Bowling lost one of its true treasures January 14: Dick Stoeffler passed away, with his wife Susie by his side, at their home in Las Vegas. His years of bravely fighting cancers and seemingly unending medical procedures are over, and the legends above have a new friend with which to share stories and laughter.
Steff was a great bowler, a great bowling center operator, a great husband, and a great friend to me and so many others who were lucky enough to know him. He was also a very good writer who had the rare ability to make his point with just the right dose of humor and humility.
I didn’t simply like Steff—I loved him and admired him. His second best friend Jim Dressel (Susie is #1) introduced us several years ago during one of our trips to Vegas, and we have shared a wonderful friendship ever since. Actually, I was a big fan of his "Mountain Time" column in the California Bowling News long before we met.
Steff’s prose had a unique style that was honest and straightforward, but never too offensive because of his incredible sense of humor. For example, here's an excerpt from a thank you note he sent me after I wrote a column about him a few years ago:
"Jim, I am deeply humbled by your words, I thank you so much. Anything I write at this point seems totally inadequate . . .BUT, Yes, there is always a but! I'll likely never write another column! You see, now folks will expect it to be some sage, brilliant bit of wit, possibly akin in knowledge and facts to, maybe, the Ten Commandments. All these years, I have simply sat down in front of my typewriter, gone brain dead and blathered on for about 25 minutes . . . and called it a column. NOW, I'll have to think . . . or be speechless. I wonder what the going rate is for 15 inches of blank white space!?" Methinks retirement has finally arrived . . . but on the highest note anyone could hope for. In all sincerity, Jim, THANK YOU ! ! !"
That thank you note, which I will keep forever, was "Classic Steff stuff." Of course, he did write many more fantastic columns to go with the hundreds he penned for more than 30 years. He wasn't afraid to call bowling officials "dunderheads" and other steffisms when they deserved it, and he had the credentials to back up his opinions and musings.
In 1956, he averaged 212 as the highest from California. By comparison, Don Carter and Dick Weber averaged 210 and 208 that year in St. Louis. In 1968, he became only the fourth bowler in history to roll back-to-back 300 games in an ABC-sanctioned league. He added a 225 for a huge (in those days) 825 series.
Steff was a PBA member for many years, but was always too busy running centers or tournaments to become a touring player. He made the TV finals in the 1964 PBA Southern Cal Open, finishing third behind Billy Hardwick and Bud Horn. One of his proudest achievements was his "TV Bowling Tournament" that aired on Los Angeles station KTLA for 344 live shows for more than six years in the 1960s.
His 40-lane Kona Lanes bowling center in Costa Mesa, California was one of the busiest 24-hour facilities anywhere for many years, and it was Steff's innovative management style that made him one of the most successful proprietors in the nation. It was there he met Susie, the love of his life.
Before retiring to Las Vegas, he and his beloved Susie bought a place in the mountains in Big Bear, California, where he ran a lucrative paint contracting business. Vegas was the perfect place for Steff, and he was very happy to be able to keep up with some of the biggest events that visited the bowling hotspot. For CJ and I, dinners with Steff and Susie have been a mainstay of our many trips to Vegas these past years.
In the summer of 2003, Steff was the winner of one of bowling's most prestigious awards—The Sam Levine Flowers for the Living Award. The tradition of the award, which started in 1961, is to keep it a secret until the moment of presentation, and with the help of Susie and the Stoeffler's good friend Sandra Wong, we successfully surprised Steff with the award in front of 1,000 people at Bowl Expo. The other conspirators in the award party were CJ and I, Jim Dressel, and Bob Johnson. It was a wonderful day for all of us. Steff thought he was coming to see Dressel get an award, and he was totally surprised when we turned the tables on him.
Some of the winners of the Flowers Award include Joe Norris, Marion Ladewig, Chuck Pezzano, Dick Weber, Don Carter, Earl Anthony, Chris Schenkel, Joe Lyou, Jeanette Robinson, and Glenn Allison to mention a few, so Steff is in very good company. He sent his typical incredible thank you note to the committee:
He wrote, "I had a modicum of ability on the lanes, and being inducted into two Halls of Fame was great . . . but to be honored by one's peers with the Flowers Award . . . He who simply mangles a typewriter, he who pretty much flunked English in high school and didn't do much better in college . . . THIS was the greatest of all, and a tremendous surprise . . . I can never possibly thank you all enough. My gratitude is unending . . . the ultimate award in a long career. Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Now is the time for us to say thank you. Thank you, Steff, for being a wonderful friend, a mentor, for loving our sport and industry, and for making all of us a little better for having known you. Thank you for making us laugh, even when we didn't feel like laughing.
Fritz Howell, who inspired the creation of the Flowers Award with a poem, wrote another poem called "Musings At 83." Steff didn't quite make it to 83, but I think he would enjoy Howell's words from the first and last two stanzas:
Today I am 83, and of the lessons learned in all those years my faith in two great truths still clings.
Those truths are, nothing matters except the ones we love, nothing is worthwhile except simple things.
I've no desire to be remembered for some astounding deed, or as the hero of some momentous day.
My simple wish, is that sometime, somewhere, someone smiles as he recalls that once I passed this way.
Somewhere, many people are smiling as they recall that Dick Stoeffler passed our way.