Rolling Down Memory Lane : Sylmar Bowler, 77, Not Yet Ready to Quit His Lifelong Passion

No one could blame Johnny Klares if he decided to hang up his bowling shoes after 64 years on the lanes.

Klares, 77, retired professional, member of both the American Bowling Congress Hall of Fame and the Professional Bowlers Assn. Board of Governors and co-holder of a 35-year-old world record, has little, if anything, left to accomplish.

But giving up bowling is not in the plans for the energetic septuagenarian.

“I’ll keep on bowling as long as God allows me to,” said Klares, who lives in Sylmar and bowls twice a week in Valley-area leagues, “because I love the game.”

The prospect of growing older apparently hasn’t bowled Klares over. Earlier this month he celebrated his birthday at his home away from home--the bowling alley. But to Klares, the day fell like just another nine-pin.

“I don’t even remember how I bowled that night,” said Klares, a local favorite at Woodlake Bowl in Woodland Hills and Sports Center Bowl in Studio City.

Klares’ friends, however, weren’t about to let the evening pass unnoticed.

“They announced that it was my birthday over the loudspeaker,” Klares said. “It made me feel good. A lot of the guys respect me and they know they’ll never do a lot of the things I’ve done.”

Klares’ career reads as a versatile and impressive resume. He began his bowling career out of necessity when he was forced to take a job as a pin-setter at age 13 in his hometown of Cleveland.

“My dad died and I had to work to help my mom,” Klares said. “It was hard times. I didn’t have time for other sports.”

Klares began bowling and started knocking the pins down with surprising success for a youngster. “I was bowling for money with adults when I was 14--and winning,” Klares said. “I was a junior star.”

Klares launched his professional career at age 19 when he bowled in the American Bowling Congress’ annual tournament in 1929. His 609 score in singles competition earned him $15. Within the next three decades Klares averaged well in excess of 200, including a 99-game stretch in 1948 in which he averaged 222.

Until his retirement in 1967, Klares was a top-ranked professional and competed against Dick Weber and Earl Anthony. “You name the big bowler, I’ve bowled against him,” said Klares, who has 13 perfect games to his credit.

But Klares has done more than just bowl. He has owned two bowling alleys, has “been president of so many leagues I couldn’t count them” and once shot pool against billiards champion Willie Moscone as an exhibition in one of his bowling alleys.

“He gave me one of his pool cues,” Klares said. “It was handmade.”

In 1960, Klares was featured as the umpire on “Milton Berle’s Jackpot Bowling” television show, and he has given bowling lessons for years. In between bowling and business, Klares found the time to write a column, appropriately titled “Strikes and Spares, by Johnny Klares.”

But despite his numerous adventures and achievements, Klares easily identifies his proudest accomplishment. In the 1952 ABC tournament in Milwaukee, Klares, along with partner Steve Nagy, scored 1,453 to set a world record for doubles. The record, which is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records, still stands.

“That doubles record means the most,” said Klares, who was inducted into the ABC Hall of Fame in 1982. “That tournament has run for 86 years and no one has broken that record.”

Klares, who says his scores still range in the 180s, plans to bowl in his 44th ABC tournament next February in Jacksonville, Fla. The pins, admittedly, aren’t falling quite like they used to for Klares, but they’re still falling.

“I’m old,” Klares said. “But not that old.”