Currently living in Edmonton, Alberta, Lorne Anderson built his Hall of Fame career in Western Ontario and specifically Windsor and Chatham.

Lorne was actually born in Windsor on July 6th, 1931 and, like so many top bowlers, worked as a pinboy at the Windsor Recreation Centre. There, under the tutelage of the floor manager, Bill Williams, a gentleman who, in later years, managed O’Connor Bowl in Toronto, Lorne learned the mechanics of 5 pin bowling. A transfer to Chatham in 1949 introduced Lorne to Dr. Johnson, the owner of Monta Lanes, and, from the early fifties, Lorne would dominate the bowling scene in both Chatham and Windsor. Overall, Lorne bowled six 400 games and five 1000 triples. Lorne and his first wife, Bette, own the distinction of both bowling sanctioned perfect games. Lorne’s 450 effort was achieved at Chatham’s Sunset Lanes on September 25th, 1964. Bette rolled her perfect game in Windsor on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, 1964, at the Playdium Recreation Centre.

Lorne and Bette were the local celebrities and, at the season opening of Sunset Lanes in 1963, they were matched against O’Connor Open Champion, Si Rizun of Toronto and Ontario Singles Champion, Marj Summers of St. Catharines. The three game match was no contest as Lorne and Bette overwhelmed the all- star duo 1533 – 1149.

With his reputation solidly entrenched in Western Ontario, Lorne now looked to other areas of the province to leave his mark. Toronto beckoned with a variety of tournaments and the hub of activity was O’Connor Bowl.. The CBC television series was ongoing and Lorne appeared for five weeks in 1963 and was undefeated competing against such top bowlers as Si Ruzun and Hall of Famers George Smith, Bill Hoult, and Holly Leet. Lorne was a regular at the O’Connor Open, and also won the fifty game Timmy Tournament at O’Connor in 1967 with a score of 13,104 and a 262 average.

All Events Tournaments were the forerunner to the Master Bowlers Association and Lorne bowled with several partners, including his wife, Bette, at Waterloo, Oshawa, and Peterborough and won several singles, doubles and aggregate awards. Lorne was a perennial entrant at the Sportsman’s Show at the Canadian National Exhibition. In 1960, on two special lanes conducted for 5 pin bowling competition, Lorne rolled the second highest ten games in the event only to lose to Ernie Wilcox of Port Credit 2860 – 2593 in the semi-finals.

Prior to his retirement in June 1994, Lorne worked for thirty years with International Harvester. Trained as a painter, many of Lorne’s weekends were tied-up with last minute jobs. As a result, Lorne missed displaying his talents, to a great extent, in both the Masters and the Open. In fact, Lorne participated in only five Opens, from 1970-1976 and was the singles representative twice and, in 1972, coached the Western Ontario team. To build this coaching expertise, Lorne was one of 5 pin bowling’s first certified instructors, receiving his certificate from Joe D’Orazio in 1962.

While Lorne bowled with the greats of the lanes at literally hundreds of open tournaments, he also brought his bowling skills to the Royal Canadian Legion. A proud member of Branch #28 for forty-three years, Lorne enjoyed their yearly bowling competition that consisted of zone, district and provincial rounds. In this less structured but still competitive environment, Lorne teamed with several top bowlers including Hall of Famer, Jackie Wilson of London, to represent his area from local rounds in Chatham to provincial finals in Kirkland Lake and Cornwall.

In 1997, Lorne re-married and he and his wife Lola moved to her native Alberta to enjoy retirement together. However, an unsuspecting virus dealt Lorne a serious health setback, and today, with his bowling career on hold, Lorne hopes to return to good health and also to the lanes in the near future.