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Bowl Canada’s Hall of Fame continues to grow, as we recognize and shine a light on the individuals who have played significant and lasting roles in the Canadian bowling industry. Today, we are proud to introduce the Hall’s newest member…. our 2025 inductee… a gentleman who has left his mark on our sport in many ways…. Pickering, Ontario’s WALTER HEENEY.
Originally from Toronto, Walter’s story with bowling begins as he completes high school back in 1961 and, with no plans to attend university, he entered the workforce with a position at Coca-Cola. By early spring, he had been elevated to a position in the Marketing department.
By 1963 he had joined Rust Craft greeting cards as an analyst, and in 1965 was taken on as a trainee at Shell Canada… his mission at Shell; to start at the bottom and work his way up to President. As we know, it didn’t work out that way, but he did advance to the position of buyer of service station equipment, then took on the role of sales rep in St. Catharines and Guelph.
All the while, and throughout the 1960’s he spent the last few weeks of his summers at the Grand Old Lady… the Canadian National Exhibition, honing his vocal and improvisational skills as a CNE game announcer.
Also through the ‘60’s, he’d been participating in the sport of bowling, a growing passion, watching his average soar through to range between 260-270. In 1967 he bowled in his first provincial Open, representing Toronto, and by 1969 he had joined the Master Bowlers Association (MBA), representing Queen City Bowl in Toronto. “It didn’t take long before I was involved at the Board level.” Remembers Walter. “I joined the MBA Board in 1971 as the Instruction Chair, and realized that the instruction program, which was starting to blossom, needed some visuals. So Don Hyatt, Ernie Roggie and I set off to put approximately 800 slides together which would become the focus of the instruction program, and literally show people how to bowl.”
A year later, in 1972, Walter was elected President of the MBA and quickly put his marketing experience to work, obtaining sponsorship from Coca Cola, Foster Pontiac Buick, Air Canada, the BPAO (now Bowl Ontario Fivepin), Jordan Wines, Bowlerama and Brunswick.
With these great successes in his pocket Walter felt his position as President was secure. By 1974, however, he was soundly defeated for the position in an election. “I was a lousy politician,” Walter reflects, “concentrating on my plans for the tournament division and not on the audience. Losing the presidency I became Secretary of the MBA which may have been a blessing in disguise.”
It was that year, and with a little more time on his hands, that Walter was approached by Jack Fine, owner of the Bowlerama Chain in Ontario, who was looking to use his connections to place a columnist in the Toronto Star to help spread the word on the sport and share its popularity with the masses. “Jack Fine said to me, ‘Why don’t you submit a column to the Star’s sports editor, Jim Proudfoot.’” Heeney remembers. “So I wrote a column on Elmer Hohl, a world-famous Horseshoe pitcher, comparing the abilities in that sport to those in the sport of fivepin bowling.” The article was published, the publisher was impressed, and Walter was offered the opportunity to continue with the Star and publish 2 articles a week, which he easily kept up with until 1981.
Back to 1974… while maintaining a paid position as a columnist and sitting as Secretary of the MBA, Walter is meanwhile still with Shell Canada, who recently moved him back to the GTA. Walter took the opportunity to buy a home in Pickering, where he still lives today with wife Catharine and daughter Jan, who join us here today.
It was around this time that Bert Garside, President of the Ontario Bowlers Congress, recognized that Heeney’s article in the Toronto Star was really introducing the sport to countless new faces. Something that was very hard to do (and still is). Walter was offered a position at the Ontario Bowling Congress and decided to take the leap, saying good-bye to Shell and getting into bowling full time. And diving into projects.
In 1976 , he produced the 5 pin Instruction video “How to improve your 5 pin game”, featuring Ian Cameron. Around this time, Walter also had a fateful meeting with a top pro tenpin bowler, Earl Anthony, a lefty, who gave Walter some tips on improving his game. Walter took the tip to heart and adjusted his game to use the left side of the lane more, and credits Anthony’s tip for his success as Bowler of the Year in Ontario in 1977, and finished second nationally.
At about this time, Bert Garside traded Walter off from OBC to an industry supplier, so Walter switched gears once again to join Professional Bowling Limited as Vice-President. Fellow Hall of Famer Oscar Kinzler had taken ill, and Heeney was placed to take over his role through Kinzler’s recovery period. Walter oversaw production of string pinsetters, pins, bands, etc. A position he retained until 1979.
Midway through that position, 1978 saw Walter elected President of the Master Bowlers Association of Canada, a position he would go on to hold for a whopping thirty-nine years.
As his days at Professional Bowling drew to a close, Walter returned to the Ontario Bowling Congress in 1979 as Technical Director. It was at this same time that he also became Executive Director of the Master Bowlers Association of Ontario.
In 1981, sitting in a meeting with Big Brothers of Canada, Walter introduces the organization to 5 pin bowling in a pitch to get a fundraiser going that would eventually become “Bowl For Millions”, going on to raise $2 Million annually… with Big Brothers claiming $1.5M as the charity, and bowling taking the remaining $500K.
It was around this time that other planted seeds finally started to grow. Back around 1976 Walter had gone to meet with Hiram Walker, but the distillery giant wasn’t interested at the time and sent him home with a bottle of wine. By 1981, however, Hiram Walker reps were hearing more and more about 5 pin bowling, and Hiram Walker was recognizing the friendly demographic the sport had waiting for them. They searched out the fivepin representative that had met with them years earlier and came to an arrangement, starting small and going on to become bowling’s largest sponsor over the years, leading to their eventual sponsorship of Bowl Canada’s TSN Pins Game.
In this same year, Walter received the Media Award from an earlier iteration of the Bowling Federation of Canada, recognizing his contributions to promoting the sport.
A year later, 1982, Walter was once again recognized and proudly received Life Membership in both O5PBA and MBAO.
Having turned 38 at this point, Walter considered that his next step would have to be getting into the business of bowling, and took a lease on Rouge Hill Bowl, on the border of Toronto and Pickering. “I quickly realized I’m not a business man.” He chuckles, reminiscing. “But I also realized if I quit the players associations, I’d end up being President of Bowl Ontario for a few years, then move on to BPAC (Bowl Canada), and then I’d be gone. So I hired Roseanne Bird to manage the centre and I kept at what I was doing…. Best decision I ever made.”
While he had Rouge Hill Bowl, he ran the second edition of the International Small Ball Championships. The first had been run in 1980 in Manilla, Phillipines. Participating nations included the United States, Phillipines, Argentina and Canada…. all nations who enjoyed the small ball game (Duckpin bowling). “Since I had a bowling centre, we could do whatever we wanted.” Walter recalls. “We had people setting up Duckpins by hand on the fivepin lanes. And tons of volunteers to help it come off great.”
The 1980’s rolled on and came in as one of the strongest decades for the sport. Out in Saskatoon, Tom Paterson had begun offering summer Bowling Schools. A friend of Walter’s, Claudina Sula, was invited out to participate and came home with the outline of the program and told Walter, “We can do this here.”. Before long, Walter, Claudina and Cathy Daku put the program together for Ontario bowlers, seeing 120 kids register for the fist year. An instant success that continues to this day.
In 1991, Walter’s daughter Jan was very involved in Special Olympics, competing in bowling, swimming and gymnastics. So we can say that Jan should be the one to get credit for Walter’s next big idea (thanks Jan!). Walter came up with combining Master Bowlers with Special Olympians on a team, with entry fees and prize money split evenly between them. The Master Bowlers/Special Olympics Doubles Championship was another success, and went on for a 25 year run.
In 1991, personal bowling balls were coming in. Fellow Hall of Famer Jack Fine of Bowlerama (“One of the finest people I’ve ever dealt with” Walter states), gave Walter 3 plastic and 3 rubber balls. Asked to take them around and let bowlers use them and see how they are accepted, Walter remembers… “I gave the rubber balls to Bob Gifford, and the 3 plastic balls I used personally… and I still use them today.” Incredibly, there was much doubt at the time that 5 pin bowlers would purchase their own equipment… but boy did they.
As 1994 rolled around, Walter was once again recognized for his contributions to the game, and was Inducted into the Builder category of the O5PBA Hall of Fame. And in 1999 Walter completed the O5PBA cycle with an induction in the Players division as well.
As Y2K dawned, a list of the Top 90 bowlers in Ontario was developed to mark the new Millenium. Walter was named #23 on the Ontario list and also named as one of the top 100 bowlers in Canada.
That same year, Walter’s wife Catherine (who Walter describes as a terrific mother) retired from her career as a school teacher and principal. Walter retired also, letting go of working at the bowling office full time. In 2003, however, Catherine arranged for an interview with Walter at a Catholic School Board. They offered him a position as an uncertified substitute teacher and he started the very next day, going on to teach in elementary and high schools for the next 15 years.
By 2017, at a Masters meeting in Regina, Walter was running the meeting and sensed an issue building with the perception of his leadership. When calling for elections, the first call was quiet, the second call also, but on the 3rd call, someone nominated Brian Rosetti. “I knew then that the fix was in.” recalls Walter. After 39 years in the office, Walter was not bitter, but did wish he’d had one more year to hit the 4-decade mark. He lost the election and while disappointed realized he would take all the friends he had made over the years with him, thankful for the experience.
A year later, 2018 saw the Ontario Special Olympics organization recognize Walter with a special award for 50 years of volunteerism. Amazing.
The years since have seen Walter continuing to promote the sport in any way he can. And with all the history under his belt, he is recognized as one of the sport’s historians. As such, Walter is also seen as a repository for historical items of our sport and industry, being gifted collections, etc. when enthusiasts pass on. He collects these and aims to have them used in either the Museum of Fivepin Bowling, being planned at NEB’s Funworld by the Englands, or have them placed as historical items in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
When Walter’s dad passed in 1987, Walter received a box which had every article he’d ever written for the Toronto star. Around 2018 Walter began posting those articles on social media, sharing his resurrected Toronto Star articles to bring the history of our sport to the attention of today’s bowlers. With a following of 3,000 people, Walter hopes to get in another 3 years to be able to complete all postings of the Star articles.
The last few years have seen Walter working on a project which has just recently come to completion…. His new “A Trip Down Memory Lane” book, which was released in the summer of 2024. A 480 page history of 5 pin bowling, which has to date sold 350 copies.
Walter would meet with a volunteer high school student every week to outline what he needed her to type for the book. A long process, but he was determined. He completed the book in May 2024, racing to the finish line before his young volunteer graduated and moved on to university. With book in hand, he now searched out the support he would need to get this historic tome out to the community.
When asked about the process, Walter pulls no punches….. “The support came from one individual proprietor, from Bowl Canada and Bowl Ontario Fivepin, and from Special Olympics Ontario. That’s all” he tells us, going on to say. “And I want everyone at the proprietor’s associations to understand how appreciative I am of that support. Especially when none of the bowlers’ associations supported me at all.”
Later in 2024, Heeney was Inducted into the C5PBA Hall of Fame as a Builder. And just a few months later, earlier this year, Walter was notified that a Bowl Canada Hall of Fame nod had come his way as well.
With the news of having been inducted yet again to a Hall of Fame, through connections Walter contacted Hamilton’s Bubba O’Neil, a former CFL player running a sports podcast in hammer town. Walter was quick to be invited to tell his story over an hour long discussion this spring.
Looking back on 5 decades plus, we asked Walter what he considers to be his proudest moments, to which he replied;
- Getting my own column with the Toronto Star back in 1974
- Bringing in Hiram Walker as a sponsor to our sport
- And working with, and involving, Special Olympics in our game.
As a final thought, he mentions the appreciation he has for the recognition he’s received. A straight-shooting guy who has worked hard for 5 pin bowling and done a lot of good for the sport he loves. Always pushing and promoting it where he can.
And he continues to do so…. visiting seniors homes in 2025 to introduce the sport and its history to the residents while selling the final copies of his book.
Ladies and gentlemen…. Please join us in a big congratulations as we celebrate the induction of our newest Hall of Fame member….
Pickering, Ontario’s WALTER HEENEY