I don't know too much about their history but did use several balls from them in the early and mid 90's including the original Cuda/C and the original Piranha.  Both were great pieces, and with the Cuda, shot the highest scratch game of the year in juniors with a 264.  After that, they came out with the Rage and Pulse, which rolled really well.

There was a time in the late 90's or early 2000's where Columbia 300 ended up buying Track.  After that purchase, I think that Columbia 300 ended up in debt because Track had not been faring that well, and that's when Ebonite went on the buying spree of picking up Faball (Hammer), Columbia 300, and also Track.

Now Phil Cardinale was at Columbia 300 during that time and did come up with the Ceramicore which was found in the Cuda line and then later the Piranha products.  Awesome core, flat out.  I matched up really well with it.  Once Columbia 300 got bought out, Phil started up 900 Global, which in turn bought out AMF.  Then, Phil went on to start Radical.

I've heard a lot of bad things about the EPX T1 and lots of people had cracking issues with it.  It was an epoxy ball compared to resin balls that had been out for some time then.

Tommyboy,

You are a little off.

Columbia purchased Track in the early 90s. Phil Cardinale was the President of Track during the time the Critical Mass, Code Red Critical Mass, Cuda, and so on came out. Those balls had the ceramicore technology that he created. There is a 16# Nuke on ebay, brand new right now with a picture of the box showing the label. You can clearly see this is a Columbia pour in 1993 for Track. Phil was eventually pushed out the door and replaced by Del Warren.

Phil bought the rights to DynoThane and agreed with Storm for Storm to pour DynoThane balls. Late 2005 or 2006 Phil agreed to come back to Columbia and DynoThane production switched from Storm to Columbia.

At one point in 2005 or 2006, Columbia owned and poured Columbia, Track, and DynoThane. Columbia also poured for AMF and Lane 1 and some lower end Storm balls...so the factory was pumping out quite the amount of product.

AMF has never been bought out. AMF license companies to pour bowling balls under the AMF label. In the mid 90s, Ebonite poured the XS, Whip, and other AMF products. AMF switched to Columbia poured balls and featured the Nighthawk and Angle Evolution lines in the late 90's and early 2000's. AMF continues to license under the 900 Global umbrella, but 900 Global does not own AMF.

The EPX was the last nail in the coffin. Storm was gathering market share, Ebo was on the rise, and Columbia had iffy new ball after iffy new ball. They were solid performers but nothing that went WOW. The EPX had production issues that I know of that some others probably do not know. Essentially, the ball needed short pins and the first batches all came out with long pins. This made the ball have drills that were not intended for the ball, plus the cracking issue. The cracking issue was eventually fixed and short pins came out in later batches in higher quanitites, but the ball was already rolling downhill at that point.

I still gather older AMF/Columbia/Track/MoRich equipment because they roll so well for me. Cover/core combos just were perfect for my style. I think it has a lot to do with the covers because I can use MoRich poured Columbia balls but close to the same cores in Brunswick covers match me horribly.

WOWZERS

I agree about the quality of pre-ebonite Columbia/track balls. I have 60 bowling balls at home only 5 are not from those 2 companies and only 3 are post- ebonite take over. If u can name a great Columbia/track ball from 1995-2003 I probably have it. Critical mass, pulse (both), the whole Triton line, etc. They roll great and last forever if taken care of not one season like the new balls from every manufacturer today.

I will have to say though that of all the original resin balls each major company made---columbia had in my opinion the worst ones with the pro-hook and the pro-hook extreme.

Actually, we called it the No-Hook.

The No-Hook Extreme was no joke.   They whiffed on that one.   Early resin was hit and miss with some of the companies.   The Power Torq I think was their next attempt or close to it, and that was a huge success.

Considering C300 is all I practically have bough over the years, there has been some really good balls.

Beast - Very popular ball in my area, for a very long time.

Cuda/C - My opinion is one of the best balls ever made (That ceramicore was put in a lot of balls)

Stingray/C - Urethane version of the Cuda...what gem that was.

Mainzer, I still have my EPX-T1. I still think its biggest hook monster ever. Even compared to today's balls.

I still use the Flip-Side Wild and Wicked. Threw my first 300 game with the WILD.