by Randy Ooney
My Nickel’s Worth by Randy Ooney
Yes Sir!
Records are made to be broken. Even Slim Whitman CDs can be snapped easily. Bowling and bowlers, just like every other sport, continues to outshine previous performances. The Minnesota State Bowling Association website contains myriads of information regarding excellent performances. Sharon Carlson’s recent 868 set at the Mermaid will be out there soon, and you can access the site right from this mnbowling home page. Even my name is out there once or twice. Not as often as drock, but I am not as big as he is.
A long time friend of mine is also in the state record books. I have crossed paths with Steve Suhr in a league at Stardust (Memory) Lanes, CBA tournaments, MSC tournaments, and even last week at the 700 club event in St. Paul. I have often thought Steve’s Suhrname, I mean surname, could cause confusion. Imagine if he entered the Army in his youth.
“What’s your name, private?” ![](images/suhr11sm_000.jpg)
“Steve Suhr”.
“DON’T CALL ME SIR, I WORK FOR A LIVING! Now what’s your last name?
This article hops into my time machine back to 1988. Our World Champion Minnesota Twins started a disaster of a season in April, and the old Tri State Tournament was continuing at Recreation Lanes in Rochester, Minnesota. Steve was entered in the tournament with the Lakers, and opened with a 715 in the doubles event. His partner, Mike Cavanaugh chipped in 701, and the 1416 total ended up second in the competition. But that’s only the beginning. In the singles, Steve put together games of 267-265-243 for a winning total of 775. Then in the team event he continued on the torrid pace with 258-279-235 for 772. His all events total of 2262 set a new state record and was fifth in the nation for a number of years.
When I heard this story, I went to the state records site, and there have been huge all events scores posted in the past ten years by great area bowlers whose names are well known. The years are 2006, 2008, 2011, 2005, etc. And there in 13th place is Steve Suhr – 2262 – April 30, 1988. Twenty-five years ago with a Black Hammer. I am not sure why it had to be called a Black Hammer, I think all men’s bowling balls were the same non color back then. There were some higher scoring lane conditions back then, but nothing like the synthetic oil and lanes of today; and Recreation Lanes was not known as one of the walled up houses of the day.
I am not sure how long the record stood. Steve said it was something like 10 years, but I did not see any year starting with 19 for any of the better all events record totals. So we’ll just call it the high 9 game all events total of the 20th Century. You will need a Delorean and some science fiction to break it. A great score by a great bowler. Only one flaw, Steve likes Bert Blyleven. Oh well.
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