Despite her Italian heritage, Anna Swartzman, whose maiden name was Pirillo, owes her bowling ability to training received here in Canada. Anna was born in Calabria, Italy in 1954 and moved to Canada a year later. Her high school, Eastdale Vocational School in east Toronto, had two bowling lanes and Anna chose five pin bowling rather than swimming and, on the academic side, she was also trained as a copy typist. While her first job was at Eaton’s, her first league play was an Olympia Bowl, the large centre on Edward St. in downtown Toronto. This Thursday league contained top bowlers such as Hall of Famer Theda Procher and Jim Glandfield. It was at Olympia in 1975 that Anna met her husband, Jim. As well, Theda Procher introduced Anna to both the Tuesday Major League at Olympia Edward, which also included a large number of top players, and the Saturday Major League, which was a ladies only league at the time.

Following their marriage in 1979, Jim also accepted the challenge to become Anna’s personal coach. Utilizing several positive suggestions, Anna raised her average to 225 and her career accelerated. She bowled in her first Open in 1978 and has qualified each and every year since then through the Toronto Zone. It is important to note, that, in these years, Anna has missed a top three placing, thus qualifying for the singles competition, on only two occasions.

In the Open, Anna has not only qualified for twenty-two years, she has also excelled in this provincial arena. Individually, she has led the qualifying round on three occasions, and overall qualified for the stepladder, with a top five finish, six times, which is more than any other bowler. Anna was victorious in the singles in 1995 and she ultimately won bronze at the national in Hull, Quebec. Anna enjoyed even more success in the team events and the Toronto ladies were victorious in 1984, 1992 and 1994. The 1992 team won gold, Anna earned a silver in 1994 and she took home bronze in 1984.

While Anna advanced her standing through the Open, she also joined the Master Bowlers Association in 1978 and through 1327 games, has averaged 244, which is 23rd all time. Provincially, Anna has won nine tournaments and only three women have won more events. Her first win came in 1984 and she continued to win until 1994. Anna won six singles events and, for three other victories, won in doubles and triples formats. During this ten-year period, Anna also qualified for the Masters national championships seven times, five on the team and two in singles. Another barrage of medals followed, six in all, as, with the team, Anna won three gold and two silver. As a national single, Anna was unplaced in 1984, but won gold in 1986 in Hamilton.

Anna excelled in other programs as well. Through the BPAC, Anna has been on TSN three times, was the overall winner in 1992 and, overall, has earned over $12,000. Her highest league average was 270.2 at Aprile Lanes and she has won high average titles bowling in mixed major leagues against top caliber male competition.

While Anna has risen to the elite of our sport, she has not forgotten that many bowlers participate at the league level and many have special needs. Through her company, Shoppers Drug Mart, which she joined in 1979, Anna has donated literally thousands of prizes to many groups including the Ontario Special Olympics.

While Anna still has goals to achieve in our sport, such as ten MBAO victories and 30 years in the Open, she knows she can count on the support of her husband, Jim. Over the years, Jim has curtailed some of his bowling activity to coach Anna to her success. Even when not personally there, Jim has offered his advice and recalls a telephone call from Winnipeg when Anna was not doing very well. Jim offered his advice and Anna proceeded to bowl a next game of 418 to propel her back into the championship race.

Anna’s talents were recognized by the industry in Ontario when our recent Top 90 project selected Anna the fifth best bowler of all time in the history of 5 pin bowling in Ontario.