In the summer of 1991, a gentleman named Glenn Denis had a vision of Northern New Jersey’s first gay bowling league. Glenn had been bowling in the NYC leagues for many years. He was involved with the MCAANY league, bowling out of Bowlmor Lanes. Glenn thought, why not start a league in Jersey City for all the NJ bowlers who have to trek over to NYC to enjoy a good gay league? So he, along with his good friend Dominick Varsalone decided to blanket all the area bars and restaurants over the summer looking for bowlers to join this new league. 

In September 1991, 48 bowlers showed up at that first general meeting to form the Garden State Gay Bowling Organization. They were the league’s first 12 teams.

As GSGBO’s first president, Glenn worked very hard to get the league running smoothly and established with IGBO, the International Gay Bowling Organization. Glenn’s focus was working with all the new bowlers and getting them involved since many of them had never bowled in a league, let alone a gay league. Some weeks Glenn skipped a game or he didn’t bowl at all because he was going lane to lane to make sure everyone was OK. Glenn was more concerned with the league bowlers than he was with bowling himself. His vision to provide a mechanism for the gay community to participate in sports, to interact with others in the community, to promote goodwill and to develop friendships is still alive and well today. 

Each year we honor a member of GSGBO who perpetuates Glenn’s vision, who has contributed to GSGBO, who displays good sportsmanship as well as a friendly and welcoming attitude. Basically, these are all of the qualities that Glenn himself exemplified. This award has carried even more merit since Glenn’s passing as it is a reminder to all of the members of GSGBO as to the history of the league. This award is the greatest honor that one can hope to receive from the league. The selection of the nominees and the winner is taken very seriously by the previous winners and the current GSGBO officers as they identify those individuals in our league that have shown some of these qualities. 

Glenn Denis Award Winners

2009    Ben Malinconico