Anaconda bowler earns spot in HOF: Contributions to sport land Sandi Beaudette in Friday's induction class

Mar 27, 2009 (The Montana Standard - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- UBWL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Being able to beat a good many of the women on the bowling lanes wasn't always just the case for Anaconda resident Sandi Beaudette. One state tournament saw her beat the men, too.

Beaudette is one of four bowlers headed for induction Friday night into the Montana USBC (United States Bowling Congress) Hall of Fame. The festivities will help launch the annual tournament, which will be held weekends through the end of May in Anaconda. Team event will be shot at Cedar Park Lanes with doubles and singles at the Copper City Bowl. First shifts are to toe the line at 9 and 9:15 a.m. on Saturday.

Butte woman Dolores Atchison and the Thompson Falls couple of Robert and Alice Nash are also to join the Hall of Fame on Friday night.

Of Beaudette's many accomplishments, one in a previous Anaconda tournament might be her most memorable.

"I bowled in the state Elks tournament and Milo Manning needed a doubles partner," she said. "At that time, the women had their own tournaments and so if you bowled in a men's event, you had to bowl all your events in the men's division. So, I had to bowl in the men's singles because I entered doubles as a man's partner, as Milo Manning's partner." They placed, but she was identified as a man in the local newspaper report, Beaudette said with a laugh.

Beaudette began bowling in 1956 as a sophomore in high school in Missoula. She joined the Women's International Bowling Congress as a league bowler in 1964, still in Missoula, but soon married Stan Beaudette and moved to Anaconda, in 1967. Now 67 years old, she has bowled most of the years since joining a league, but did take a few years off while rearing a family. She and Stan have two sons, Jason and Jesse, both grown and now both living in Missoula. Jesse Beaudette, too, is an avid and accomplished bowler and packs a plus-200 average.

"I bowl once a week, now, in the Masters league at Copper Bowl," Sandi Beaudette said minutes before she was to go do that Tuesday evening.

The highest average Beaudette carried for a season was a 187 and her highest game shot, to date, was a 274. Her best series has been a 673.

"A couple of years ago, I was bowling twice a week," Beaudette said, "Friday nights and then Tuesdays at the Copper Bowl." She has competed in many state tournaments, been to a few national events and has been a fierce competitor at the local and regional level. She was the state all-events handicap champion in 1977 when the tourney was held in Butte, scoring 1,598 total pins.

"I only had a 135 average at the time," she said with a chuckle.

Her team won the state championship in 2000 while posting the high scratch game and the high handicap series. Beaudette's team won the Division I crown at the 2002 state tournament and placed third in the handicap standings. She and Manning took third place in the state mixed doubles meet of 1995.

Beaudette was elected to the Anaconda Women's Bowling Hall of Fame in 1997.

City competition saw Beaudette win in doubles with Nilda Zacher, triumph in handicap all events, place third in singles and, just this year, help her outfit capture the team championship, highlighting her many crowns earned.

"I may be over the hill, but I'm not dead," she cracked.

In all, Beaudette has competed in 107 tournaments at the city, national, seniors and mixed classifications.

An injury two years ago forced Beaudette temporarily to the sidelines and she laments that the average has dropped a bit. She returned to the lanes last September.

"My average is still down," she said. "I need to work out with the weights and get the speed up on the ball again." She credited her husband and family with being understanding and allowing her to pursue the hobby, the sport.

"My husband was very understanding about all the bowling all over the state in the women's competitions and with Milo Manning, Eddie Strommen, Cliff Johnson and Kermit Ulstad, before he hurt his knee, in the other competitions," Sandi Beaudette said. "Sundays were completely gone to it. The kids got dragged to it, to the bowling alley. And once Stan retired, he started traveling with me, too." Recently, Beaudette still was a traveling bowler in a seniors tour that involved monthly stops in Butte, Dillon, Helena, Bozeman and Anaconda.

She has also been a contributor on the other side of the game, the giving-back part.

"Oh, I've been involved in all aspects," Beaudette said. "Cliff Johnson (Copper City Bowl owner) needed a juniors coach and so sent me to coaches class." Beaudette also became a lane inspector, helped organize and served as secretary for a women's traveling league, was he city women's bowling treasurer, served as the Anaconda association president numerous years, was a longtime member of the city board of directors and has been the president and secretary of many leagues over the years. She coached the Copper City Bowl kids' programs for 19 years and hauled them to bowling tournaments "all over the place." Beaudette helped run city tournaments, worked on state open and mixed tournaments, and sold ads in the program for the annual Elks tournament.

"When I'd walk into the business places, they'd just ask 'how much is it going to cost me this time?'" Beaudette remembered. "One guy was across the street when I was out selling ads and he yelled over to ask what I was doing. He then told me come see him at a specific time on a specific time. Everybody was nice and gracious.

"Only one ever turned me down flat. After the smelter shut down in '81, you'd expect it to lack off, but Anaconda businesses were all very good about it. I think, too, they realized (the tournament) was brining people in and helping out businesses." That Beaudette still bowls is probably what she likes best about the sport.

"It's an activity you can continue throughout your whole life," she said. "You can start it when you're 3 and, hopefully, still do it when your a hundred-and-something. You get to know a lot of very nice people from the state and other states n nice, interesting people." She does have yet one more goal.

"Every year, at the state tournament, the Grand Duchess is honored as the oldest woman bowling participant," Beaudette said. "I want to be that one year, and I want it to be when I'm 100 if I can live that long."

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