At 85, Crown Heights resident and longtime bowler Sam Quaglierini still bowls four nights a week, manages a senior softball team, and drives back and forth between Brooklyn and Long Island on days that would exhaust people decades younger. Last month, at Woodmere Lanes in Woodmere, New York, he added another remarkable chapter to that routine: his 11th perfect 300 game.
Bowling has been a constant through the many chapters of his life in Brooklyn. Born and raised in Crown Heights, Quaglierini spent most of his life in the borough, with a brief period on Staten Island before returning, remarrying, and settling back into the neighborhood he has always called home.
Though he loved sports growing up, bowling became central later in life. He returned to the sport seriously in 1988 and didn’t roll his first perfect game until his mid-60s.
“I didn’t get my first 300 until I was 66 years old,” he said. “Everything happened for me in bowling, for the most part in my sixties and on up.”
That love for the game extends beyond the pain. Known at Woodmere Lanes as the “Silver Fox,” Quaglierini spoke at length about the camaraderie, competition, and nuances of bowling, describing lane oil patterns, ball composition, and why the sport is often misunderstood.
“For many young people, it is wonderful just to go out for a social night of bowling with your friends, and you don’t have to score high. It’s a fun thing. You eat, you drink,” he said.
“And if you really care for the game and want to do better and learn more, then you get more serious with the game. You get your own bowling ball. You get your own bowling equipment fitted to your hand.”
A perfect game and a community celebration
The December 300 game came during the third game of league play — an unusual moment even for seasoned bowlers.
“It’s always exciting,” Quaglierini said. “It’s my 11th one. And they’re always exciting because, in this case, uh, the difference is, the first game I bowled a 265. And then I bowled 199, the second game. And then I bowled 300 in the third, which is unusual.”
As word spread through the alley, play came to a halt. Bowlers gathered behind him, watching every frame.
“Everybody stopped bowling to watch me bowl, trying to get the 300,” he said. “And then, and then someone with a camera was taking a picture of it, and I ended up on YouTube.”
Among those watching was 23-year-old Arianna Paxinos, one of his fellow league bowlers, who described Quaglierini as a beloved fixture at the lanes.
“Sam is one of the sweetest guys you will ever meet,” Paxinos said. “He has had a hard year. His wife passed away in August, one of his best friends passed away that we also bowled with and he actually had surgery two months ago and was out for a month of bowling.”
The timing made the moment even more remarkable.
“He basically just came back before he shot the 300,” she said.
Paxinos said Quaglierini appeared calm as the strikes piled up.
“He honestly didn’t even seem nervous while he was bowling,” she said. “He was, you know, just going up, throwing the ball just like normal, and it just happened for him.”
When the final pin fell, the reaction was immediate.
“Everybody went to hug him,” she said. “The bowling alley is a very community-based thing, so everybody was there just cheering him on.”
Staying active, on the lanes and beyond
Away from the lanes, Quaglierini’s schedule rivals that of athletes half his age. He plays softball twice a week in Long Island, serving as player-manager in a 70-and-over league that plays roughly 60 games a year.
On some days, that means softball in the morning and bowling at night, with hours of driving in between.
“I go play ball at seven or eight o’clock in the morning and play until about 12 or one o’clock,” he said. “Then I come back home and go out that evening back out to Long Island to bowl.”
Paxinos agrees that his story carries a lesson beyond bowling scores.
“You are never too old to start trying something,” she said. “He just does what he wants to do. So I would say never give up the things you want to do.”
While Quaglierini has no plans to stop his schedule anytime soon, he is clear about why he keeps going.
“You can be active, you know, even if you are older; you can be active if you choose to be active,” he said. “Not only that, it rejuvenates you in a sense that, uh, it keeps you going, and you meet wonderful people in the process.”
