Bea Milton enters the legends division of five pin bowling’s Hall of Fame with impressive credentials.

A native of Oshawa, Bea originally began her bowling in the thirties at Motor City Bowl under the watchful eye of Matt Kotelko. In addition, Hall of Famer Lorraine Murphy recalls bowling with Bea approximately sixty years ago.

While they both worked in the ammunition factories during the war, Bea’s bowling career took off following the war years. With limited competitive opportunities in Oshawa, Bea along with Hall of Famers Bea Kotelko, Janet Peel and Lorraine Murphy travelled to Toronto for major league opportunities every Saturday.

Bea’s skills were quickly noticed by another Hall of Famer, Mabel McDowell and along with Jean Jones, “Tiny” Baker, Gene Bruce, Marg Donaldson and Mabel’s husband Bill as manager, this group formed the powerful Seagramettes. This team dominated the ladies major league and on February 13, 1960 rolled a single game record of 1494 which stood for many years.

This was not Bea’s first record breaking performance. In 1949, Bea was the first woman to bowl a perfect game in Oshawa and, in 1955, and also in the Motor City, Bea rolled a 1049 triple to top an earlier score set by Bessie Glen. This triple stood until 1960 when Hall of Famer Marj Summers established a three game score of 1081.

In that same year, Bea was also runner-up to Marj in the Eastern Canada roll-offs. While Marj was winning a national title, Bea’s team fell short and lost to the west. However, Bea led the event with an opening 393 single and 1422 opening five game set