BOWLING PASSION
Stan Luzny, 92, has been bowling for 50 years.
Stan Luzny selects a shiny bowling ball from the rack, has a quick look down his lane, and dipping at the waist, lets the ball fly.
Three pins topple, and after a second attempt, Luzny has a spare. His grin is accompanied by a handful of high fives from his fellow bowlers at the 55-plus dropin session at Rosemont’s Bolorama Lanes.
“He loves his bowling,” daughter Carleen Mackenzie remarks from nearby.
Luzny has long surpassed the age benchmark for the twice-weekly morning bowling sessions. At 92 years old, Luzny is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his bowling career with a gathering of friends, family, and a cake decorated with bowling pins.
The dedicated senior started his five-decade hobby in January 1964 at Prairie Lanes on North Albert Street, which has since been demolished. Only a few months later, Luzny lost one of his eyes in an accident at work.
Undeterred, he has since participated in competitive and drop-in leagues around Regina. He has travelled for tournaments and still qualifies to do so, but these days mostly bowls the fivepin games at the Rosemont lanes, near his home.
“In that alley over there, a few years back, I had a 959 triple,” Luzny remembers, gesturing to a lane a few over from the ones where he was bowling on Tuesday morning. “And at the Golden Mile, I had an even 400, too.”
With a top possible score of 450 in a game of five-pin bowling, it’s a pretty high score.
“He didn’t quite make a perfect game, but he got up there,” son Gordon Luzny says.
“He’s got trophies galore,” Mackenzie adds. “Dust collectors, he calls them.”
Luzny used to average a score of over 200 per game — “for years and years,” he laughs — but these days has slowed to about 159 in the average game. A sore muscle in his arm doesn’t help, but he still makes a note of his score at the end of each game. Tuesday’s highest score is a 191, with a couple of strikes and a handful of spares throughout the morning.
Kyle Harre, one of the owners of Bolorama, has been watching Luzny bowl for the 32 years he has worked at the lanes.
“Stan’s got a great outlook on a life, a smile on his face, a joke when he comes in,” Harre says. “You see people that are half his age that aren’t bowling as well as he is.”
Plus, he rarely misses a day, winning perfect attendance awards frequently. Last winter his only missed day had a very reasonable excuse — he got his car stuck in the snow-filled alley behind his house.
“He never complains — there’s always a smile on his face,” fellow bowler June Butz says after watching Luzny complete his third game. “I’d be thankful to be able to do what he does at his age.”
“We’re very proud of him,” Mackenzie says, as she gathers with her sister Rose Shaw and brother Gordon to cut the cake for their father. “He just said to one of the other bowlers, he’ll be celebrating again in another 10 years. And knowing him, if his legs hold up he probably would.”
And for Luzny, the best part of his continuing to bowl into his 90s?
“It’s just something to do,” he laughs. “I enjoy the people.”