BOTH 96 AND ENERGY TO SPARE.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

They've covered just shy of two centuries between them, and are responsible for scattering more pins than a clumsy seamstress.

Hugh Gaily and Glenn Hammaker, each 96, team up to put an exclamation point behind "senior(!)" in the Eugene-Springfield Bowling Association's Tuesday Afternoon Senior League. They are thought to be the oldest pair of league bowlers in Oregon, if not beyond.

Hammaker, for one, is as surprised as anyone to be part of that footnote. He had no idea when he joined the league about 20 years ago that he'd still be slinging a 15-pound ball heading onto the downhill side of his 10th decade.

"No, I didn't," he says with a twinkle. "I thought I'd be dead."

Gaily is a little more adamant about bowling. In addition to the Tuesday senior league, he bowls in separate leagues on Mondays and Wednesdays.

That's all? Well, not quite.

"There's a group of us that get together to bowl every Thursday at noon," Gaily says.

But that's just for fun - and apparently, for health and longevity.

"A lot of people who retire, they just go downhill because they don't do anything," he says. "I'll bowl as long as I can. It's good exercise, and one nice thing about bowling is you can do it at any age. Anyone can do it.

"My doctor told me, `Go ahead and bowl as long as you can.' '

And he seems to be doing a pretty good job of following doctor's orders.

Gaily and Hammaker aren't alone in their late-life pursuit, either. Amid the hand towels and wrist braces, the slick-bottomed shoes and custom-drilled balls, the Tuesday Afternoon Senior League is generously sprinkled with old-timers.

Entry is limited to those 55 and over. But while no one can recall any others who have bowled into their mid-90s, septuagenarians and even octogenarians aren't entirely uncommon in the mixed league.

"You'd be surprised at us old folks," says Betty Adams, a veteran of seven or eight years in the league. "We've got a couple in here in their 80s. I'm 78, and that's pretty common."

Still, Gaily and Hammaker serve as undeniable inspiration to their younger peers.

"At his age, I'll be lucky to pick the ball up," says 77-year-old Jack Fontaine, as he watches Gaily matter-of-factly pick up a one-pin spare.

Gaily bowled in his first league back in 1940, while living in Pendleton. There was a hiatus from the mid-1960s through the 1970s - he and his wife moved to Eugene in '71 and she passed away in '74.

But he's been a regular in the Eugene leagues since picking up the ball again in 1980.

His best game ever was a 279 (300 is perfect) back in the mid-1950s, and he rolled a 686 for a three-game series at about the same time. Currently, his per-game average is 149 in the Tuesday league and 151 in each of his other two leagues.

"They don't all throw 16-pound balls, but they get those 10 or 11-pound balls to work," says Mike Skinner, who turned 55 just last year - making him a junior member of the league, and an avid admirer of its older stalwarts.

Actually, Hammaker still does throw a 15-pound ball, using a slow but consistently accurate approach. Gaily went to a 10-pound ball a few years ago after falling and breaking his elbow, and he still laments that it doesn't "carry the pins" like the heavier ball of his younger years.

He still commands enough respect to be named the Eugene-Springfield Bowling Association's "senior bowler of the year" for 2000-01, and he was inducted into the organization's hall of fame a year ago.

Gaily admits to "some health problems," but says medications have them well under control.

Even though his skills have slipped a bit, bowling has kept him physically active and stoked an ember of passion within.

"You get older, you lose some of your concentration and some of your coordination," Gaily says. "But I live alone, and bowling is a good pastime."

He and Hammond - both widowers - have maintained their independence, each still driving themselves to the bowling alley. And Hammaker takes pride in mowing his own lawn - both for the self-satisfaction and the exercise.

But the league provides both 96-year-olds the social and recreational outlet they crave, and the time slot they look forward to each week.

"Yeah, I do look forward to it - in the winter," says Hammaker, the twinkle back in his eye. "In the summer, I play golf."

CAPTION(S):

Hugh Gaily (left) chats with Hammaker before matches. Gaily recalls setting pins as a teen during World War I at an alley near Wallowa Lake.