Growing up next to the Bol-O-Drome Bowling Centre in Hamilton allowed Pat McNeil to take a familiar path to bowling stardom. By the time she was 13, Pat was both working in the snack bar at Bol-O-Drome and setting pins. The teenagers at the centre formed their own youth league and Pat honed her skills in league play and in sweeps against her fellow workers.

While still a teenager, Pat joined her first league at Bol-O-Drome and under the watchful eye of Hamilton’s top female bowlers; Pat was introduced to the major leagues of the day. Included was membership on the prestigious Bar Don Team in the Niagara Pro League, whose group included Hall of Famers Helen MacCallum and Irene Witley. Overall she won the league championship and high average titles in both the Major A League at Sherwood Centre and the Friday Night Pro League at Bar Don Lanes in Stoney Creek.

By 1970, both the Provincial Open Championships and the Master Bowlers’ Association would allow Pat to display her talents both provincially and nationally. Pat qualified for her first Open in 1970 and, by 1983, had bowled twelve times and won four national team titles.

The Hamilton Ladies won the Open three consecutive years from 1976 to 1978 and only Pat, Hall of Famer Evelyn Wood and Hall of Famer coach Bob Coulter were on all three teams. Each team won the national championship as well and, in 1977, Pat was also named a national all-star. In 1983, Pat returned to the national scene as the Hamilton Ladies won for the fourth time at Thunder Bay and this team was coached by Pat’s husband, Gerry.

Pat was equally dominant in the Master Bowlers’ Association. In a seven-year span, Pat averaged 243 and, in the aggregate standing, finished in the top six bowlers provincially four times. The 1977 team won gold in Saskatoon and all five members, including Diane MacLeod, Sue Topping, Helen MacCallum and Charlene MacCormack and now Pat are in the 5 Pin Hall of Fame. The team was unbeaten in fifteen games and set records that still stand today. Individually, at the Saskatoon event, Pat averaged 294 for fifteen games and rolled 1787 for five consecutive games.

While Pat left the competitive side of the game in 1983 to begin a hairdressing career, she left her mark at her home centre, Bol-O-Drome. Overall, Pat was both an instructor and coach for fifteen years and, in 1979, started a Golden Age league that is still in operation today under the guidance of former teammate, Pat Mahoney.

Pat and her husband, Gerry, celebrated twenty-five years of marriage this year and Gerry has been both a supportive husband and bowling mentor. As well, Pat and Gerry are grandparents as their son, Paul and his wife Shannon, have three children, Connor, Liam and Keelin. Hopefully YBC careers await and, if so, their grandmother will be a willing and capable coach.