Geneva man saluted as top bowler
To hear Dan Borgie of Geneva tell it, being feted as one of the top bowlers a city has ever known "is no big deal."
His modesty aside, the Fargo-Moorehead Bowling Association in North Dakota, where Borgie grew up, will induct him Friday into its Bowling Hall of Fame.
Borgie, who has been involved in bowling since he was 11 years old and is currently in his 23rd year of working in bowling sales for Brunswick, was the only inductee this year.
He knows he comes from another bowling era, when he carried a 210 average in the mid 1970s.
"My high game was a 290 and back then, that was a lot," Borgie said. "My average of 210 would probably equate to a 230 or so today, and that's just an estimate."
Borgie, who worked in or around bowling alleys for 11 years before joining Brunswick, said that new technology in equipment and oiling of lanes has helped improve scoring averages.
He said national studies show the number of league bowlers has decreased dramatically, while the number of perfect 300 games has risen sharply. In 1970 there were roughly 400 million league-level, nonprofessional games bowled around the country and 854 were perfect games. By 2002, the number of games bowled had dwindled to 170 million, but a whopping 42,000 of those were perfect, according to published reports and the American Bowling Congress.
Even though he played competitively for years and participated in exhibition games with the top professionals of his era, Borgie cannot commit to playing in Tri-Cities leagues because of his travel schedule.
The Hall of Fame honor will tout his years of being the best bowler in Fargo, N.D., but no doubt will recognize a lifetime committed to the game.
"My first job was working the desk at the bowling alley, but I have done just about everything from managing a center, to coaching and teaching and selling," Borgie said.
More tires to sell: A Discount Tire store is being planned for Randall Road off Main Street in Batavia where the empty Burger King Express building sits.
That location, near the Aldi grocery store, and a couple of car service centers, was probably not the best for a fast-food joint, which usually needs easy access right on a busy street.
But here's my question: What will the guys at Firestone think of another tire business coming in as a next-door neighbor?
Those favorite stores: A week ago, I asked readers to pass along the names of area "stores from yesteryear" that they missed.
The S.S. Kresge dime store that was in the original Valley Shopping Center on the west side of St. Charles in the 1960s was mentioned, along with the fact that it had an old-fashioned soda fountain counter for food service.
Tony's grocery store at the corner of Bowman and Third streets in St. Charles also was mentioned. The vacant building is still there.
"I'm pretty sure they sold basics like bread and cereal at that store, but I only remember that giant candy counter," said Elissa Bettcher of St. Charles.
dheun@sbcglobal.net