Hall Of Fame Inductee

Mickey McNeil

Inducted into: Player Division in 2003

Location: Mississauga

Deceased: DEC

  • Player

Organized bowling has flourished over the last forty years and Mickey McNeil has played a role in every one of them both on and off the lanes.

Born in Toronto during the Second World War, Mickey was an athlete and specifically a baseball player, excelling in the most difficult position of catcher. Also, like many early bowlers, she set pins at the upscale Granite Club, located on St. Clair Avenue. Mickey initially joined the workforce in the 1950’s with an insurance company and moved to Continental Can before ultimately establishing herself at Westburne Inc, a distributor of home products, where she was employed for thirty years

It was at Continental Can that Mickey was first exposed to 5 pin bowling as part of their industrial league teams. While Mickey enjoyed her bowling, she had a desire to improve and traveled to Thorncliffe Bowlerama several nights a week to try to perfect her delivery. While practicing, top Toronto bowler Volda Hefner and her husband Bill, noticed this young lady and, in 1964, they recruited her to join two of the most elite leagues of the day, namely the Scarborough Ladies League which bowled on Saturday afternoon and the mixed major league at Olympia Edward that was held on Tuesday night. Mickey joined both leagues and her career was on her way. She rubbed shoulders with not only her mentor Volda, but the stars of the day including Primo Vagnini, Bill and Jimmy Hoult, Theda Procher, and many more.

Mickey joined the Master Bowlers Association in 1966 and originally represented Olympia Edward as a teaching master before moving to the Ladies’ MBAO tour and changing her home centre to Aprile Lanes. Altogether, Mickey has enjoyed thirty-one years in the Masters, two as a teaching master, twenty four on the ladies tour and five as a senior. On the tour, Mickey is part of a select few who have bowled over 1000 games with her lifetime average of 230. Overall, Mickey has three wins, with two on the Senior tour and a Mixed Triples victory on the tournament tour in 1985 with Gord Male of Smiths Falls and Roger Davies of Oshawa.

Mickey proved to be a dominant force in the provincial Open conducted by the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers Association. Mickey first qualified in 1977 and would bowl at the provincial championships a total of seventeen times before retiring in 1999. She made singles three times and actually led the Agincourt zone in 1982. In addition, she would qualify for eleven ladies teams and six mixed teams. Three of these teams won provincial titles beginning with the 1983 mixed team from York West and followed by the 1993 ladies from Central Ontario and the 1999 mixed team from the same zone. At the national level, the 1983 team won a bronze medal in Winnipeg, while the 1999 team took silver in Regina. In recognition of her achievements, Mickey was ranked sixty-ninth on the Top 90 list of bowlers of the twentieth century.

While Mickey was starring on the lanes, she was also an integral part of the administrative side of our sport. In the Scarborough Ladies League and also the amalgamated men’s and ladies league, Mickey bowled for twenty years and was treasurer for eighteen consecutive seasons. When the league was in difficulty of surviving, Mickey led the cause for amalgamation with the men’s league and was successful, allowing both leagues to continue for several more years. When the O5PBA began their bowling school program in 1991, Mickey was selected as an instructor in the first year and has returned each and every year to pass on her techniques to our future adult bowlers.

At the zone level, Mickey was an executive with the Lake Ontario Zone under the umbrella of the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association and assumed the presidency for the 1995-96 season, the final year for the zone. For the next year, Mickey became president of the combined Central-Lake Ontario Zone and, following a year as vice-president, has returned to the presidency and maintained it to this day.

In 2001, Mickey moved to the provincial board and has used her promotional skills to shine in the areas of communications, awards and publicity. Her e-mail newsletter, called the Pinboard, that appears on the O5PBA website on a monthly basis has proved to be immensely popular and has spawned a new venture “Coast to Coast”, which now reaches bowlers across Canada. This past summer, Mickey worked with fellow board members Mike Kyte and Mike Cregan and Ontario Special Olympics representative, Margaret French, to develop a membership program for Special Olympic bowlers, who, hopefully, represent a new area for a membership increase.

Mickey has a son, Ron, and is also a grandmother to a daughter, Rikki, and a great grandmother to Conrad, who is just three months old. Today, Mickey and her life partner, Carol Lawrence, live in Mississauga, and, while health problems have curtailed her on- lane bowling, this new computer age will keep Mickey involved for many years to come.