On the Walls of the Hall of Fame

I wrote way back in January about my bowling league and our longtime secretary, Mac.  Tonight, we’re unveiling our inaugural league Hall of Fame class.  We named the Hall of Fame after Mac, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of the process.

Our league has been around for over 80 years.  I believe it’s one of the oldest leagues in the country.  I thought that a league of our age should have a hall of fame of sorts; after all, there had to have been a number of guys who were great bowlers in their time, and considering how many guys have been in the league for 20, 30, even 40 years, I figure there had to have been guys who spend that long in the league way back when as well.

I mentioned it to a couple of my fellow league officers, and we brought it to the league at the annual pre-season meeting.  Everyone was on board, so throughout the year, our secretary pored through decades of records and pulled a number of names to represent past eras.  We then had the league vote on some more recent nominees as well.

Tonight, we’ll induct five posthumous honorees (including the league founders), two guys from the past who will be in attendance, and five guys who still bowl with us.  It’s a great mix of past and present, and I hope that the guys who have been around for a while, guys who knew Mac and were close to him, feel like we did him justice with our efforts to honor him.  I also hope that some of the younger guys, the ones who have joined the league in the last couple years, can appreciate the history of the league that they’re now a part of.

I know it probably sounds silly.  “It’s just a bowling league.”  That’s true, it is.  But for those of us who’ve been there for a long time (I’ve been associated with the league for 12 years now), who’ve seen some faces come and go, but twice that many come and never leave, it’s more like a family.  A family you only see three hours a week for nine months out of the year, but a family nonetheless.  And tonight, I’m looking forward to honoring both our forefathers and our brothers.