‘SHOCKER’ RETIREMENT Beloved WSU bowling coach, Gordon Vadakin, demanded student-athletes be better all-around people. Better bowling followed naturally.

Storied bowling coach, Gordon Vadakin, pictured with his final collegiate team, the 2018-2019 WSU bowling team

Beloved WSU bowling coach, Gordon Vadakin, demanded student-athletes be better all-around people. Better bowling followed naturally.

By Mark Miller

So synonymous has he been with Wichita State University (WSU) and college bowling, it was hard to comprehend the message Gordon Vadakin posted on Facebook on May 14, 2019, soon after emailing his former student-athletes.

After nearly 46 years at the school and 20 national titles, he told the world he was retiring. He had decided it was time to spend more time with his wife Cindy; his daughter, Andrea, her husband, Raja, and their two children, Ryan and Elora; and son Kenny and his new bride, Cara.

“It’s been an unbelievably fun, awesome ride with our student-athletes and all of our stakeholders for nearly 46 years here at our home — Rhatigan Student Center,” he wrote. “It truly doesn’t feel that long to me, as we’ve been so passionately involved with improving our athletes, our teams, and our program – that looking at calendars didn’t seem very important. I’m excited to be with my family more than I’ve been able to be. Also, Cindy and I have plans to travel a bunch and see things (not just the inside of a bowling center). So basically, just old, retired-guy things.”

Though it was inevitable, the news didn’t seem real. Vadakin is one of those ageless people, destined to coach forever. While nobody could deny that at age 66 he deserves

Gordon Vadakin with wife Cindy

a good retirement, it is just hard to imagine what the bowling world will be like without him. “I think Coach V put so much of himself into the program. He sacrificed so much of himself to his program and his students that I think that became part of him,” said Matt McNiel, a 2015 graduate and part-time pro. “He never viewed it as a job. It was always a labor of love. And I think that’s why he was able to do it for 46 years.

Beyond all of the championships, his true legacy is the many people who have gone on to succeed both on and off the lanes. “You can’t underestimate his influence on the bowling industry,” said PBA and USBC Hall of Famer Chris Barnes, Class of 1992. “Without a doubt, I would not be where I am today or had as successful a run without the choices he made and the help he gave me. I’m just one person out of literally thousands that he’s touched.”

Vadakin always preached the value of the team over the individual and worked with his athletes, not only on their physical games, but their mental game, psychological approaches, and skills that prepared them for life. He prided himself on managing a complete, well-rounded program. “The mental part was staying positive, setting goals, and selfaffirmations,” said 15-time PBA titlist Sean Rash, who bowled at WSU from 2000-2004. “I say things to myself all the time, for example, ‘I want to be a PBA champion,’ ‘I want to be a world champion.’ Those things have gone a long way for [me] and [it] all started in college. A lot of things I do on tour I learned in college.”

Barnes and Rash are among a growing number of his players who have gone on to succeed on the pro tours. Barnes, along with past WSU Shockers Pat Healey Jr., Steve Kloempken, and Rick Steelsmith made the USBC Hall of Fame. But he’s also influenced pro shop and bowling center owners and managers, and others involved in the marketing and design of bowling balls and other equipment: Kloempken is at Storm Products; John Hardman and Russ Wilson are with Jayhawk Bowling Products; David Garber is at I nternational Bowling Industry magazine; and Chrissy Kent owns Rose Bowl Lanes in Newark, NY.

“Obviously he wants everybody to be better bowlers. But it was his focus on being better, period,” Barnes said. “If you’re better at life, you’ll be better at bowling. They’re not separate; they’re related. If you can’t succeed in the classroom and be disciplined to do what you need to do there, then you probably aren’t going to do what you need to do to be successful later on. He set a standard, not only in how he conducted his business, but how he taught his players to conduct theirs.” “Gordon taught me a lot about life — the ups, the downs, and the challenges,” Rash said. “For me, I came from Alaska, so Mom and Dad were a long way from school. Gordon was like a father figure for a long time because I saw him four to five days a week. I had a lot of success before I came to Wichita as a junior player. [When I got to WSU] they tore my game apart, and I was miserable. But he taught me how to persevere through [adversity] and set some goals. It’s just cool to call him a friend.” Vadakin always has kept up with his former players either in person, by telephone, or by text.

Vadakin started at WSU as a player in 1973, then became player-coach for two years and finally the full-time coach and director of the program. “He’s meant so much to the sport and to the lives of his players,” McNiel added. “And it’s not just at WSU. It’s people on Team USA and coaching all over the world. He’s just meant so much to the sport of bowling.”

Kloempken becomes emotional when talking about his former college coach. Kloempken started college part-time at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas while he worked in a pro shop part-time. Kloempken met Vadakin when Vadakin was an assistant coach for Team USA. Vadakin suggested he come to WSU and bowl full-time and go to school full-time which would allow Kloempken to earn his degree much faster. “It ended up being the best decision I ever made,” said

Kloempken, now Storm’s technical director. Kloempken later used the knowledge he gained under Vadakin to open up a pro shop in Wichita and work for Storm, USBC, and Storm again. Without Vadakin’s invitation to come to Wichita, Kloempken might have become a bartender back in Las Vegas.

Holly Hall, a 1993 graduate who bowled as Holly Hampe, used what she learned from Vadakin to earn an industrial engineering degree in the aerospace component manufacturing industry in Wichita.

“He had such a passion for his job that it made me understand I had to have a passion whatever career I was going to be in order to be successful,” said Hall, who is married to former WSU player James Hall.

Had Josh Blanchard not come to Vadakin’s program, he likely

said. “I wanted his opinion, to ask if this was a good choice, a good path.”

“He allows you to be yourself. He doesn’t try to change you,” said Chrissy Kent, co-owner of Rose Bowl Lanes with husband and USBC Hall of Famer Doug Kent. Chrissy originally planned to play tennis at Ferris State University in her native Sturgis, MI, when a knee injury changed those plans. So she followed sister Leslie Bohn, wife of Parker Bohn III, to WSU.

“I guess my comfort with the [WSU] Shocker program and knowing Gordon made it an easy decision,” Kent said. “Being 12-14 hours away from home, he made [me] feel comfortable, and a part of a family like none other.”

Gordon Vadakin’s legacy isn’t just the 20

would not have become a three-time PBA champion, a successful instructor, or co-authored the 2017 book Bowling: Energy in Motion. “I really didn’t know much about the mental game until I got to WSU, and it was one of the reasons I wrote the book all about the psychological side of bowling,” Blanchard said. “He made such an impact on my life for who I am today, not just as a bowling coach, but also a mentor. He looked at the big picture of life [not just that moment]. He made sure I had a career, that I was focused not only on winning the national championships, but doing right by him, the program, and doing well in school.”

Vadakin is a USBC Hall of Famer

One estimate is that there are 24 currently-married couples who bowled for Vadakin, including the Halls and Jake Peters and Melissa Hurst.

“Coach Vadakin will always be one of the most influential men in my life,” said Peters, a 2010 graduate. “He taught me how to plan, prepare, stay in the moment, but also look to the future. Wichita State is like a family, and he’s the head of that family. He made that team a family.”

Vadakin actively plays a role in former student-athletes lives. For example, Russ Wilson became Jayhawk Bowling Products pro shop brand manager in 2006 thanks to his WSU connections. Since then, Wilson has become a Master instructor and president of the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association. “I called Gordon before accepting this job,” Wilson

national titles he brought home to WSU. It’s the Shocker bowling’ program he guided, loved, and transformed into the greatest bowling “family” of all time. ❖

Mark Miller is a freelance writer, editor, and public relations specialist from Flower Mound, TX. He's the author of Bowling: America's Greatest Indoor Pastime available at Amazon.com.