Q&A with Chris Aker, 900-series bowler

Chris Aker says he always wanted to "make some sort of mark in bowling, and I always thought I would." The 47-year-old, who graduated from Brooklyn Center High School in 1981 and now lives in Winnemucca, Nev., certainly did that.

A little over a week ago, bowling in sanctioned league play, the lefthanded Aker -- who has an average over 230 -- rolled a 900 series. That's three perfect 300 games in a row -- 36 consecutive beautiful strikes. Even during an era when synthetic lanes and better ball technology have made such series less rare, the thought of it is still enough to dazzle almost anyone who has rolled a few games on a weekend night.

Aker, a self-described huge Vikings fan who still considers Minnesota "home," took time recently to speak with the Star Tribune's Michael Rand about the accomplishment.

Q Did you ever imagine you could do this?

A No, not really. It was one of those things where I knew it was possible but I certainly wouldn't have bet any money on it. Know what I mean? There's just so much darn luck involved. One bad break can ruin it. I'd had about 10 sanctioned 300s before, but nothing that would even come close to approaching this. The next day, a buddy of mine and I hopped on the Internet and found there had only been like 12 or 13 other sanctioned 900 series before. I guess it's actually a pretty big deal.

Q What kind of bowling alley are we talking about?

A Spare Time Bowl in Winnemucca, Nevada. It's a small house with 12 lanes. Being that I've been bowling here for 10 years and I also run a little pro shop on the side, I pretty much know everybody at the alley.

Q Was there a pretty good crowd gathering for it, despite the small size of the place?

A I shot 300 the first game, and everyone was happy about it. Personally, I've shot a few over the years, so I really wanted to keep going. When I got to the end of the second game, people really started noticing. The third game, pretty much every shot I took everybody there was watching. The cool part was I was bowling with my wife [Ellen]. Usually when I get close to 300, she goes and hides in the bar because she gets so nervous. She happened to be bowling on the team, a mixed league. She saw the whole darn thing, which is pretty cool.

Q Any close calls along the way?

A I got to maybe the sixth frame of the last game. After that, I said, "I'm starting to think about this too much." I had to go sit at the bar between shots. ... In the 11th, I choked so bad. That's been the toughest shot in all my 300 games. I tugged it. I spun around and right when I turned, I saw I tugged so bad that it went to other side [of the head pin] and they fell. I'll probably only throw three Brooklyns all year. But that took the heat off the last shot. I sped it up a little bit, blew them all over.

Q What's your bowling background?

A I started bowling when I was 12 in 1974 at a place called Beacon Bowl in Brooklyn Center, which is not even there anymore. ... I went to Washington State University and bowled there. was looking forward at that point to going on tour after college. I had people in Seattle talking about sponsoring me. But in December of 1989, I was rear-ended in a car accident. I had to have surgery, I missed the rest of the season and lost my sponsors. That was kind of the end of that. I came to Winnemucca in 1999, got on with the police department, and in 2006 I opened my own pro shop. The ball that I threw [in the 900 series] was the very first ball I drilled back in 2006.