Michael Halwe had the misfortune to be really good at bowling. He was good enough to earn a college scholarship. After he left school, he was good enough to be hired by Brunswick to manage a couple of bowling centers. (Please don't call them bowling alleys.) He was good enough to make a living, if barely, on the regional tour, the minor league of professional bowling. Even after he left the tour, bowling was his livelihood.
Now he is on the edge of disaster. Life looks like a 7-10 split.
Halwe is 49 years old, but his story should probably begin when he was 13. He tore up his knee playing football. Until then, he'd been pretty much of an all-sports kid. That's not surprising. His dad was a fine athlete and played briefly in the minor leagues for the Cardinals. But when Halwe tore up his knee, he decided to concentrate on a less strenuous sport. He was good at both golf and bowling. He decided to go with bowling.
He was offered a bowling scholarship to Vincennes University, which, despite its name, is a two-year school. He earned his associate's degree, and was hired by Brunswick to manage a bowling center in the Kansas City area.
He was then offered the general manager position at the old Arena Bowl on Oakland Avenue. That was a 72-lane center, a big deal. Also, it was a chance to come back to the St. Louis area. Halwe was raised in St. Charles.
One of his assistants at Arena was Tom Hennessey, a Hall of a Fame bowler and a former member of the great St. Louis Budweisers. One day Hennessey watched Halwe bowl, and told him he had the potential to make it on the tour. When somebody such as Hennessey says that, it's special.
Halwe got his card and went on the regional tour. He never won a tournament, but he came in third once, and he did well enough to pay his expenses. He appeared briefly on the national tour, but made no money, and decided he had no future in competitive bowling.
"I realized I wasn't going to get any better," he said.
He also injured his back in a car accident. The injury did not require surgery, but Halwe figured his back would not stand up to the rigors of hours of practice for tournaments.
He went back to school. He earned a degree in psychology at UMSL.
But he went back to bowling. Actually, he had never left. For a number of years, he had worked for Twin Bridge Bowling Supply. The company sold balls, shoes, bags and anything else a bowler might need. In 2001, Halwe bought the business.
He could not afford health insurance. In 1990, he had been diagnosed as a diabetic. After that diagnosis, the cost of a policy became prohibitive. In addition, the business was not going well. Too many people were buying directly from the manufacturers on the Internet. There was little need for a middleman. Halwe limped along.
Literally. He limped. He thought he had blood clots in each leg. He occasionally went to a doctor who charged $50 for a visit.
In January, he thought he was having a heart attack. The feeling passed. In February, late at night, the feeling came again. Something was terribly wrong. He couldn't breathe. He was coughing up blood. He crawled to the phone and called 911.
An ambulance rushed him to the hospital. All sorts of tests were done, but no conclusions were reached. There did not seem to be any damage to his heart. For a person with insurance, that would have been that. But Halwe got the bills himself. They come to more than $7,000.
Halwe has no family. He was married briefly to a young woman who died in a car accident less than a year into their marriage. His only sibling, a sister, died of cancer. His parents are dead.
He sold his business a couple of weeks ago, but he didn't net a whole lot. He doesn't have much in savings. Bowling has provided a livelihood, but that's it.
I asked about Medicaid. He said he'll have to look into that. He has never applied for any kind of government assistance. He said he'd much rather get a job.
"I just don't know what I can do," he said. "I'm not trained in anything. I was a manager in the days before computers. I've been selling bowling supplies for a long time. I'm an expert in a dying business."
