National Senior Games

First medal winners at National Senior Games.
Gordon Lockhart and Alan Bushell (Gold - center in gold shirts)
Rod Arriaga and Norm Tiernan (Silver - left in silver blue shirts)
Ian Harris and John Sanmartini (Bronze - right)

Sandy Souza and Laura Lewis (gold - center), E.B.Parkell and Linda Flores
(silver - left), Nikki  Schrager and Sarah Babin (right - bronze)
with the mayor of Palo Alto

Players still standing at end of two day men's pairs competition

Images above courtesy Palo Alto Weekly and NSGA

BY JOHN REID

Daily News Staff Writer

The town of Waukegan, Ill., is famous for producing Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham and comedian Jack Benny, who was born in Chicago and raised in Waukegan.

“I knew Otto Graham,” said Waukegan product Terry Hogan, the sports chair for lawn bowling in the National Senior Games. “His dad was bandmaster at my high school, Waukegan Township. Otto would come by the school sometimes.”

Hogan didn’t start lawn bowling until 10 years ago, when he joined the Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club, site of the Senior Games competition.

He has lived in Palo Alto for the past 40 years, residing a few blocks from the PALBC. Hogan, a past president of PALBC, is on the board of directors.

Lawn bowling is similar to the sport of bocce ball, but Hogan explained a few differences.

“They roll the ball in lawn bowling,” Hogan said. “The ball is not round, it curves. In bocce they throw it or roll it. They play in a confined space. We play on a lawn and can put on eight games at once. We drink white wine and bocce players drink red wine. That’s an Italian game. Lawn bowling is a British game, more gentile.”

The sport lawn bowling can be traced back to the 13th century. The sport is most popular in England, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, South Africa and Australia.

“They say Sir Francis Drake played it when he came to Drake’s Bay,” Hogan said. “Anywhere the British have been, this sport is popular.”

The Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club was once the site of the Palo Alto Hospital, torn down in 1932. A member of the PALBC — Glenn Stewart — was born in that very hospital on Big Game day, the day when Cal and Stanford battle on the gridiron in their traditional football rivalry.

“Glenn tells the story on how they had a hard time getting his mother here with the traffic,” Hogan said. “We hear that story every Big Game.”

Amembership to PALBC costs $95 per year.“We have a lot of parties here,” Hogan said. “It’s at the tipping point. We’re getting members faster and faster.”

Ed Walker, who in his seventh and final year as treasurer of the club, is a volunteer assisting Hogan. Walker has lived in the area since he attended Stanford in 1957. He joined PALBC in 2002.

“I lawn bowled for the first time when I was traveling in New Zealand in 1975,” Walker said. “I was driving by this place and decided to try it. It’s a fun sport.”

Women start competition today at the PALBC, finishing on Thursday.

E-mail John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com.

Thanks to Terry Hogan, John Hickson, Ed Walker, Bonny Turner and the rest of the Palo Alto Games committee for making this such an exceptional tournament. For once it was not only for the top flight players. It was for the spectators, the community, the city and the promotion of the sport and club too.

"Nowadays to run a tournament, Marketing, PR and hard work are required in addition to logistics", Terry Hogan

A new experience for many lawn bowlers. Cameras, reporters and photographers - sometimes when you were just about to release that winning shot. Here Norm Tiernan (San Francisco) poses for the pretty video lady in the middle of the first day of bowling.