There aren’t too many people who can lawn bowl, and there aren’t too many of those who can lawn bowl into their older age, but Jim Gram isn’t too many people.
He started lawn bowling in 1952 at the age of 19 because he thought it looked like an interesting sport. After his first year of lawn bowling, he began competing in tournaments in Connecticut—where he was living at the time.
After a few such events, he began to win. First, the triumphs came at the local level, but, when the 1960s came along, Gram was beginning to take over at the division level, within which there were multiple states competing for the top prize. He scored three wins, as well as two wins in the open pairs. In 1984, he added the National Singles title to his collection.
One of Gram’s fondest memories is when he played on the national team in New Guinea in 1987.
“It was interesting,” he said. “We placed seventh among 12 other teams—we didn’t do too bad.”
Today, Gram still plays the game, but not at the intensity he once did. Still, understand that he’s in his 90s, and how many others that age are still playing sports?
This article appears in May 20-27, 2010.
