William Boettger has enjoyed a love affair with bowling for his entire life. While Bill was first introduced to five pin bowling through his parents, Earl and Lil, Bill soon became a pinboy and also joined the pinboys league on Saturday mornings at Waterloo Lanes. This league was special, in that the pinboys bowled along with the top bowlers of the day. As such, Bill was introduced to Hall of Famers, John Moyer and Bob Totzke and other notables such as Hal Reibel and Bob Totzke’s brother, Howie.

As a pinboy, Bill also worked alongside golf legend Moe Norman, who was also setting pins despite having a pocket-full of cash. Bill, on the other hand, used his money to supplement his income as he earned both a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo and also a teaching certificate. Moreover, Bill used his Waterloo Lanes connections and his obvious mathematical abilities to be a most capable scorekeeper at Waterloo’s All Events Tournaments, as good scorekeepers were a necessity prior to the invention of the automatic pinsetter. In a fitting send-off, Bill said good-bye to the pinboys league with a perfect game at Waterloo Lanes on November 16th, 1969. At this time, the centre was installing pinsetters and, on this night, Bill drew one of the four remaining lanes with pinboys. Bill followed his perfect game with 287 and 356 games for a 1093 triple.

With a teaching position secured at Eastwood Collegiate in 1965, Bill was now ready to take on the adult world. A top notch bowler, he joined the Inter-city team out of Victoria Bowl and bowled with Hall of Famer, Don Walker, Clayton Neeb, Elmer Hohl and Dan Mayer in the most prestigious league of the day.

Bill was invited to join the tournament division of the Master Bowlers Association in 1965 and, as well as being a top bowler, his academic skills caught the eye of the administrators of the day and both Ernie Roggie and Jim McKenzie asked Bill to take over as the Treasurer of the Master Bowlers Association of Ontario, a position he assumed in 1970. While taking over this provincial function, Bill was also in a position to become the first treasurer of the Master Bowlers Association of Canada.

As the formal coaching program for 5 pin bowling was also developing at this time, Bill was called upon to lend his teaching skills to this project as well. Initially, Bill wrote the lesson plans for both the Level One and Two Technical courses and also introduced the practical portion to the Level Two program and the curriculum he developed is still in use today.

On the lanes, Bill was also displaying his talents. In 1973, Bill was a member of the Ontario championship men’s team from the Open. Advancing to Winnipeg, the Conestoga group won a silver medal at the national championships. In the following year, Bill won a gold medal as he won the Canadian Masters singles title in Regina, and he won the Ontario aggregate without winning a single provincial tournament.

Following his 1974 win, Bill continued to advance up the administrative ladder and assumed the MBAO presidency in 1975 and provided the leadership as the association doubled its membership, expanded its tournament formats, introduced new sponsors and even established its own independent offices in East York. In one of Bill’s final moves as president, he hired Walter Heeney as Executive Director in 1979 and he has continued in that position since that time.

Bill’s command of the English language was evident in his presidential role but he also used it on several other occasions. For several years, as MBAO President, he visited the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association annual convention and, to the joy of the delegates, would both humourously and satirically, sum up the convention while the votes were being counted. Bill was also a guest speaker at the Builders of the Industry dinner as he spoke for both Bob Totzke and Don Walker.

While Bill has earned these Hall of Fame honours this evening, his achievements on the lawn bowling greens are equally impressive. This summer bowling endeavour started in 1962 and Bill was able to transfer his 5 pin skills to win several local and provincial events on the greens. In 1977, Bill, along with his lifetime friend and bowling partner George Boxwell and Ted Norvak and Jim Law won the Canadian fours championship in Edmonton. With that success, Bill was named to Canada’s national team in 1979 and stayed for eighteen consecutive years. As lawn bowling is an international sport, Bill has visited England, Scotland, Hong Kong, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. His silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Edinborough was Canada’s first lawn bowling medal at these Games since 1955. He continued to be second in the world fours in England in 1992 and, at the Pacific Championships in Hong Kong in 1991, Bill won three gold medals in pairs, fours and men’s overall and these golds were the first ever by a Canadian at any international lawn bowling competition and earned Bill the moniker, Captain Canada, as he was recognized as the top male bowler of the tournament.

At 56, Bill has now retired from the daily academic grind and, in reality, is too young to retire from either 5 pin or lawn bowling. While a world-wide professional tour is in the infancy stage in lawn bowling, Bill also knows he can return to the 5 pin lanes at any time and contribute as both a bowler or administrator and in Hall of Fame style.