Edward Dean Tackett Jr. (born August 7, 1992), more commonly known as EJ Tackett, is an American professional ten-pin bowler. A member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2012, Tackett has won 28 PBA Tour titles (the tenth most all-time), including eight major championships, and is one of nine professional bowlers that have completed the PBA Triple Crown (earned by winning the PBA World Championship, PBA Tournament of Champions and U.S. Open majors). He is the only player to earn a "four-peat" in a major championship, winning the PBA World Championship in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and 2026, and is only one of four players to "three-peat" a major championship.
Tackett is a five-time PBA Player of the Year, first earning the award in the 2016 season, then in four consecutive seasons (2023 through 2026), the only player ever to win four in a row. He was runner-up for the award in 2017 and 2018. Tackett is right-handed and uses a cranker-style delivery. He has been called a "unicorn" in the sport, because of his ability to use a one-handed, thumb-in delivery to achieve RPM rates comparable to most two-handed bowlers.
Tackett is a pro staff member for MOTIV bowling balls, Dexter shoes, JoPo Grips, Genesis kinesiology tape and High 5 Gear sportswear.
Tackett was a member of Junior Team USA in 2011 and 2013, and made Team USA in 2018. At the 2018 WBT World Men's Championships in Hong Kong (November 24–December 5), Tackett won two gold medals: Trios (with teammates Kyle Troup and Andrew Anderson) and All-Events.
In the 2020 Weber Cup, Tackett was named MVP as Team USA defeated Team Europe, 23–18. After the European bowlers closed the gap to four points following an initial nine-point American lead, Tackett won his final two singles matches over Swede Jesper Svensson, including the clinching match. Overall in the event, Tackett participated in 13 of 41 matches, going 3–2 in singles, 5–1 in doubles, and 1–1 in team.
Tackett made four championship round appearances over the 2012–13 and 2014 seasons, but did not win a title. He was named the PBA Rookie of the Year for the 2012–13 season. His first PBA Tour title came on June 28, 2015, at the PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Southwest Open. Later in the 2015 season, Tackett qualified as the top seed for the PBA World Championship, but lost in the final match to Gary Faulkner Jr.
Tackett had a highly successful 2016 season. He won his second career title on April 24 at the PBA Xtra Frame Storm Open.
He captured his third title (and first on U.S. television) on September 10 at the PBA Fall Swing Bear Open, also winning an additional $10,000 a day later in the non-title King of the Fall Swing event.
Tackett's fourth PBA title came in the PBA Team Challenge in Las Vegas, NV on November 1. (This was the first PBA team event to award individual titles to the winning players.)
Tackett then won his first PBA major and fifth title overall at the PBA World Championship, on December 11 in Reno, NV, topping former World Championship winner Tom Smallwood in the final match.
The four titles in 2016 helped E.J. earn PBA Player of the Year honors for the season. He is the third-youngest player (24) to be named Player of the Year, behind Billy Hardwick (1963) and Andrew Anderson (2018). Tackett led the Tour in wins (4) and earnings ($168,290), and was third in Tour average (224.49).
Tackett's run of victories continued into 2017, as he won the season's opening event on January 14 at the DHC PBA Japan Invitational. This was his sixth PBA Tour title.
On February 19 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Tackett won his second major and seventh PBA title overall at the Fire Lake PBA Tournament of Champions.
Tackett continued his 2017 success with a win in the inaugural Main Event PBA Tour Finals on May 20. This invitational tournament featured the top eight players in PBA earnings from the start of the 2015 PBA Tour season through the 2017 USBC Masters. As the #2 seed, Tackett survived the round-robin and group stepladder matches, eventually defeating #1 seed Jason Belmonte in the three-game final. This was his third victory of 2017 and eighth title overall.
Although he did not have a win in any of the seven Storm PBA Xtra Frame events in 2017, Tackett finished with the most points over the duration of the series, earning a $20,000 bonus and the Storm Cup.
On November 19, Tackett won his ninth PBA title in the PBA Scorpion Championship, part of the PBA World Series of Bowling in Reno, NV.
Tackett duplicated his four titles (one major) from the previous season while making a career-high nine championship round appearances, amassing 2017 earnings of over $230,000. He would finish runner-up to Jason Belmonte for Player of the Year.
Tackett won his tenth PBA title on July 2, 2018, at the PBA Xtra Frame Parkside Lanes Open in Aurora, Illinois. At age 25 years, 329 days, he is the sixth-youngest player in PBA history to win 10 career PBA Tour titles (behind Pete Weber (24 years, 247 days), Marshall Holman (24 years, 274 days), Mike Aulby (25 years, 79 days), Anthony Simonsen (25 years, 87 days), and Wayne Webb (25 years, 90 days).