B’nai B’rith Bowling 
Leagues in the Gutter 
Because of COVID-19
History has been made in the 
Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson and 
Downtown Fox-MLZG B’nai B’rith 
bowling leagues. But it’s not the 
kind of history the weekly leagues 
want repeated.
For this first time in each 
league’s long existence, the season 
has been canceled.
Blame the COVID-19 pandemic, 
of course.
Capacity and other restrictions 
placed on bowling alleys by the 
Michigan Department of Health and 
Human Services to stop the spread 

of the virus made it impossi-
ble for the leagues to operate 
normally, but there was a more 
important reason for the cancel-
lations.
Several bowlers in each 
league — at least eight or nine 
in Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson 
and an undetermined number in 
Downtown Fox-MLZG — have been 
infected by the virus.
Nobody wanted to take the 
chance of turning a fun, competitive 
night of bowling into the source of 
a virus outbreak.
“Too much risk,” said Gary 
Klinger, spokesman for the 
Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson 
league, when asked why the 
league’s board canceled the sea-
son in December.
“It was the right decision,” Klinger 
said about the board’s call.

Justin Kaplan, president of the 
Downtown Fox-MLZG league, said 
it would have been irresponsible 
for the league to have 70-plus 
members of the community bowling 
weekly inside a building.
“It’s our duty and responsibility 
to the community to keep everyone 
safe,” Kaplan said. “As much as I 
want to be bowling, and I’m sure 
the league members feel the same, 
we have to wait until it’s safe to do 
so.”
Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson 
league competition was tenta-
tively scheduled to begin Jan. 4 
and continue each Monday night 
at Country Lanes in Farmington 
Hills, the league’s longtime home 
before moving to the 300 Bowl in 
Waterford the past two seasons.
No opening date was set for the 
Downtown Fox-MLZG league. It 

planned to bowl Tuesday nights at 
its regular home, Hartfield Lanes in 
Berkley.
Each league saw its 2019-20 
season end early because of the 
pandemic.
It was the 59th season for the 
Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson 
league. The Downtown Fox league 
has been around for more than 100 
years.
The last Brotherhood-Eddie 
Jacobson bowling night of the 
2019-20 season was March 9. Five 
weeks of regular-season compe-
tition and three weeks of playoffs 
remained for the 18 teams.
There were 16 teams in the 
Downtown Fox-MLZG league when 
it shut down in March.
If all goes well, each league 
hopes to resume competition in the 
fall. 

quick hits
BY STEVE STEIN 

sports HIGHlights

NMLS#2289
brought to you in partnership with 

Beloved softball and hockey player has survived brain 
surgeries, cancer, COVID-19, mass shooting and a tornado.

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Nothing Stops Brad Kallen

I

f there’s anyone who has the 
right to say, “Why me?” it’s 
Brad Kallen.
The 50-year-old West 
Bloomfield resident has under-
gone brain surgery at Henry 
Ford Hospital twice — in 2017 
and Jan. 4 — to 
remove a benign 
tumor, a Stage 2 
meningioma.
He underwent 
surgery for bladder 
cancer six years ago 
at the University of 
Michigan Hospital and is can-
cer-free.
He was taken down for a few 
weeks in November by a nasty 
case of the COVID-19 virus.
“Brad’s symptoms ran the 
gamut,
” said his mother, famed 
boxing manager Jackie Kallen.
“He wasn’t able to taste or 
smell, he had a fever, he vomited, 
he was lethargic,
” she said.

In 2017, Brad and a few 
friends were in Las Vegas and 
found themselves near a mass 
shooting at a country music fes-
tival at the Mandalay Bay resort 
and casino that killed 59 and 
injured 527.
After hearing gunshots, Jackie 
Callan said, Brad and his friends 
saw people running from the 
shooting scene.
Brad ran with the crowd, then 
hid in a clump of bushes. He was 
separated from his friends, but 
he caught up with them later.
In 1976, when Brad was 6 
years old, every window in the 
Kallen house in West Bloomfield 
was blown out by a tornado.
“It was at 7:15 p.m., March 
20, 1976. I’ll never forget it. 
We all ran downstairs just in 
time,
” Jackie Kallen said. “Junk 
flew into the house from every 
direction. We had to move out 
temporarily.
”

Also that year, Brad under-
went surgery for a double hernia.
Through it all, Brad hasn’t 
stopped smiling. He’s relied on a 
positive attitude and love for his 
family — his wife, Molly, their 
three children ages 8-12, two 
dogs, two cats, a hamster and a 
goldfish — to pull him through 
each crisis.
“Brad doesn’t complain. He 
takes his lemons and makes lem-
onade, always with a smile. He’s 
a survivor,
” Jackie Kallen said.
In 2014, three years before 
his first brain surgery, Brad 
was named the recipient of the 
Inter-Congregational Men’s Club 
Summer Softball League’s Jeff 
Fox Sportsmanship Award.
He was nominated for the 
prestigious award by a unani-
mous vote of his Temple Israel 
No. 3 teammates.
“That’s because Brad is self-
less,
” said Temple Israel No. 3 

Brad Kallen scores a run for 

Temple Israel No. 3 during an 

Inter-Congregational Men’s Club 

Summer Softball League game.

CHUCK FRIEDMAN

Brad Kallen

BRAD KALLEN

26 | JANUARY 21 • 2021