Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Stu (left) and Alex (right) Dager take turns bowling during their weekly league bowling night on Tuesday at Champion Lanes in Champion.

CHAMPION — For Cortland residents Stu and Alex Dager, bowling has long been a family pastime.

The father-son duo have bowled together in adult leagues in the Warren area for years. But on April 15, they each bowled their best on the same night.

Stu, 64, rolled a perfect 300 in the first game for their team Dager’s Lands. Then his son, Alex, 34, stepped up and duplicated the feat, bowling another perfect 300 immediately afterwards in the second game during their weekly league bowling night at Champion Lanes.

“We’ve been a bowling family since I was a little kid, so bowling has always been a part of what we do in every winter bowling league,” Alex said. “They say 300 is the ultimate goal of what you’re doing, and to have both of us be able to do it on the same day was really special.”

Although they have different bowling approaches, they still were able to achieve the same perfect result.

“I’m an old man, so I throw a slow ball,” Stu said with a smile. “(Alex) throws it hard. He’s a young guy, so a heavier ball and a harder, faster ball. I can’t do that anymore.”

It was the 13th perfect 300 game that Stu has bowled and the seventh that Alex has bowled during their lifetimes.

Submitted photo
Stu (left) and Alex. (Dager) pose together after they each bowled a 300 during their weekly league bowling night on April 15 at Champion Lanes in Champion.

Alex said he was happy for his father when he witnessed him finish off the 300 in the first game. Then in the second game, Alex started off bowling strikes and maintained that momentum throughout.

“It’s all feeling and knowing the lanes and getting the right ball for the lanes,” Stu said. “Once you get lined up, it’s a matter of carrying and drawing good shots because you get lucky sometimes. Usually you have to get some lucky ones in there.”

However, the more strikes Alex bowled, the more the pressure started to build in the last couple frames, he said.

“Usually when you’re bowling a 300, most people stop,” Alex said. “It was definitely different because everyone knew my dad just bowled one, and the whole 10th frame, all the last three strikes, nobody was bowling. So it was just me out there and everyone was watching. I could definitely feel the eyes in the back of my head, but it was exciting.”

After that 12th and final strike fell, Alex said it was more of a feeling of relief that he pulled it off and capitalized on the opportunity.

“I was more happy for him because the pressure was on him,” Stu said. “I’ve never heard of it happening before — pretty rare, even though families do bowl together. But now bowlers are getting better and better, so I’m sure it happens more than it did back in the day. I’m getting to be an old man, but I was so excited for him because he was happy.”

Stu first picked up bowling in his early 20s when he was dating his future wife. She bowled all the time, and instead of just watching her bowl, he figured he might as well join in.

“I didn’t bowl until I met her,” Stu said. “We bowled in mixed leagues together on the weekend for many years. That was fun.”

That led to Stu teaching Alex and his other siblings, Chad and Sara, to bowl when they were young.

“I think me and my siblings all got bowling balls when we were like 10 for Christmas or some sort of present,” Alex said. “Then from there, we just got involved in leagues when we were younger, and then it started turning into bowling with your siblings. Then as we got older, we started bowling with my dad in these leagues.”

As a result, the Dagers have always been a bowling family.

But, the back-to-back 300s aside, more than anything, Stu and Alex are just glad that they’re able to spend their weekly league bowling nights together.

“We bowl every week, and my dad and I bowl on the same team. My uncle’s on the team too,” Alex said. “It’s a way to get everybody together and allows us to spend time together.”