Kansas man continues to bowl weekly at 101 years old

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Floyd Bockelman was born in 1922, making him 101 years and 5 months old. Each week, he continues to bowl with his bowling group.

Bockelman grew up on a farm in southeast Kansas, and bowling wasn’t something he knew about.

“Bowling wasn’t on the menu then at all,” Bockelman said. “I never even heard the word ‘bowling,’ but I did hear about the word milking. I had to milk that was my job, to milk those cows. So I had to get up real early in the morning and milk the cows, and I had to walk a mile to school, and I’d come home and do the milking again.”

He graduated high school in Girard in 1940, then moved to Wichita.

“I came to Wichita with some of the other high school kids who came to Wichita to work in the aircraft factory after World War II was started,” Bockelman said. “Everybody was flocking to Wichita to work, and so I came to Wichita, and I got a job at Boeing.”

He went to the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, and the men there organized a bowling league.

“I didn’t know anything about bowling,” Bockelman said. “I never even had a ball and didn’t know anything about bowling, and so they wanted me to bowl in their league. I said, ‘I don’t know anything about bowling.’ They said, ‘You’ll just fit in just perfect, good ’cause nobody else does. You’ll be just right with us.'”

During his first game, he learned the basics of bowling.

“We got to the bowling alley, and he says, ‘You can’t bowl in your street shoes,'” Bockelman said. “I said no kidding? So, I had to rent some shoes. So then the problem was I didn’t have a bowling ball. Then, they said, ‘Well, we’ll get you a bowling ball.’ So that was a problem because my hands are so big I couldn’t find a ball that my thumb would fit. The hole was so tight. So finally, we finally found one, and I got halfway in the thumb hole.”

A friend continued teaching him how to bowl.

“We had a big time bowling, and I was terrible,” Bockelman said. “After that, the season was about over with. The owner of the bowling alley was the Boeing athletic director, so I got acquainted with him pretty good. So, about the end of the season, he says, ‘Floyd, we’re gonna have a plant-wide bowling tournament. Do you want to bowl in it?'”

Bockelman told him he wasn’t good enough to be in a tournament, but the owner signed him up anyway. Bockelman didn’t know how to keep score and wasn’t paying attention to the numbers. The scorekeeper kept the scores by hand.

“The last ball I threw, he said, ‘You won, you won, you won, you won the tournament! You won the tournament!’ I couldn’t believe it,” Bockelman said.

He then joined a bowling league and got better and better at bowling. In the 1940s, his bowling came to a pause when he was drafted for World War II.

“After the war was over, everybody kind of went their ways, and there was no bowling within the church,” Bockelman said. “We didn’t have a bowling team, so I didn’t bowl then.”

After working at Boeing for over 46 years, he retired and began bowling again. He’s been bowling with his current team for about 20 years.

“I always had a hobby,” Bockelman said. “I was never still. I was always doing something. I did a lot of golfing. I played a lot of golf after I retired. Well, we played golf every day, every morning. We were usually the first ones out golfing, and then, I bowled.”

Bockelman says he loves the team he bowls with.

“Oh, these guys, they’re awesome,” Bockelman said. “I’m the poorest bowler. These guys, they’re good. They’re terrific. They treat me so good. They take care me. I’m not all that stable anymore.”

His teammate, Rod Goering, made him a wooden piece to put on his chair because the chair didn’t have arms, and it was hard for Bockelman to get up.

“He noticed I was having problems,” Bockelman said. “There’s no arms on here. I was having problems getting out and to the alley. Not knowing anything about it, he made this here. He made this insert here for me.”

Goering says Bockelman broke his ankle a year ago, and they weren’t going to fix it because of his age.

“Floyd said, ‘Well, how am I supposed to golf and bowl if I got a broken ankle?’ And so two steel plates, over two-inch screws later, and about six months of rehab, he was back to golfing and bowling, so he is incredible,” Goering said.

Goering says he’s never met anyone like Bockelman.

“One thing he likes to do is beat me,” Goering said. “And I’m only 83, and he’s 101. And so he beats me. He right away points out, ‘Hey, Rod, I beat you again. Both in golf and bowling.’ So he is just an unusual person. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure he was going to be teeing off when he was 100, but I told him that. And now he’s 101. So, I mean, I don’t know that there’s any end in sight. And the next few years, he may just keep going.”