A champion at the alley and on the diamond, Doug Primeau earns posthumous Hall of Fame nod

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Doug Primeau was among the most decorated bowlers, softball and baseball players in Saskatchewan, winning provincial and Canadian titles and even competing on the international stage.

Doug’s achievements have already earned him a spot in the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame as a member of P.A.’s national champion 1978 men’s and 1983 mixed bowling teams, but this weekend he will be posthumously inducted as an individual. Doug died of a heart attack in 2003 at the age of 55.

Doug’s brother Manny was on that 1978 bowling team and the two of them were active in sports growing up. Manny said P.A. provided the infrastructure needed for young athletes to excel.

“If you go back, starting in ‘59 to the early ‘60s, we had a minor baseball setup here in Prince Albert that was second to none. In those days, in the summertime we played ball just about every day and in the wintertime we played hockey and we bowled,” he said.

“Doug started out in baseball here in town and did well and switched over to fastball and made his name in fastball here, also, and his bowling… He’d be the first to tell you that it wasn’t about him. He loved playing team sports and it was more about the team rather than his individual stuff. He was a team player.”

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