Husker Legend Asbaty Inducted to the USBC Hall of Fame

Former Nebraska bowling great and 2003 graduate, Diandra Asbaty, was named to the 2023 United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Hall of Fame Class this week in Las Vegas. 

Asbaty, a native of Chicago, celebrated an incredible Husker career. Through her time at Nebraska (1998-2003), Asbaty was a two-time collegiate First-Team All-American with two Intercollegiate Championship Titles under her belt. The two-time Armature Champion (1999 and 2006) was a 15-time member of Team USA from 1999-2013, during which she added more than 50 international medals to her resume.  

A highlight of her collegiate and professional career is her 2012 victory at the USBC Queens. 

“Winning the USBC Queens was really a turning point in my career,” Asbaty said. “I had a 14-month-old boy at home, and I went to that event and proved to myself I could still do this on my terms. To be able to step up in the 10th and strike to win against a hall of famer – Carolyn Dorin-Ballard – that was obviously a highlight of my whole career. It proved to me that I could be a great mom and I could still be a great bowler.”  

The resume for Asbaty runs deep with her second title at the 2022 PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles in Houston, adjoined with PBA legend EJ Tackett for the win, and she also collected a pair of professional titles in PBA Women’s Series events.

Other accomplishments include the 1998 Alberta E. Crowe Star of Tomorrow Award, a two-time World Bowling Writers Bowler of the Year (2006 and 2007), the International Bowling Media Association Female Bowler of the Year (2012) and multiple Amateur Bowler of the Year awards from both the IBMA and Bowlers Journal International. Additionally, she was inducted into the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame in 2005. 

“I imagine a little girl and her family walking through the hall of fame,” Asbaty said. “And I imagine her seeing my picture, and the little girl stops and she says, ‘That’s the bowler that was a world champion, a mom, a change maker.’ I want my legacy to be that I left bowling better than I found it.” 

Asbaty is the first Husker female to be inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame and just the second overall, as alum Mike Shady was inducted in 2017.