Blind Bowler’s Ears Keep Him in Game

Gordon Parks reaches for his bright purple bowling ball and heads down the alley. He rolls the 15-pound ball, waits and listens for the sound of it hitting the pins.

“What did I hit?” Parks yells. “It wasn’t a strike, was it?”

Parks, blind since he was 9 years old, bowls by ear. The only blind member of the Senior Citizens’ Bowling League that meets here every Tuesday afternoon, Parks has earned a reputation as a fierce competitor.

“I’m amazed at what he bowls,” says his 79-year-old teammate, Don Householder. “He knows the pins without any trouble at all. I think it’s great.”

Parks, 53, is the youngest bowler in the senior league at Maple Bowl Lanes. About 20 people participate in the weekly game where the stakes are bragging rights. The oldest bowler is 94.

“I love bowling,” says Parks as he patiently waits his turn. His 3-year-old black Labrador guide dog, Dana, sprawls on the floor nearby.

With one hand on a chest-high metal railing as a guide and his bowling ball in the other, Parks approaches the alley. He releases his ball and pauses as it rolls down the brightly polished lane.

His ball lands in the left gutter.

“What am I doing wrong?” a frustrated Parks wonders aloud.

Alley owner Rocky Iacone offers advice, telling Parks to loosen up.

Iacone drives Parks to the bowling lane every week. Parks is the first blind bowler at the alley, said Iacone, who has owned the business for about 24 years. Iacone recently began giving lessons to a double amputee.

“For anyone to have that kind of disability and want to come is fantastic,” said Iacone, 58. “There is no way anybody can explain it.”

Parks said a rare eye disease took his sight, but he has refused to allow his blindness to hinder him. He learned to play the clarinet and saxophone by ear and plays in his church orchestra.

As a youngster, Parks learned to bowl while attending the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia. He has been in the senior league about two years; his score averages 108.

The teams, usually made up of four members, play three games that last about 2 1/2 hours. The scores are totaled and the team with the highest score wins the day.

Finally, in the third game, Parks hits his stride. He rolls a strike. “About time!” he exclaims, as his teammates applaud.