Through his achievements, Chuck Park used the bowling industry to travel across Canada to participate and win championships from British Columbia to Newfoundland.

Originally, Chuck, along with his twin brother Alex, joined the youth program at Shea’s Parkway in 1959, just one year following their family’s move to the Scarborough area. At this time, the Youth Bowling Council, as we know it today, was still a dream and bowlers at Parkway participated in a youth program operated through the Shea’s chain. Chuck’s youth career was somewhat uneventful, but in his final YBC year in 1967, Chuck was a member of the Scarborough team that won the first Youth Bowling Council Senior Mixed Team Tournament, an event started as a centennial year project. Alex, on the other hand, graduated from the YBC but did not have Chuck’s abilities on the lanes. He did, however, become a lifetime volunteer for the YBC at Parkway and was program director for many years until his untimely and sudden passing in 1996 at the young age of 48. While Chuck may have been self taught on the lanes, he does credit his smooth style to another Scarborough bowler, the veteran Frank McQuaid. Using this smooth delivery, Chuck originally joined the Master Bowlers Association as a teaching master representing Shea’s Parkway. In 1973 Chuck joined the men’s tour and overall averaged 258.14 for 920 games and few bowlers have exceeded that total. Chuck won five MBAO tournaments beginning with the 1977 Spring Classic and culminating with the 1990 Classic Shootout. Chuck also won the annual mixed triples with Hall of Famers Helen MacCallum and Nick Pagniello in 1979 and appeared on CHCH television by winning the 1980 Rose Festival at Bowl-O-Rama Lanes in Welland. Finally, Chuck proved his match play skill by winning the annual Double Knockout tournament in Oshawa in 1987.

At the Canadian level with the Master Bowlers Association, Chuck was a member of three gold medal winning teams as part of seven national appearances. Specifically, gold medals were won in 1977 in Saskatoon, 1978 in Winnipeg, and 1982 in Newfoundland. The 1977 team was the most noteworthy as the five Ontario bowlers were undefeated in sixteen games, a feat that has never been equaled. Chuck led the way with a 284 tournament average and shared the podium with Hall of Famers Nick Pagniello and Gord Hobson and also Dave Cattanach and Jim Elliott. Chuck, along with Jim Elliott and Gord Hobson, bowled together in Ontario on a weekly and tournament level and enjoyed participation in a variety of cash side bets. The threesome were so successful that, on the day prior to leaving for the Saskatoon event, Chuck picked up a brand new 1977 Mercury Cougar from his share of the proceeds from the 1976-77 season.

While Chuck was a dominant force in the Master Bowlers Association program, he also was a vital bowler in the Open representing both the Scarborough and Agincourt zones. Overall, he qualified fourteen times, including seven times as a single, twelve times on the men’s team and three more times on the mixed team.

The most successful year was 1977 when the Scarborough mixed team actually won the “unofficial” Triple Crown. The group, consisting of Chuck, Hall of Famers Ron Gifford and Doris Stewart and also Neil Harrison. John Inglis, Pat Lynch, Sandy Barrett and coach Gene Deschenes, won the provincial Open, the national Open and then qualified for and captured the gold medal at the Ontario Winter Games. Overall, Chuck appeared on television six times, carried a league average as high as 284 and bowled a ten game score of 3020 at a Masters event at Sherwood Centre in Hamilton. On the Top 90 list of bowlers from the 20th Century, Chuck was ranked twentieth overall in recognition of his accomplishments.

During a television appearance in 1981, Charlene Cole was watching and the single Chuck Park caught her eye. Subsequently they were married in 1983 and now have two children, Kyle twelve and Adam five. While starring on the lanes, Chuck didn’t ignore the local association. When the new Agincourt zone began in 1979, Chuck was tournament director for its ten years of existence and was awarded a life membership in the zone for his efforts both on and off the lanes.

In the private sector, Chuck has worked with Signode Canada in Markham for thirty five years and, while he hasn’t joined the MBAO Senior tour, Chuck will enjoy his Hall of Fame status while continuing to bowl at the league level at NEB’s Fun World in Oshawa.