Tom credits his father, William Clukay, with introducing him to the sport of bowling.  While still in grade school, his father would take him candlepin bowling from time to time; it was something that both of them enjoyed very much, as it gave them time together doing something both of them loved to do.

In 1971, Tom joined the Keene Junior High School candlepin bowling league being offered by his school; this was Tom's first experienced at organized bowling competition.  During the summer of 1971 however, Tom discovered a new love in the sport of bowling: tenpins.  Tom's father had recently joined a tenpin league of his own, and decided one Sunday afternoon while visiting relatives in Connecticut to take everybody bowling . . . tenpin bowling.  Tom was hooked (no pun intended) from the moment they walked into the bowling center in Vernon, CT, and never looked back.  He joined his first tenpin league as a bantam bowler in 1972, and has been participating in tenpin leagues for the last 33 years.

Career Accomplishments

• Representing the state of New Hampshire at the 1979 All American Youth Bowling Championships in Washington, DC.
   

• Capturing the New Hampshire State Tournament singles and all-events scratch championships his first year of participating in the ABC as an adult.
   

• Capturing the Massachusetts State Tournament singles and all-events scratch championships in 1985.
   

• Setting what was, at the time, a Massachusetts State Tournament scratch record in the 1985 singles event with a 779 series (which has since been broken many times over).
   

• His first 300 game, shot on March 19, 1985 at Playaway Lanes in Winchendon, MA.
   

• Throwing 17 strikes in a row in league in Northampton, Massachusetts.
   

• Meeting a lovely lady named Juanita in the Playaway Classic league, whom he later married.

Thank you, Dad, for teaching me to bowl.  Thank you for blessing me with your love of bowling.  Some of my most cherished memories of us are of our bowling together, and of my getting to watch you bowl in league during school vacation. Thank you for all the Saturday mornings you got up early to cart me to off to junior league, for picking me up when I was done, and for sitting with me and watching the Pro Bowler's Tour on ABC TV when we got home.  I'm sure you didn't know it at the time, but spending this time with you was so special to me; I only wish we could do it again.  I love you, Dad.  I always will.

-- William Michael Clukay (June 24, 1929 - November 13, 1996)