"Bulldog" Packs a Record-Breaking Bite - bowler Roger Workman

Between events, Roger Workman is as tame as could be, but on the lanes he's a ferocious competitor

ROGER WORKMAN DOESN'T show up to PBA Senior tour events--instead, his alter ego does. The quiet, easygoing Workman seen by friends and fellow bowlers away from the lanes just isn't the same man as the intense competitor who steps on the approach with a focus that tunes out all distractions.

"We call him `Bulldog.' He's tough," says Gene Stus, who was the title match victim in two of Workman's three senior titles, including The Villages Senior Championship near Ocala, Fla., last March, which awarded a $20,000 first-prize check--as well as a $100,000 house in The Villages. "Roger's pretty quiet. He doesn't say much. He just does his job. He's a quiet person, but he's not quiet with a bowling ball."

Mike Carroll, a friend of Workman's for 30 years, calls him "your tree sportsman," adding, "He doesn't root against you and doesn't want to see anyone bowl bad, but he's like an old attack dog: Once he gets on you, he'll bite you and not let go."

Workman's wife of 35 years, Kathy, says her husband had particular difficulty filling out a PBA biography form that asked what type of animal best described his personality. "He didn't know what to put," she says. "I said, `You're a pussycat,' and he said, `We're not putting that down.'" Kathy doesn't know what he finally put on the sheet, but "bulldog" seems appropriate for the 59-year-old Kenova, W. Va., resident, who is a member of the West Virginia Hall of Fame.

With the help of The Villages prize money and house, along with Workman's triumph October 5 at the Gastonia Senior Classic in North Carolina, the 5'8", 147-pound righthander wound up the overwhelming money winner on the Senior tour in 2000 with a record single-season total of $145,275. The previous mark was $137,190, earned by Dave Soutar in 1999 with the aid of The Villages house prize.

For his accomplishments, Workman--in his eighth year on the tour--is BOWLING DIGEST'S Senior Pro Bowler of the Year, edging Bob Glass, who also won two tournaments. Glass finished second in prize money with $66,650, less than half of Workman's winnings.

For the year, Workman averaged nearly 220 for 483 games, posting a 5-4 TV-round record. In 12 tournaments, he reached match play 10 times and cashed 10 times. "Somebody mentioned when I won the house in Florida that I was a candidate," Workman says of the PBA's Senior Bowler of the Year award. "But I felt I had to win again. Bob Glass had a great year. He may be the Bowler of the Year, I don't know."

The victory at The Villages was accomplished on lanes set up outdoors, a situation relished by Workman but not by Stus. "It was hot. I can understand why they put the bowling outside, for an advertisement, but it's tough," says Stus, who was the No. 1 seed and had to practice indoors during the first part of the stepladder finals. "I had a problem with my hand sweating. I wasn't comfortable."

Workman, in contrast, doesn't like enclosed spaces, so the move outside suited him just fine, even though he admits to getting a sunburn.

"Outdoors, I didn't feel as confined and I was more relaxed," Workman says, taking a rare break from his duties as co-owner (with Kathy) of the 16-lane Ceredo Lanes in Ceredo, W. Va., near Kenova. "There was a good crowd of people. I was more relaxed outside than inside with TV there because we're pretty confined to that area." Carroll, executive director of the Huntington (W. Va.) Bowling Association and a member of the American Bowling Congress Board of Directors, says some of Workman's friends gave him a surprise party, complete with a set of plastic pins and a pair of sunglasses, so he could practice in the parking lot because he liked it so much outside.

Workman was seeded fourth at The and Villages and started his climb with a 257 game to beat John Hricsina (235) Dave Davis (204). Next came a 234 game that edged Glass 226) by eight pins, while Steve Neff shot a 184. The only bowler left was Stus, the final-match victim in 1999 in Windsor Locks, Conn., where Workman, climbing from the No. 5 seed, won his first PBA title with a 235-208 decision. (Workman wound up earning about $36,000 that year. He also has three regional titles to his credit.)

At the Florida tourney, Stus got a washout early, and despite throwing a good ball on the left lane wound up leaving three 10-pins and a 4-pin. Says Workman, "He just couldn't get anything going." Workman, meanwhile, got a split in the second frame, then strung seven strikes in a row, pretty much ending the match. "He's got my number," Stus says. "I can't beat him."

Workman's biggest worry came in the previous match when he needed a double in the 10th frame to beat Glass. "I got the first strike, but the second one was pressure-packed. You have to learn to stay focused on ,what you have to do on the pair you're on," Workman says. "One of my problems was not staying focused. Most of the time I'm too fast with ball speed and foot speed."

At the Gastonia Tournament at George Pappas' Liberty Lanes in October, Workman was the top seed and comfortably dispatched senior star Gary Dickinson, 266-191, to win $8,000. Dickinson was looking for his 11th career Senior tour victory and had gotten to the final match with a 216 to eliminate Glass (205) and Stus (169).

"This win definitely gives me hope for winning the senior player of the year award," Workman said after that triumph. "I knew I would have to throw big shots to get past a guy like Gary. I bowl well under pressure, and once I started to strike I was relaxed and the pressure was off."

The season's final event was October 20 in Hammond, Ind., where Workman again was in the hunt as the third seed. He wound up second after his 217 ousted Glass (214) and Charlie Price (180); his loss was to Mike Pullin, 190-171.

Workman may not be a household name nationally, but he's pretty well known in his home state. On top of his West Virginia Hall of Fame induction, Workman was the state's Bowler of the Year in 1986 and owns Huntington's highest series (848).

Besides his wife and two daughters, Susan and Samantha, Workman's life revolves around bowling, as it has since he was 14. That's when he started setting pins at the six-lane bowling center in the War Memorial Building in Kenova. When he wanted to bowl, he'd trade off with another pinsetter. He bowled in the evening leagues with adults and also on Saturday mornings. And when he was setting pins, he was learning good bowling techniques from the competitors.

"You could see through a spot that was like a louver," Workman says. "Every one of the good bowlers stayed down at the line and had a good follow-through. It was a big help to watch guys do a consistent roll and follow-through. Once you got good and wanted to bowl, you started watching better bowlers and working on those things."

The man who ran the facility was Carter Byard, a lefthander. "He was a pretty good instructor and gave me a lot of help," Workman says. Red Henry later did the same thing for Workman after replacing Byard at War Memorial.

Workman became good enough to join the PBA in the late '60s and went to his first tournament, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Open at Huntsville, Ala. He became enamored of the opportunity right off, particularly when he got to bowl on crossover lanes with one of the era's superstars, Don Johnson. "It got me pretty well into the mode that I wanted to bowl better," he says.

But the young Workman needed to get a career going and wasn't ready to try the regular tour full time. Byard kept him on as an employee at the War Memorial lanes after manual pinsetters were replaced. Workman says he worked nearly every day and was able to go to only about one PBA tourney a year.

"I did have a pretty good run once," he says, "at Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cleveland, and cashed three straight times. But I didn't stay out long enough to learn to play on the conditions we faced."

Workman had more important conditions to worry about--those at the War Memorial lanes, which kept him busy for 14 years. In fact, not counting an early try at carpentry after high school, then two years at Pro Bowl in Huntington, tour bowling was just something to try when there was a spare week here or there. Then in the early '80s, he and Kathy decided to buy a place in Shelbyville, Ky., which wasn't far away from a 12-lane alley, Shelby Lanes.

"These lanes became available, and it was the perfect opportunity to have something we could afford," says Kathy, who was 14 when she met teen-aged Roger, who worked behind the counter at the War Memorial when Kathy's father was bowling in a league there. The couple started dating in 1961, and after four years got married.

Although they loved Shelbyville, the couple decided to head back home and build a center from scratch, the Ceredo Lanes, which they've had for 11 years. In October, shortly after Roger's Gastonia triumph, they brought in the Brunswick Corp. to modernize the facility--about a half-million dollars worth of upgrades--with new ball-return racks, wizard pop-up gutters for kids, a lighting system, new seating, interior remodeling, and synthetic lanes to go along with new scoring units installed about 18 months earlier.

"He's your typical small bowling center owner," Carroll says. "He's there when the seniors bowl early in the morning, and he works until midnight or 1 a.m. when the late leagues finish up." The remodeling, Carroll says, "is tough to do in the middle of the season, but he sees a lot of future for bowling."

Workman had his Ceredo facility for about three years when in 1992, at age 51, he decided to try the Senior tour, with his first tournament being at Cheektowaga, N.Y., near Buffalo. "I bowled really good for a while," he says. "I think I finished sixth. I was in first for a while and shot a 290 in the first game of match play to go into first place. And everybody was watching then."

Workman went to Florida to bowl two events there, at West Palm Beach and Naples, and says he has particularly enjoyed going there ever since, with Naples being a place where he seems to find a lot of success.

"It didn't take that long to learn the conditions on the Senior tour," he says. "And I guess I'm still learning them. I've always been a mechanic, too. The big drawback to getting away is that someone needs to understand the pinsetters [back home], and there's nobody there to look at them when I'm gone."

Workman didn't really go out on a full-time basis until 1999. His goal for 2000 was to play in all 12 events for the first time, which he did. "When he won up in Windsor Locks he came to the realization that, `Hey, I can beat these guys,'" Carroll says. "His goal this year was to win everything. He was good enough to compete last year and wanted to be the best this year."

The atmosphere on the Senior tour is different from that of the regular PBA tour, says Kathy, who occasionally joins her husband at the tournaments. "Most of the guys are retired, and they're not at each others' throats," she says.

Workman, however, is definitely not retired. Even with his tour bowling, he still has a center to run. In addition to his wife, he has only two employees. During the refurbishing, there was one stretch in which Workman was at the center from 8:30 a.m. Monday clear through to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, nearly 30 hours, before going home for a nap. Yet he doesn't seem to get burned out on bowling.

"He eats and drinks it. He loves it," Kathy says. "I asked him once if he dreaded going to work, and he said he loved it. He's here all the time. When he gets his work done, he puts his bowling shoes on and he's down there practicing."

The couple did take a little time off to go down to The Villages, at Lady Lake between Ocala and Leesburg, to select a style for their $100,000 house. They chose a ranch and decided to turn it over to a property management company to rent out for them. It won't be a place they can visit "until we can spend more time away from [Kenova]," Kathy says.

Besides, Workman isn't much for traveling--not by airplane, anyway. Kathy relates a story: "A couple years ago a bunch of bowlers from this area went to the ABC tournament in Reno. Roger has a fear of flying, but they talked him into it. They bowled, and when they started back there was a delay in the flight because of high winds in Phoenix, which was the layover. He said there was no way he was going to get on that plane and said he was going to rent a car. So we got a couple other guys and drove from Reno to West Virginia, 30-some hours. Our things were on the plane. We had no clothes, no toothbrushes--nothing--and drove straight through."

Carroll then had a trophy made up for Roger with an airplane on top of it. "He's driving to all these events," Carroll says. "He's got two vans and wore one of them out. He drove to Seattle [in 1999] by himself. He only stops when he sees the police. That's the only thing that has slowed him down this year."

Workman says the Seattle trip took him three days, with two stopovers, but it was fine because he was able to enjoy the scenery. He also drove to California twice in a two-week span this season, rather than hang around for the 10 days between the events there.

"It's not a fear of flying as much as that when I stop, I like to stop," Workman says. "I don't like the confinement [of a plane]. It would probably be the same thing for me as being on a Greyhound bus."

Workman's fear of flying could present a problem, though. In the past, the PBA Senior Bowler of the Year has had to go to Japan for a tournament. What to do? Says Workman matter-of-factly, "I'm not going to drive."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group