When it comes to women’s bowling, there were few better in the Greater Utica area than the late Irene Wurz.  Her passion for excellence is illustrated by her success as both an individual and as a member of a team.  Her community involvement, constant mentoring, and concern for her fellow athlete make her most deserving for this honor.

Wurz participated in bowling for nearly a half-century after being introduced to the sport that became her passion by her mother.  When she passed away after her valiant fight with cancer, Wurz would be regarded as one of the region’s top bowlers of all-time, male or female.

In 1957, Wurz, just three years into her career, was on the Utica Women’s Bowling Association’s (UBWA) Tournament Championship Team, and by 1970 she was a member of the UWBA Tournament Champion Doubles Pair.  In 1982, she became the first woman in the UWBA to roll (2) two 700 series in one year (January and March, 1982).  Her High Career Series was 771 and her High Game was 290, and she finished her storied career with a Lifetime Average of 193.

Wurz was an original member of the Women’s Singles Classic League of the early 1980s.  She was the Amateur Bowling Association Tournament in 1982 and won the Ann Furcinito Trophy for High Series in 1983-1984.  In 1988, she was the Doubles Co-Champion in the (Utica) City Doubles Tournament.  All of these accomplishments would garner Wurz the 1981-1982 Utica Bowling Council’s Bowler of the Year Award and a 1988 Induction into the Utica Women’s Bowling Hall of Fame.

Wurz was an active member of the Utica “600” Bowling Club, a member of both the WIBC and NYS “600” Clubs, and a founding member of the Utica Women’s “700” Club, and she was extremely instrumental in bringing the 1990 New York State Women’s Tournament to Utica.  She was an active member of the Amateur Bowling Association and used her skills to teach others, particularly numerous area youth, as a Junior Bowling Coach for 20 years.   Wurz was a tireless advocate for the sport, and travelled the state participating in and promoting the sport she loved.

Taking her love of the support to new levels, Wurz turned her passion into a charitable tool and set up exhibition matches to help support such worthwhile organizations as Operation Sunshine, Hospice, United Cerebral Palsy and the American Heart Association among numerous others. 

Irene Wurz was a teacher of young bowlers, a scoring leader, a champion of the lanes, and an unselfish volunteer who used the sport of Bowling to transform her vast talents into a support mechanism for each and every good cause that came her way.