In the history of five pin bowling, few have dedicated their lives to the advancement of their sport, in the ways demonstrated by Jack Hales, President of the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association. At the same time, very few Executives in any area of amateur sport can look back over the relatively short span of 10 or 12 years, and measure the milestones of solid growth and achievement their sport has reached under their own thoughtful leadership.

In this 1981-82 season, Jack Hales is serving his 10th consecutive year as President of the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association, and his 11th year as a member of its’ Board of Directors. It was only 12 years ago, in June of 1969, that Jack first turned up for the third annual meeting and Convention of what was then the Ontario Bowlers’ Congress. He was there as a voting delegate for the London 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association. All that he heard and saw at Royal View Lodge in Haliburton in that summer of 1969,excited Jack; particularly the moment he was ruled out of order for informing the directors of the day that they had drawn a London Association boundary right through the heart of an Indian Reserve!

He took the rebuke as a challenge, and went home to become President of the London Association for the 1969-70 and 1970-71 seasons. They were two memorable years for London and for Jack. In 1970, at the Convention, after only his first year as London’s President and what was really only his second year as a local association executive, Jack Hales was “President of the Year”. In 1971, at the convention, Jack was presented with the “President of the Year” award for an unprecedented second consecutive year. That 1971 Convention, the first of 10 held at Elgin House in Muskoka, was one that Jack Hales and organized bowling will never forget. That was the year Jack first ran and was elected to his first three-year term as a Director of the OFPBA. He served an 1971-72 as Second Vice-President, and at the end of that year, succeeded Ken Edge of Hamilton as President.

In 1970-71, 5 Pin Bowling was viewed by Government at all levels as a form of recreation. Today, 5 Pin Bowling enjoys formal recognition as an amateur sport deserving of Government support and funding at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. Indeed the OFPBA today is recognized and assisted by the Ontario ministry of Culture and Recreation as the Amateur Sport Governing body for the sport in the province. Ministry officials cite the OFPBA as an example for other amateur sports to follow.

The modern history of the development and growth of 5 Pin Bowling in Ontario is the history of Jack Hales’ 10 year tenure as President of the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association. Jack often characterized himself, as his friends have done on occasion, as “the big dumb farm boy from Dutton”. It’s a role he usually plays in order to make sure other members of his Board of Directors, and scores of other five pin bowling volunteers and personalities with whom he works , get full credit for their own contributions to the advancement of our sport and industry. No one can minimize the critical leadership role Jack Hales has played in a decade of unprecedented growth; nor has his contribution been restricted to Ontario or the OFPBA.

For seven years, Jack Hales represented Ontario to the former Canadian Bowling Congress. With Jack Hales at the helm, Ontario was a vigorous supporter of the formation of our new National Sport Governing Body, the three year old Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association and he continues to serve today as its Second Vice-President. He has been closely in the development of several keys programs in Ontario, including Lane Certification and Equipment Specifications and Standards, and can point with pride the number of Ontario programs now in place or being introduced through the CFPBA. Always a popular leader, Jack Hales was elected in 1975 to the Board of Directors of the Master Bowlers’ Association in Ontario, but he resigned the post one year later in order to devote more time to his duties with the OFPBA.

Life began for Jack Hales almost 42 years ago, on December 23, 1939 in St. Thomas, Ontario. He was the first son of Ed and Marie Hales. Dutton has always been “home” for this self styled “farm boy” but his mother reports Jack actually spent most of his time on neighbour Fred Solner’s farm. It was there, she says, he actually did most of his “helping with the chores”. Today, Jack and his wife Dianna, and their children Mike, Randy, Karen, Kelly and Jane, make their home in London. His youngest brother, Air Force Captain Robert W. Hales, lives in Trenton, and their younger sister, Mrs. Marjorie Gibson, lives in Harmony Beach near Sault Ste. Marie.

Jack attended elementary school in Dutton and secondary school at nearby West Lorne, and his first involvement with 5 Pin Bowling was as a pin boy in a four lane Dutton bowling Centre which has long since been leveled by fire. He joined the Western Ontario Inter-City League in the 1960-61 season, and has played in every year since with the exception of a four year stint when he lived and worked in Winnipeg. On the lanes, he has competed as a member of the Tournament Division of the Master Bowlers’ Association in Ontario, and 10 times has qualified for the Colt 45 Open Ontario Championships. Jack’s first involvement as a volunteer official came in 1967 while he was bowling, working and living in Winnipeg. He loves to recall that his first job was as a doorman during the Western Canada Championships.

In 1968-69, he was the London Association’s Treasurer. The next two years, he served as Zone President, and was twice Ontario’s “President of the Year”. In 1971-72, he was second Vice-President of the OFPBA, and in the summer of 1972, he assumed the post in which he still serves tirelessly, as President of the OFPBA. In June 1971, the OFPBA presented Jack Hales with one of its earliest “certificates of appreciation” in recognition of his efforts in the London area. In June of 1978, in appreciation of his efforts at the helm, the OFPBA presented Jack Hales with its’ 13th Life Membership. One year later, in June 1979, the OFPBA presented Jack Hales with its’ second award to its “Executive of the Decade”. Only one other person, Hamilton’s “Miss Bowling”, Evelyn Wood, has ever been similarly honoured!

Surprisingly, in spite of his deep involvement with 5 Pin Bowling, the sport has not monopolized Jack’s free time. At the tender age of 15 years, Jack was already built like the “gentle giant” we’ve all come to know and admire, and he played for, managed and coached the Dutton Senior Men’s Fastball Team. He played that game for 24 years! Four years later, he became something of a local hero, when at the 1959 Dutton Scottish Games he became the first man in 22 years to succeed at the ancient Gaelic sport of tossing the caber. “A man named Clarence Stewart did it and retired in 1937", Jack explains. But the weight of the caber (120 pounds) and its’ length (17 feet 10 inches) was too much for anyone to throw end over end until Jack took up the sport in 1959. Recurring back problems forced Jack’s retirement from those Scottish games in 1974, but thankfully, they have never diminished his enthusiasm for 5 Pin Bowling.

In the almost 10 years he has served as OFPBA President, there have been an estimated 150 important meetings and 75 major tournament events he felt obliged to attend. And in all those years, he has missed just one meeting and one tournament both because of health problems! The 1980-81 bowling season was probably a little more hectic for Jack than any of the others, and so it’s revealing to examine his personal appointment diary for that past year. Between an OFPBA Board meeting in Scarborough on July 6, 1980 and a CFPBA meeting in Edmonton on July 5, 1981, Jack Hales spent a full 58 days of his life attending 5 Pin Bowling meetings, tournaments and such other varied functions as the OFPBA Convention. It is an incredible record for a man who labors as a volunteer, and finds the time in spite of his considerable obligations to his employers, his wife and his children.

Obviously, the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association is considerably indebted for their patience to Dianna Hales, to Michael, Randy, Karen, Kelly and Jane, and also to Health Consultants Ltd. of London, the natural gas transmission survey company for which Jack Hales has worked the past 23 years. We know, that they join us proudly in saluting Jack Hales, truly a “Builder of the Bowling Industry”.