to Competitive Bowling.”  When the familiar clenched fist, gritted teeth and wide-eyed stare following a crucial strike flash on TV across the nation, we of Medford proudly join Phil and Marge Holman in saying “that’s our boy.”