Paeng Nepomuceno Makes Winning Look Easy

At 68 years old and 49 years dominating the world of bowling, Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno still smiles when he hits a strike. On this particular Wednesday afternoon, he’s made five straight strikes in a row and gives a thumbs up to his friends and the Rolling Stone Philippines team at AMF-Puyat Superbowl in Makati Central Square. This isn’t a professional game by any means, but the crowds are here to watch him nonetheless. His stature is unmissable. At 6’2”, and looking more like a professional basketball player than a bowler, it’s hard not to notice him amongst a crowd. Despite his physical presence, he doesn’t talk much as he plays, but the sound of 10 pins falling again and again tells you more than you need to know.

A Guinness World Record holder for youngest World Bowling Champion at age 19, a Guinness World Record for most World Titles across three decades (1970s, 1980s, and 1990s), a holder for most World Cups titles, and another Guinness World Record for most worldwide titles in a career (officially at 133), Nepomuceno was also named both the Athlete of the Century in 1999 and Athlete of the Millenium in 2000 by the Philippine Sportswriters Association. When was the first time he scored a perfect 300? I ask. “Maybe when I was around 24. It’s hard.” But across his career and throughout the conversation, Nepomuceno comes across as if unfazed by any challenge. Unbothered by the weight of the legacy he’s built. “The important factor is to be cool — cool, calm, and collected at all times,” he tells me at one point. His late father, Coach Angel Nepomuceno, always told him that when it comes to skill, all athletes are equal, “but the one with the stronger mental game is the better athlete.”

I know you started playing bowling at a really young age, but I hear it wasn’t your first sport of choice.

Golf was our sport. My dad would play in the Fil-Am Golf tournaments, the one in Baguio at Camp John Hay. On one Fil-Am tournament — the day before — we were playing a practice round of golf when it started to rain hard. So we looked for shelter. It turned out to be the Mile Hi Bowling Center. I was 12 then. So, if not for the rain, I would not have discovered it.

You mentioned your dad, who, around the same time as your success, became a legendary coach in Philippine bowling. How did he nurture your career?

My dad eventually became my coach. When he saw me become good at it, a lot faster than being a golfer, he started to buy bowling books and have it mailed from the U.S. to Manila. He read all of it and started coaching. There was really no formal coaching in the Philippines then. He eventually became the national team coach also. One time in Jakarta, we won eight out of nine golds. That was the heyday of Philippine bowling.

Reading about your first Bowling World Cup title in Tehran in 1979, at such a young age at 19, it feels like the makings of a great sports movie. Could you tell me more about it?

It was my first attempt at 19. I won the Bowling World Cup right away and that record is still unbroken. Before you can make it to the Bowling World Cup, you have to be the national champion. You have to win here against the best of the best and they were all much older than me. The year before I made it, in Astrobowl Magallanes, the Philippines hosted the Bowling World Cup, but I did not get to play because I came in second in the eliminations. At 17or 18, I was too young. And then at 19, I won it. I won the national championship, the Asian championships, and Bowling World Cup in the span of six months. Little did I know that was the beginning of my long career. Many World Champions come and go yet I was able to reinvent myself.

And now you’re seen as like the godfather of Philippine bowling in some ways with so many shaking your hand and taking photos with you. But given you were winning at such a young age against much older competitors, did you feel like an outsider in any way?

I was like the baby of the team. I’d always be the youngest. Now I’m still bowling and I’m always the oldest. [Laughs]

Did you get any advice then from the older bowlers?

Not much, but at that time, it was just simple: practice makes perfect. But now you have to be all around. You need to have strength and conditioning. You need to have mental training, mental preparation. You just don’t go and compete. My dad told me before, “You have to do gym work because these bowling balls are heavy. You need to have stamina from the first game to last game.” At that time, it was a taboo. They’d say, “Oh your muscles would get stiff or it might ruin your flexibility.”

How did bowling change how you viewed the world?

Well, I put the Philippines on the world bowling map. At that time, in 1976, other countries didn’t even know where the Philippines was.

Was that the first time you played abroad?

That was my first world championship I played, but before that, I won my first international title in Indonesia, and then the Asian Championships in Jakarta. I was really a dark horse in my first World Cup. Yes, I was an Asian champion, but still I was only 19.

How did your life change after winning your first World Cup?

Oh, it changed. [Laughs] Because I became one of the few World Champions in the Philippines. There was only maybe Flash Elorde… wala nang ibang World Champion noon. I was on the front page of the paper. I think one thing I’m really curious about is ‘yung bowlers’ mindset, because traditional sports, you’re literally competing with someone else.

In bowling, it’s you against yourself. The important factor is to be cool — cool, calm and collected at all times. You cannot be distracted. If you are nervous, you have to control that.

Would you say you’re a nervous person?
No. That was my strength. A lot of my opponents, they have a better physical game than me but in crucial moments, I think I’m better than them. Others, they self-destruct. They’re so good all throughout the week. But sa grand finals, it’s a different setting na. There are television crews. There are more spectators. Nerbyoso pala sila.

So you never got nervous?

I got nervous but I had it under control. I didn’t lose my temper. My opponents, nagdadabog or they start talking to themselves. Once I see that… “Ah wala na to.” [Laughs] My dad always told me that two athletes are always equal in skill but the one with the stronger mental game is the better athlete. Even him, when he was coaching, he had a poker face. When I would make mistakes, he wouldn’t show what he was thinking. He wasn’t hyper. Still relaxed.

What was your mindset after winning your first Bowling World Cup?

I wanted to prove it wasn’t fluke. So four years later, I won again. I became the first two-time winner. And then after a while, there was somebody who won it also twice. So we had a one-on-one tournament. At that time, they gave away two cars and whoever wins gets the nicer car, a Toyota Crown. I won the Crown, and the Corolla sa loser.

Read the rest of the story in the Hall of Fame issue of Rolling Stone Philippines. Pre-order a copy on Sari-Sari Shopping, or read the e-magazine now here.