The timeless and undefeated champions of the Tulsa Wii Bowling League
The team shuffles onto the bus outside the senior living complex in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wearing game day jerseys featuring an American flag with white pins and a red bowling ball. They are the UV Okies, a local sensation.
Just half a mile away awaits the underdogs, the Burgundy Place Strikers, looking to erase the team’s 8-0 streak.
In this Tulsa-wide league for seniors, athletes have traded hardwood floors and smooth gutters for the digital lanes of Nintendo Wii Sports Bowling.
The Okies – residents of the University Village senior living community – have completed five clean sweep seasons and are on another winning streak. Would they win this away game against the Strikers and then their final game the following week to complete a six-goal haul?
On this last Thursday in June, their hopes rest on Phyllis Wimer, also known as Phyllis Killer or Phyllis the GOAT because of the number of strikes she throws. Charlene “the Grasshopper” Giles, whose hop gives her extra momentum when she releases the ball; “Wonderful” Marcia Ness, who describes herself as a “tough old woman” ready to bowl after recovering from a broken wrist and back; and “Rollin'” Ron Demaree, who holds onto the lower left handlebar of his motorized wheelchair to move up and forward for more power when rolling.
If the Okies are nervous about a potential surprise, they don’t show it.
“We go in there and smoke them,” says “Dandy,” Don Alcorn, 73, another teammate.
Seniors and video games seem to be as natural a combination as Generation Z and paper phone books. But when Tulsa senior community staff introduced Wii bowling to their residents nearly 20 years ago, they saw an opportunity to create a league that would bring people together.
When the Okies first joined the city league more than a decade ago, they didn’t win a single game, said Cecelia Basarich, 83, a former University Village resident and player. They began studying the techniques of more successful teams, practicing on dusty Wii consoles found in some of their children’s garages. The residents organized an internal league that competed for 100 Grand candy bars.
In some seasons the team now consists of 40 players who fight internally for eight places in the weekly league game.
And while the Okies have become strong contenders, they also play for other reasons.
“There are some things I do that make me feel ageless,” said Ms Giles, 75. She added: “It’s like I might as well be 13 up there. It’s fun to have those things.”
Wii Bowling helps them socialize and make friends, cope with the pain, grief and loss of aging, and encourages them to try new things. “This is how older people survive,” said Pat Winkle, known as “Nana Pat,” 87.
Some players also said their bowling triumphs made their children and grandchildren proud.
At the penultimate league game at Burgundy Place, the home team wore gray team T-shirts and posters reading “Love Love Bowling” were plastered on the doors and walls of a lounge that would serve as the game’s electronic lane.
Mr. Alcorn lined up his shot in the Okies’ virtual lane. His teammates waved blue and red pom-poms and shouted, “Show them where you come from!”
He extended his right arm, hand wrapped around a Wii remote, and leaned slightly to the right. He swung his right arm back, then forward, his left arm floating into the sky.
The synthetic clatter of bowling pins on wood filled the room, and the word “Strike” flashed across the television screen.
When he started playing, Mr. Alcorn had to unlearn the techniques and stances he knew from real bowling.
“This won’t work,” he said. “You have to go up and down to get the strike.”
In front of a second television screen, Ms. Wimer let the ball crash. Eight pins are scattered across the digital track, two are next to each other in the corner.
“As soon as I let go of the ball, I knew it wasn’t going to do what I wanted it to do,” Ms. Wimer, 95, said before smashing the final two pins for her only spare of the match.
Even though they are dominant on screen, the Okies are also good athletes. Throughout the game they gave advice to their rivals at Burgundy Place and each team celebrated the other’s goals.
Still, the Okies were ahead and had to maintain their lead in the final round of play to remain undefeated.
On one track, 82-year-old Ron Pogue raised the remote control in front of him with both hands to steady his shot. He took a deep breath before bending his knees, swinging his right arm back and forcing it forward.
“Good ball!” His teammates cheered as he threw a punch.
The Okies had clinched another victory.
The players congratulated each other, and then Phyllis Killer and Charlene the Grasshopper and Marvelous Marcia and Rollin’ Ron and the rest of the Okies boarded the bus back to University Village.
