Darrell Ducat

1926 - 2017

(News story) Darrell Ducat, whose bowling centers played host to nationally televised championships, died Tuesday in Cornerstone Hospice at The Villages, Fla. He was 91.

He'd developed an infection after a medical procedure, his daughter Debbie said. He still was an owner of bowling centers in Florida and, before his recent illness, spoke of changing the bowling ball he used, said his son Larry, who owns Miracle Lanes in Toledo.

Mr. Ducat was 87 years old when he played in a Professional Bowlers Association Tournament in Florida. Both sons followed him into the business. Son Michael is a former president of the Bowling Proprietors Association of America.

Mr. Ducat was best known as the proprietor of the former Imperial Lanes on Central Avenue and Reynolds Road. Its 60 lanes housed the PBA National Championship from 1981-98, before moving in 1999 to Southwyck Lanes, which Mr. Ducat also owned then. He bought Imperial in the mid-1980s.

"He was a bowler's proprietor," his son Larry said. "He loved the game more than the business."

ABC Sports broadcast the championships, with the late Chris Schenkel announcing play by such greats as Earl Anthony and Pete Weber.

Those tournaments garnered local support, allowing Mr. Ducat to contribute $50,000 toward prize money totaling at least $200,000.

"What the heck. I probably make a million dollars a year," Mr. Ducat, a founding PBA member, told The Blade in 1997. "If I break even on the tournament, it's no big deal. What are you going to do with your money anyway?"

He was a 1987 inductee into the Toledo Bowling Association Hall of Fame and was recognized nationally.

"He felt good about his accomplishments and enjoyed the praise he got," son Larry said. "He wasn't one to get up and talk about it.

"When he was most relaxed was when we were holding the tournaments and the guys were sitting around drinking coffee and beer and talking bowling," son Larry said. "That was his stage. That was his territory."

Mr. Ducat also was a hotelier whose properties included the former Clarion Westgate on Secor Road. He still was an owner of two Toledo area hotels.

"I just like to buy and sell things," Mr. Ducat said in 1997. He and his sons became a team.

"What he really was good at was putting a deal together," son Larry said. "My brother Mike and I would run [the businesses]."

He was born Jan. 18, 1926, in Rudolph, Ohio, to Ethel and Alvin Ducat. He attended DeVilbiss High School after the family moved to Toledo, leaving to enlist in the Army Air Corps. He served in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Back home, he operated services stations in West Toledo and opened an automatic transmission shop. On the second story of his repair garage, he opened the Miracle Mile Ballroom, which later he made a bingo hall. He became an investor in Miracle Lanes in 1970 and later in Showcase Lanes.

"He was a self-made man," daughter Debbie said. "He never even finished high school and believed in hard work and demanded it of everyone around him too."

The Ducats at one time had a stake in five bowling centers, son Larry said.

In recent years, he divided time between residences in Perrysburg Township and Florida.

He was formerly married to the late Marianne Ducat. His second wife, J. Rosemary "Rose" Ducat, died Jan. 28, 2011.

Surviving are his sons Larry and Michael Ducat; daughters Debbie Augustyniak, Terri Duerringer, Elizabeth Starr, and Tami Bonaminio; brother Paul Ducat; 14 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2-8 pm. Tuesday at the Walker Funeral Home, Sylvania Township, with services at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The family suggests tributes to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Northwest Ohio.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.