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. 
 

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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.