The team shuffles onto the bus outside their senior living community in Tulsa, Okla., wearing game-day jerseys that feature an American flag with white pins and a red bowling ball. They are the U.V. Okies, a local sensation.
Just a half-mile down the road await the underdogs, the Burgundy Place Strikers, who are angling to dash the team’s 8-0 streak.
In this Tulsa-wide league for seniors, the athletes have traded hardwood floors and smooth gutters for the digital lanes of Nintendo Wii Sports bowling.
The Okies — residents of the University Village senior living community — have finished five seasons with a clean sweep and are on yet another winning streak. Would they win this away game against the Strikers, then their final match the following week, to complete a six-peat?
On this recent Thursday in June, their hopes are pinned on Phyllis Wimer, known as Phyllis Killer or Phyllis the GOAT for the many strikes she bowls; Charlene “the Grasshopper” Giles, whose hop gives her some extra oomph as she releases the ball; “Marvelous” Marcia Ness, who describes herself as a “tough old broad,” ready to bowl after recovering from a broken wrist and back; and “Rollin’” Ron Demaree, who grips the lower-left handlebar on his motorized wheelchair to propel himself upward and forward for more power in his roll.
If the Okies are nervous about a possible upset, they aren’t showing it.
“We’re going to go in there and smoke ’em,” “Dandy” Don Alcorn, 73, another teammate, says.
Senior citizens and video games may seem as natural a pairing as Gen Z and paper phone books. But in introducing Wii bowling to their residents nearly 20 years ago, staff at senior communities in Tulsa saw an opportunity to create a league that would bring people together.
When the Okies first joined the city league more than a decade ago, they didn’t win a single match, said Cecelia Basarich, 83, a former University Village resident and player. They began studying the techniques of more successful teams and practiced on dusty Wii consoles resurrected from some of their children’s garages. Residents organized an in-house league that competed for 100 Grand candy bars.
Now, the team has 40 players some seasons, who compete internally for eight spots for each week’s league game.
And while the Okies have become fierce competitors, they play for other reasons, too.
“There are some things I do where I feel ageless,” Ms. Giles, 75, said. She added: “It’s like I could just as well be 13 standing up there. It’s fun to have those things.”
Wii bowling helps them socialize and form friendships, navigate the aches and pains and grief and loss of aging, and encourages them to try new things. “This is the way older people survive,” Pat Winkle, known as “Nana Pat,” 87, said.
Some players also said their bowling triumphs made their children and grandchildren proud.
At Burgundy Place for the second-to-last league game, the home team wore gray team T-shirts, and posters declaring “Love Love Bowling” were plastered on the doors and walls of a recreational room that would serve as the game’s electronic alley.
Mr. Alcorn lined up his shot in the Okies’ virtual lane. His teammates waved blue and red pompoms and shouted, “Show them where you’re from!”
He held out his right arm, his hand wrapped around a Wii Remote, and he leaned slightly to the right. He swung his right arm backward, then forward, his left arm soaring skyward with it.
The synthesized clattering of bowling pins against wood filled the room, and the word “Strike” flashed across the television screen.
When he first started playing, Mr. Alcorn had to unlearn the techniques and stances he knew from real-life bowling.
“That won’t work,” he said. “You’ve got to go up and out to get the strike.”
In front of a second television screen, Ms. Wimer let the ball rip. Eight pins scattered across the digital lane, leaving two standing side-by-side in the corner.
“I knew as soon as I let go of the ball that it wasn’t going to do what I wanted to do,” Ms. Wimer, 95, said before crushing the last two pins for her only spare of the game.
Though they may be dominant on the screen, the Okies are also good sports. Throughout the game, they offered advice to their Burgundy Place rivals and each team cheered for the other’s strikes.
Still, the Okies were ahead, and they needed to maintain their lead over the game’s final round to remain undefeated.
In one lane, Ron Pogue, 82, lifted the remote with both hands out in front of him to steady his shot. He took a deep breath before bending his knees and swinging his right arm back, driving it forward with force.
“Good ball!” his teammates cheered as he hit a strike.
The Okies had secured another victory.
The players congratulated one another, and then Phyllis Killer and Charlene the Grasshopper and Marvelous Marcia and Rollin’ Ron and the rest of the Okies boarded the bus back to University Village.
On Thursday afternoon, the Okies won their final game of the season, ending with a 10-0 record.
Next year, the aging Wii consoles will be retired and the league will switch to another video game system. For now, the U.V. Okies will soak in the glory and pride of another season as the unbeatable senior Wii bowlers of Tulsa.
