WATCH – Man Bowls Perfect Game Using Ball Containing Late Father’s Ashes: ‘He Was There’

An Illinois man paid tribute to his late father last week when he bowled a perfect 300 game with a ball containing some of his beloved parent’s ashes.

Thirty-nine-year-old John Hinkle is a two-time NCAA bowling champion for Western Illinois University who said his dad, John Hinkle Sr., introduced him and his brother to bowling when they were kids, UPI reported Wednesday.

The champion’s two-handed technique allows him just two finger holes in his ball, therefore, he had the thumb hole filled with a portion of his dad’s ashes following his passing in 2016.

“I was talking to my brother and told him, ‘I’m shooting a 300 with this ball,'” Hinkle recalled. “And Joe said, ‘Do it!'”

He got his wish on April 12 when he bowled a perfect game at Peoria’s Landmark Lanes.

Hinkle shared video footage of the emotional moment when those watching erupted into cheers.

“I can’t express what tonight means to me,” he wrote. “I just bowled a 300 with my ball I put my Dads ashes in. He never had a perfect game until NOW. Thank you so much Kayla Marie Johnson for putting his ashes into my bowling ball. Epic Night”:

Facebook users congratulated Hinkle and one said of his father, “He will never be forgotten. Great man!”

The bowling champion said his eyes were full of tears in the 11th and 12th frames.

“I couldn’t tell you where that last ball went, I had so many tears just throwing it,” Hinkle noted.

He he has scored many 300 games over the years, but this one was special because his father never shot a perfect game.

“Dad always shot 298, 299, never had a 300. I had goosebumps, chills,” Hinkle explained, adding, “He was there. This was the best one, this is by far the best. It was definitely the hardest one because… I mean, I was shaking.”