Feb 05, 2010 - 04:30 AM

By Brad Kelly

PICKERING -- Walter Heeney can still hear his mother’s voice echo with disapproval as he informed her of his desire to leave an established job at Shell Canada and dedicate himself to a career with five-pin bowling.

“People couldn’t figure that one out,” he recalls with a chuckle as he recites the story. “Even my mother said, ‘Are you nuts? How can you leave Shell Canada and go to bowling?’

“Then when I retired in 2000 my mother said, ‘Are you nuts. How can you retire with all that bowling has done for you and how good it’s been?’”

It’s true that over the years bowling has been very good to Heeney. It’s also true Heeney has been very good for bowling.

So much so, that at the Canadian championships hosted by the Canadian Five Pin Bowlers Association, the Pickering resident was presented a century-of-excellence award, named as one of the top-100 male bowlers in Canada to help celebrate the sport’s 100th anniversary.

The list of criteria to be considered for the award is lengthy, and Heeney has a checkmark beside each one. His longevity in the sport, lifetime average and accomplishments are among tops in the country. Still, he is humbled by the attention.

“I’m thrilled to be on that list,” he says, quickly moving to deflect the praise.

The 65-year-old vividly recalls seeing a sign on a post in the early 1960s advertising a bowling registration. He answered the call and not only did it materialize into a passion, but also a way of life.

He built his game by playing in leagues and sweeps, a form of gambling usually held after league play on Saturday afternoons or Monday nights.

“That’s what everybody did in those days,” he says. “Everybody played for sweeps. We played for money.”

On the lanes, he bowled as many as five times a week, carding a lifetime average of 250. He won the provincial singles title in 1977 and was the national runner-up. He has also bowled more than 2,000 games in the Master Bowlers Association, more than any other bowler. Over his lengthy career, he has won six Masters tournaments, competed in 29 provincial championships, has a personal high of 448 for a single game and 1090 triple, and designed the Mark Ten program, where bowlers pick off the corner pins with their first two balls and hit the head pin with the third as a way of practising.

As an administrator in the sport, his list of endeavours is equally lengthy. Among the highlights are serving as president of the Master Bowlers Association of Canada, a title he has held for more than 30 years, being technical director of the Ontario Five Pin Bowling Association, establishing a Special Olympics bowling program, securing a successful sponsorship with Hiram Walker for 15 years, being a Level 3 certified coach and writing a bowling column for the Toronto Star from 1974-81.

His accomplishments and dedication landed him in the Ontario Five Pin Bowlers’ Association Hall of Fame as both a builder (1994) and player (1999), one of only four in the exclusive dual club.

He has seen all parts of the game and continues to bowl twice a week.

“The difficulty you have as you age, the talent level goes down,” he says. “It’s tough to keep competitive. I’m still trying to play competitively.”

He’s been on a roll for a long time in the sport, and there appears to be no end in sight.