Bev the bowler

A lifetime bowler, Alex woman enjoys competing in state/national events

By Julie Parent

Bev Dokken of Alexandria, Minn. has been a bowler for most of her life. After retiring in 2009, she decided to play more of her favorite sport. Besides participating in leagues, she also enjoys competing in both state and national tournaments. 

Bev moved to Alexandria in 1975. She was familiar with the community because her family vacationed at a resort there when she was a youngster. After graduating from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, a friend of hers expressed an interest in moving to Alexandria. Since Bev hadn’t secured a special education teaching position yet, she decided to quit her job at a grocery store deli and move with her friend. She was unemployed and single when she arrived in Alexandria. Now, she is retired and married. Bev and her husband are empty nesters. Their adult daughter lives in Alexandria and their adult son currently lives in Colorado. Bev likes to go bowling with her son when he comes for a visit. In 2022, bowling was the second most popular sport in the United States. Bowling is not an Olympic sport, but it is a Special Olympic sport.

As a preschooler, Bev remembered watching her parents bowl on a Friday night league. In elementary or intermediate school, she participated in a Saturday girls’ league with a friend. Bev picked bowling up naturally. In high school and college, she bowled strictly for fun. She joined a bowling team when her children were young, and she was working part-time at St. Mary’s School. Since the bowling alley was located by the school, she and her teammates simply walked across the street to bowl when they weren’t working. After that team dissolved, she joined another one for a while. When her kids got older and she started working full-time at Voyager Elementary School, she was too busy to bowl. In 2009, she retired and joined the Coffee League. She already knew some of the people on the league from her teaching job, but it was nice to meet people outside of the education field, too. Her team is one of six that meets once a week in the morning. Three people bowl at a time, and they rotate with a fourth person.

In bowling, if you knock all 10 pins down the first time you throw the ball when it is your turn, it is called a strike. If you get 12 strikes in a row, you get a perfect score of 300. The highest score Bev has ever gotten is 240. She has the score sheet from that game framed. As of July 31, 2025, the highest score she has received so far this year is 223, but her average score is 135. If you get three strikes in row, it is called a turkey. Bev attributes the high scores and turkeys she has received to getting wrapped up in the game so much, it spurred her on and just flowed.

Bev has her own 13-pound bowling ball. Unlike some people who use the palm of their hand to put a spin on the ball, Bev puts her thumb and two fingers in the three holes that have been precisely drilled into the ball. She does not use the markings on the bowling alley floor for alignment, and she has never had a bowling lesson. Bev has her “own way of doing it,” she said. She typically approaches the lane on the right side or in the middle and releases the ball smoothly.

Bev has opted to go to several state and national bowling tournaments. The state tournaments she has signed up for have been held in Duluth, Hermantown, and the Twin Cities. 

In 2019, Bev took a bus to the first national tournament she signed up for, which was the 100th anniversary of the USBC Women’s Championships in Wichita, Kan. At that tournament, doubles, singles, and team competitions were held over a two-day period. Since then, she has gone to Nationals in 2021 in Reno, Nev., 2023 and 2025 in Las Vegas, and she is planning to attend in 2026. When she started traveling to bowl, she and her teammates would ship their balls to the tournament location before they arrived. After the COVID pandemic, shipping wasn’t as reliable, so Bev began putting her ball and her bowling shoes in the luggage she checked on the airplanes they were flying on.

The tournaments are often held in areas of the country when and where it is warm enough to swim in outdoor hotel pools. In Las Vegas, the tournament was held in an all-inclusive hotel away from the “The Strip.” 

Situated in the mountains, the Reno tournament was held within walking distance to various hotels, casinos, shops, restaurants, and a river walk. The Reno bowling center has 72 lanes and is used for professional bowling tournaments. Bev remembers seeing Earl Anthony, a famous pro bowler, bowling there when she would watch pro bowling tournaments on television. Only men’s bowling was televised when she was a child.

That isn’t the only change Bev has seen in the sport of bowling over the years. For example, she used to figure out her score using a pencil and paper. Now, the scores are calculated electronically. The pins, which used to be made of wood, were hand set by a person instead of a machine that does it automatically. Overall, the quality of bowling balls, shoes, and accessories has improved. 

Instead of trophies, contestants receive cash prizes. Sometimes, it takes months before all the results are tabulated and cash prizes are awarded. Although she has never come ahead, the prize money she’s received has recouped some of the cost of bowling, which is lower than many other sports. In addition, bowling birthday parties have become extremely popular and there are more high school bowling teams than there used to be.

Bowling at tournaments can be nerve wracking, especially for the leaders, because there is a seating area for family members and other spectators to watch. Roll offs to break a tie can be stressful, too. Bowling can also be hard physically, especially if Bev is experiencing any pain, like sciatica. However, bowling, working out at a gym three times per week, doing a lot of physical activity around her house, and lifting stacks of books as a volunteer for Douglas County Friends of the Library are all ways she stays limber.

Unlike other sports, the regular bowling season goes from September to April. Bev enjoys getting together with people to bowl and attend the end-of-season banquets regardless of the final score results.