By Van Mitchell, Staff Writer
Bowling has played a role in Bill Ruhman’s life personally and professionally, and he has received multiple national bowling awards.Ruhman, a resident of Villagio of Bradford Village Assisted Living in Edmond joined the U.S. Navy in 1946.
“Bowling has been a large part of my life,” Ruhman, 97, said. “I got out of the Navy in 1948, and I got into bowling and joined leagues and tournaments.”
After serving his country in both Alaska and Hawaii, he worked as a civilian bowling center manager at Tinker Air Force Base for several years.
In 1982, Bicentennial Lanes in Rammstein, Germany, the largest military base in Europe, recruited him to be the Bowling Center Manager. In 1985, while still serving in Germany, he received the Meritorious Award for Leadership and the 1985 European Bowling Center Manager of the Year Award. In 1986, he returned to Tinker as the civilian bowling center manager, retiring after 25 years.
He was inducted into the Oklahoma City Bowling Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Oklahoma Bowling Hall of Fame in 1993.
Ruhman said bowling brought him companionship and friendships, but that did not stop him from being competitive. “It’s competition that makes you a better bowler,” he said. “It makes you bowl harder, and you learn something from it. With competitors, you do not look at them as an enemy, you’re competing against them. If they beat you, shake their hand and wish them well. But do not have a grudge against somebody just because they beat you.”
Competition led Ruhman to leave Oklahoma for a period to try his hand at bowling on the professional level.
“I thought I was pretty good at bowling, and I wanted to hit the pro tour,” he said. “I moved to California was on the tour for five years.”
After returning to Oklahoma, Ruhman later got involved in the Oklahoma Senior Games.
The mission of the Oklahoma Senior Games is to encourage physical wellness for men and women ages 50 and older by providing quality sport opportunities conducted in an enjoyable social environment at sites throughout the state of Oklahoma.
In 2016 Yukon was the only local senior game. The Yukon Park and Recreation Department had hosted senior games for 20-plus years at that time. The Oklahoma Senior Games Board of Directors decided at that time to encourage the growth of local senior games because as people age, they are less able to travel to compete in events that are more than a half hour from their home.
OSG encourages city recreation departments and the YMCA to host senior games in their respective communities.
These competitions are usually scheduled in spring or summer to prevent overlap with the Oklahoma Senior Games. Local competition tends to be less comprehensive than state-level competition, with fewer events available.
There are now five cities which offer competitions: Yukon, Ardmore, Muskogee, Moore and the Metro Senior Games in Oklahoma City.
The Metro Senior Games were produced by a successful partnership between the Greater Oklahoma City YMCA and the Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation Department.
Ruhman competed in bowling, singles and doubles, horseshoes, shuffleboard, pool, golf, and washers, and cornhole.
Washer pitching is a game like horseshoes, involving teams of players that toss washers towards a box or hole.
Ruhman is an Oklahoma Senior Games Gold and Silver Medalist. He has won over 300 of those medals.
“I’m kind of proud of them,” he said.
Ruhman has won national championships in bowling as well cornhole.
“I just picked it up because it’s got the arm swing of the bowler,” he said. “It came easy for me.”
The National Senior Games Association (NSGA) is the nonprofit umbrella organization for Senior Games across the United States. The NSGA’s Member Organizations represent nearly every state and Canada and host sanctioned competitions in their areas.
The NSGA also hosts the biennial National Senior Games, which brings together over 11,000 participants ages 50-100+ to compete in more than 25 sports. Athletes must qualify at a State Senior Games in the year before the National Senior Games to participate in most events. This world-class competition celebrates the athletic accomplishments of older adults and inspires people of all ages to be active.
The first Senior Games event, called the “Senior Olympics,” was held in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, and the movement soon spread to other states. The first National Senior Games championship took place in 1987.
Ruhman said he enjoyed qualifying for national championships. He qualified for nationals in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, California, Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana.
“I would go to nationals and that would be my vacation,” he said.
Ruhman and his late wife Regina used to bowl together, as well as with friends.
Health issues forced Ruhman into bowling retirement.
“I couldn’t bowl last year on account of my knees are gone and I was having trouble with equilibrium,” he said. “I was having trouble with my equilibrium, and I thought I better stop before I fall. You get to the point you cannot do it. You just got to realize that it’s all over with, but you are still okay.”
Ruhman recently moved to Villagio of Bradford Village, to be close to his son who lives nearby.
“My son and I just lived a couple blocks away from here, and this is a real nice place,” he said. “I wanted to be close to my son and that’s why I came here.”
Ruhman is not done with competition. He plans to continue playing cornhole and try to qualify for next year’s nationals.
“I’m already practicing,” he said.
