88-year-old Loudonville bowler rolls a 300 on Valentine's Day at Kingpin's Alley
Date Posted: February 24th, 2025
Written by Pete Dougherty
Originally published in the Albany Times Union
LATHAM — Perfect games in bowling aren’t nearly as rare as they once were, but once in a while a player who rolls a 300 is worthy of special attention.
Meet Dave Morrissey, an 88-year-old Loudonville resident whose 12 consecutive strikes on Valentine’s Day at Kingpin’s Alley–Latham nearly put him atop the record books.
It was special enough that the bowlers in the six-team Capital District Classic league stopped bowling to watch, and virtually everyone in the 32-lane center came over to congratulate him.
“When I was on the approach trying to get ready, I could feel it,” Morrissey said of his final frame, “like an atmosphere or something.”
“Someone came up with a camera and took a video of him throwing the last ball,” said his wife, Mary, who works at the center.
The 12th strike was similar to most of the others — flush in the 1-3 pocket.
“To me, they were all buried except the sixth or seventh one, which I got out a little bit closer to the third board and it still came back,” he said. “Other than that, they all look the same to me.”
“Everybody from all over the bowling center came,” Mary said. “The guy at the desk made the announcement, and they just came from all over to congratulate him, making the point in his 88 years old and that he threw a 300 game.”
According to the record book of the U.S. Bowling Congress, the sanctioning organization for the sport, the oldest to roll an official 300 game was by a man 90 years, nine months and 13 days old, who did it 12½ years ago in Fullerton, Calif. “Name Withheld by Request,” the book states.
There is another documented 300 in 2010 by a man from Melbourne, Fla., at age 89 years, six months and 11 days.
Morrissey was 88 years and 20 days old when he found perfection for the second time in his long bowling career. His other 300 came Sept. 13, 2007, when he was 70, at Redwood Lanes.
“I was just nervous that I wasn't going to get it, but I wasn't nervous about walking up, or throwing it,” said Morrissey, whose most recent 300 came in the third game of a 649 triple. “It was just all the people behind me were going to get me depressed (if he didn’t strike).”
“People were talking about him having the front nine (strikes), and he wasn't looking at the screen,” Mary said. “After he bowled the first four or five, I was in my office — I’m the league coordinator here — doing paperwork, someone came in and said, ‘David's got the front nine,’ and everybody was watching. People are supposed to keep bowling and doing their thing. They didn't. They all stood there and they all watched.”
Morrissey worked a number of jobs throughout his long career, though none more closely linked to bowling than as a pin mechanic. He was at Westlawn Lanes for more than 30 years and also has worked at Sportsman’s Bowl, Redwood Lanes, Chatham Lanes and Latham.
He stopped working at KPA-Latham last year, so he now bowls in three leagues there, averaging between the mid-160s and 170s. Morrissey said the highest average he has had was in the 190s, although he held a 204 average in one league in 2010-11, and he has a career-high triple of 735.
On his journey to 300 Morrissey used an orange-and-purple ball called Super SonIQ, manufactured by Storm. “I just call it the 'pumpkin ball,'” he said. “That’s what it looks like.”
It was the pumpkin ball that was smashing the pins in his final game, although he said he didn’t change his approach after his first two games of 182 and 167.
“Maybe I just bowled slower, walked slower, and was able to get the ball over the line,” he said. “It was real easy, so I must have done something slower.”
