Wyandot Sports Hall of Fame

Dennis Eyestone is a 1965 graduate of Upper Sandusky High School and earned his BBA from Ohio University in 1969. Although Eyestone was halfback for the Upper Sandusky Rams football team and was a member of the Rams’ baseball squad, it wasn’t until he was in his 30s when he started to make sports history in Upper Sandusky and Wyandot County.

On October 24, 1978, Eyestone became the first person in Upper Sandusky in 37 years to roll a perfect 300 game when he fashioned 12 strikes in-a-row at Wyandot Lanes, also a first at the local bowling establishment. Eyestone has estimated, that between the late Howard Guthrie's 300 game at the former house above Pfeifer’s Hardware and his feat, more than one million league games had been bowled in Upper Sandusky. The Daily Chief-Union named Eyestone’s feat the ‘Sports Story of the Year’ in 1978.

Although the feat was huge for Eyestone, who throws from the left side, he didn’t stop there. During a stretch between 1980 and 1982, Eyestone was especially hot. He rolled 300 games in 1980, 1981 and 1982. Two of these 300 games came when he wasn’t scheduled to bowl but filled in as a substitute. But what may be one of his proudest moments, Eyestone combined for an 800 series on March 7, 1980, when he totaled a three-game series with scores of 245, 280 and 279 for an 804 series total. The series was the first of its kind in Wyandot County bowling history, rolling 28 strikes out of a possible 36.

Eyestone, whose favorite quote is “I'd rather be lucky than good”, added to his legacy with another 300 game in 1986 and rolled his sixth and final 300 game in 1991, giving him 300 games in three different decades. Over the course of his bowling career (which started in 1962 in a USHS after school bowling league), Eyestone had on seven occasions thrown the first nine strikes in a game and was fortunate enough to finish six of those off for perfect games.

Eyestone has acquired many other bowling achievements — winning and placing in District Bowling Association tournaments, numerous appearances in the former RC Invitational Tournament; a runner-up finish in the Wyandot County Invitational and is a member of the Wyandot Lanes Hall of Fame. His records have since been broken by the younger generation of bowlers but his legacy of transforming bowling from a recreational sport to a competitive one will be remembered.

Eyestone retired as a manufacturing manager in 2010 and currently bides his time as a substitute teacher for area schools. His family includes wife Becky; stepdaughter Dawn (Rick) Roberts, stepson Jake (Talia) Parsell and daughter Denise (Tom) Karcher; and seven grandchildren.