{"id":116389,"date":"2026-01-29T15:57:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116389\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:57:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:57:29","slug":"this-crown-heights-bowler-is-still-rolling-strong-at-85-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116389\/","title":{"rendered":"This Crown Heights bowler is still rolling strong at 85 \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Sam\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sam Quaglierini, an 85-year-old bowler and Crown Heights resident, bowled a 300 game in December. <\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Woodmere Lanes and Google Maps<\/p>\n

At 85, Crown Heights<\/a> 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<\/a> in Woodmere, New York, he added another remarkable chapter to that routine: his 11th perfect 300 game.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Though he loved sports growing up, bowling became central later in life. He returned to the sport seriously in 1988 and didn\u2019t roll his first perfect game until his mid-60s.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get my first 300 until I was 66 years old,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything happened for me in bowling, for the most part in my sixties and on up.\u201d<\/p>\n

That love for the game extends beyond the pain. Known at Woodmere Lanes as the \u201cSilver Fox,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Quaglierini, the bowler known as the \u201cSilver Fox,\u201d found his stride in the sport later in life.Photo courtesy of Woodmere Lanes<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many young people, it is wonderful just to go out for a social night of bowling with your friends, and you don\u2019t have to score high. It\u2019s a fun thing. You eat, you drink,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

A perfect game and a community celebration<\/p>\n

The December 300 game came during the third game of league play \u2014 an unusual moment even for seasoned bowlers.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always exciting,\u201d Quaglierini said. \u201cIt\u2019s my 11th one. And they\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

As word spread through the alley, play came to a halt. Bowlers gathered behind him, watching every frame.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody stopped bowling to watch me bowl, trying to get the 300,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then, and then someone with a camera was taking a picture of it, and I ended up on YouTube<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSam is one of the sweetest guys you will ever meet,\u201d Paxinos said. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing made the moment even more remarkable.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe basically just came back before he shot the 300,\u201d she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Paxinos said Quaglierini appeared calm as the strikes piled up.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe honestly didn\u2019t even seem nervous while he was bowling,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was, you know, just going up, throwing the ball just like normal, and it just happened for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the final pin fell, the reaction was immediate.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody went to hug him,\u201d she said. \u201cThe bowling alley is a very community-based thing, so everybody was there just cheering him on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Staying active, on the lanes and beyond<\/p>\n

Away from the lanes, Quaglierini\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

On some days, that means softball in the morning and bowling at night, with hours of driving in between.
\n\"WoodmereQuaglierini, the 85-year-old bowler, makes the trek to Long Island from Brooklyn multiple times a week to for his bowling league. During the softball season, he goes multiple times a day.Photo courtesy of Google Maps\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI go play ball at seven or eight o\u2019clock in the morning and play until about 12 or one o\u2019clock,\u201d he said. \u201cThen I come back home and go out that evening back out to Long Island to bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxinos agrees that his story carries a lesson beyond bowling scores.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are never too old to start trying something,\u201d she said. \u201cHe just does what he wants to do. So I would say never give up the things you want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Quaglierini has no plans to stop his schedule anytime soon, he is clear about why he keeps going.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be active, you know, even if you are older; you can be active if you choose to be active,\u201d he said. \u201cNot only that, it rejuvenates you in a sense that, uh, it keeps you going, and you meet wonderful people in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Quaglierini, an 85-year-old bowler and Crown Heights resident, bowled a 300 game in December. Photo courtesy of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[26035,98,100,99,102,776,9,24,12,370,63,51496,319,51497],"class_list":{"0":"post-116389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-bowling","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-crown-heights","13":"tag-long-island","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newsletter","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-sam-quaglierini","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-woodmere"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}