42 | DECEMBER 5 • 2024 J
N
A
geless wonder Mort
Friedman has done it again.
The 88-year-old
Waterford resident won three gold
medals in senior competitions
this summer and fall, giving him
a total of 38 medals in bowling
and softball at the Michigan
Senior Olympics, National Senior
Games and Huntsman World
Senior Games in the more than 30
years he’s been competing in the
prestigious competitions.
This year’s medals came in
bowling.
He won gold medals in singles
and doubles in the 85-89 age group
in July at the Michigan Senior
Olympics at Woodland Lanes in
Livonia, qualifying in both events
for the National Senior Games
next year in Des Moines, Iowa, and
setting a state record in doubles
with Joe Saikowski of Fraser, his
doubles partner for several years.
They combined for an 1186 total
in three games, breaking their old
state record of 926 shot in 2022.
The two also hold the state
record in doubles for the 80-84 age
group.
Friedman and Saikowski are both
88 and southpaws. Who’s older?
Friedman, by about a month.
Friedman headed out to the
Huntsman World Senior Games in
St. George, Utah, in October and
bowled in tough conditions at the
historic Dixie Lanes, which still has
above-ground ball returns.
He rolled 549 in three games
at Dixie Lanes and won the
gold medal among 18 singles
competitors in the 85-89 age
division.
The 549 total would have earned
Friedman a silver medal in singles
the 55-59 age division, only 20 pins
behind the gold medal winner.
Friedman doesn’t play softball
anymore, but not because he can’t.
It’s because there are so few 85-and-
older teams. He still plays golf.
The former Professional Bowlers
Association Senior Tour (now
PBA50 Tour) bowler is the oldest
bowler this season in the weekly
Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson B’nai
B’rith Bowling League.
A few weeks ago, he rolled a 227
in the league at Country Lanes in
Farmington Hills. A fellow league
bowler complimented him on the
score, saying it was great for an
80-year-old.
“I’m 88,” Friedman told his
astonished conversation partner.
Friedman also bowls in the
weekly Senior Classic Trio League,
a 50-and-over league at the 300
Bowl in Waterford. His team is
called the Bionic Knees because all
three team members have had both
knees replaced.
Friedman had his left knee then
his right knee replaced 17 and 18
years ago.
“Both knees were bone on bone
from years of bowling and playing
softball,” he said.
Those surgeries, which he said
made his knees feel like new, are a
major reason for Friedman’s ability
to still compete at a high level at
his age.
“Plus, I’m very fortunate. I have
good genes,” he said. “I’m also
not a drinker or a smoker. I don’t
drink coffee, and I’ve always been
athletic.”
When Friedman bowled a 300 in
1957, it was believed to be the first
sanctioned perfect game rolled by a
Jewish bowler in Michigan.
He helped the University of
Michigan bowling team win the Big
Ten tournament in 1959 and won
the Big Ten doubles title.
He bowled a 300-257-297 — 854
series in 1997. That was the highest
series rolled by a Jewish bowler in
the state before Aaron Radner beat
that with an 858 a few years ago.
Friedman started working in the
construction industry in 1961. He
retired just last year as president of
Mort Friedman Construction, a job
he held for 52 years.
A graduate of Detroit Cass
Tech High School, he attended
the University of Michigan and
Lawrence Tech University in
Southfield before joining the Naval
Air Force Reserve for a two-year
stint.
Send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.
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SUBMITTED PHOTO
Senior athlete extraordinaire
Mort Friedman won three gold medals
at two competitions this year.
88 and Still Great
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
Mort Friedman
shows off his
2024 Huntsman
World Senior
Games gold
medal.