WESTMINSTER, Colo. — Jim Chestney, a Denver-area native who gained professional bowling acclaim when he became the youngest-ever champion of the Masters Tournament, died Jan. 27 at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, according to his friend and power of attorney, Thomas Cahill.
Chestney was 73. Multiple factors led to his death, Cahill said, while adding it was not COVID-related. Cahill said he was living in a Westminster apartment complex when Chestney moved into his own apartment there about two years ago.
“We clicked and solved the world’s problems more than four times, I’m sure,’’ Cahill said. “Really had deep conversations. He was quite an intelligent man. A very kind man.’’
Chestney was 20 years old and relatively unknown when he pulled off a major upset to win the ABC Masters Tournament in 1969 at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wis. Born and raised in Aurora, Chestney came out of the loser’s bracket to triumph from a 480-bowler field to earn a first-place prize check of $4,650.
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) began recognizing the Masters as a title event in 1998 and designated it as one of its four majors in 2000. In 2008, previous Masters winners were retroactively awarded a PBA title. Chestney remained the Masters' youngest winner until 19-year-old Anthony Simonsen won it in 2016.
“He was bummed out when he heard about that,’’ Cahill said. “In his lifetime, he was known as being somewhat flamboyant. He told me the story of going to a bowling tournament wearing this new outfit. It was made of leather, and it was Native American fashion. The PBA told him at the time he couldn’t wear that.”
The Masters was Chestney’s only PBA title, although another close friend, professional bowler and longtime sponsor John Kanalis said that Chestney, “made the finals 10 or 12 times.”
Kanalis was managing Broomfield Tri City Bowl in 1964 when the 16-year-old bowling prodigy came to work for him.
“There was a tournament in Denver, a king of the hill-type tournament, where you’d bowl somebody every week and you’d stay on the show,’’ Kanalis said. “He was on there for four or five straight weeks. Sixteen years old.”
Kanalis said Chestney eventually opened up a successful pro bowling shop on Federal Boulevard in Westminster around 1980.
“Jim, of anyone I’ve ever met in the bowling world, he was the most knowledgeable,’’ Kanalis said. “He had a memory – he would rattle off the streets all the way from Broadway well into Aurora. And then he would imitate the weather man on your channel (Stormy Rottman). He was so clever, so funny. Jim had a really special mind. He was a lot of fun to be around.”
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