USBC bowler collapses and dies shortly after third perfect game

PORTAGE, Mich. - A bowler collapsed and died at a bowling alley shortly after rolling the third perfect game of his life.

Ed Lorenz, 69, bowled a 300 on Wednesday in his first league game of the night at Airway Lanes. When the retiree got up to bowl in the fifth frame of his second game, he clutched his chest and fell over, and efforts to revive him failed. The cause of death wasn't immediately known.

"If he could have written a way to go out, this would be it," said Johnny D. Masters, who was bowling with Lorenz.

Lorenz bowled in four Kalamazoo-area leagues and had been bowling since 1957. Since 2002, his bowling achievements include three 300 games, a 299 game, two 298 games, two games of 11 strikes in a row and two 800 series. Lorenz ended last season with a 223 average.

In May, Lorenz was inducted into the Kalamazoo Metro Bowling Association Hall of Fame.