Pro bowler beat long odds in return to tour

Victoria Sun

Monday, Jan. 22, 2001 | 9:46 a.m.

When PBA Tour bowler Eric Forkel gets up each day, his back aches.

Forkel still can't get up too quickly from a seated or resting position, make any sudden movements with his head or bend his neck back to look up without experiencing vertigo.

For Forkel, having chronic back problems and having to be more careful when he moves are two inconveniences he can handle.

He's fortunate he can even walk these days, much less bowl.

Forkel is one of 91 bowlers competing this week at the Orleans Casino Open that began this morning with qualifying rounds.

"I guess my goal is to become competitive out here again," he said Sunday morning after warming up. "I don't feel like I'm competitive out here again yet.

"The guys who I admire and respect, they still kick my tail every week and it's a little frustrating. So I'm trying to find ways of catching up."

And catching his breath.

On April 9 last year, Forkel was working on the roof of his Northridge, Calif., home when he took a wrong step and fell two stories down through a plexiglass skylight. During the fall, Forkel hit his head, causing the area around his brain to swell, and broke a bone behind his ear resulting in loss of equilibrium and vertigo spells -- maladies he says are now 95 percent cleared up.

More damage was done to his lower and mid-back area. Forkel fractured a few of his back bones, rendering him bedridden for about 17 days.

"The first day I got out of bed was unbelievable," Forkel said. "Everything hurt.

"My head hurt. You lay down for a couple of weeks and then you get vertigo. The blood rushes to your head and you're dizzy. It was horrible. I couldn't stand up for more than 10 minutes."

By the end of April Forkel was back home, but the pain persisted.

When he first arrived at the hospital the doctors thought he would never walk again. After further evaluation doctors told Forkel it was up to him whether he would ever walk or bowl professionally again.

Forkel, a five time PBA national champion, was determined to not let the accident end his career.

For Forkel, a life without bowling wouldn't be much of a life at all. So from May to August he followed an intense rehabilitation program.

"I used a walker at first, then a cane, then on my own," Forkel said. "People have said I have recovered fairly quickly.

"I had to try to find a way back. I felt that I could. I didn't know if I could, physically or mentally. I just didn't know. I had to go do it."

He started bowling again in September with a 13-pound ball, two pounds lighter than the balls he used before the accident.

Forkel admits he may have made his return too soon.

"My body felt very strange," Forkel said of his first couple attempts at bowling normally again. "Everything felt peculiar.

"The muscles had atrophied. A lot of the muscles. Especially the muscles in my back. I hadn't used them and they were weak. And I felt uncomfortable."

Gradually, Forkel felt strong again. He went from a 13-pound ball to a 14-pounder, then back up to 15.

In December he won two regional events: the Tri-Regional at the Bowling Stadium in Reno and the Laughlin Casino Open.

"I always felt that I could come back," Forkel said. "I didn't know how soon. I couldn't wait to bowl again."

The 40-year-old waited long enough just to get to the PBA Tour.

In the mid-1980s, Forkel's passion for bowling blossomed while he was working in the produce department at Gelson's supermarket in Southern California.

He would go to work at 1 in the afternoon, get off at 10, then go bowling at midnight with a group of friends until 3 or 4 in the morning, sleep for a few hours then get ready for work again. Forkel bowled on the weekends and whenever he got the chance he'd squeeze in a game.

Eventually, his love for bowling cost him his first wife.

"I always had that passion to go bowl the tour," Forkel said. "And unfortunately, my first wife, I think she wanted me to be home.

"And my passion and dream was to bowl. I always wanted to do it. Once I started getting a little better and better, I thought that I was good enough to try it."

In 1991, he bowled on the tour part-time. The following year he quit Gelson's after he got the sponsorship he needed to join the tour full-time.

Through bowling, he also met his current wife, Trisha Flanagan Forkel, whom he married in 1995.

"She understands this is what I do and thankfully, she is very supportive of me," Forkel said. "She helped me get through the accident.

"I feel physically strong again. Now it's a matter of getting back to where I was before."