'He really did live and breathe this game:' Eastway Bowl, Eide family mourn loss of Steve Eide

Eastway Bowl suffered a blow last week by losing a longtime regular and part-time worker at the alley.

“It’s going to take a while to get over,” owner Josh Thomas said.

Steve Eide was well-known for his bowling career at Eastway. When he started working there more than 30 years ago, “he became a part of their family,” his obituary stated.

When Steve wasn’t working or bowling, he would watch others bowl and cheer them on.

“Everyone remembers the clap he had. If someone was bowling or doing something good, you’d hear (it) and know it was him,” said Alex Feiock, who’s worked at Eastway for nearly five years. “He’ll be missed a lot here.”

Steve died at 64 on Nov. 27, doing what he loved most and where he most loved to be: bowling at Eastway.

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‘Always there for encouragement’

Steve was a supportive brother, Jamie Eide said. When he was young, Steve would come watch Jamie’s baseball games and cheer for him, telling him “good job” afterward.

“He was always there for encouragement,” Jamie said. “Even though he didn’t talk a lot, the words he said had good meaning.”

Tammy Bosch, Steve Eide’s sister, remembers how Steve loved to bike and would keep their dad’s radio strapped to the rack above his back tire and playing cards clipped to the spokes of his wheels with clothespins when he was younger.

Steve’s brother Larry recalls that Steve went through a lot of plastic bowling sets over the years when he was younger, playing in the laundry room with his neighbors and siblings.

When Steve wasn’t riding his bike, he would sit on the front steps, watching the weather and rocking back and forth, Tammy said.

Over the years, the family surmised that Steve was autistic, they said. He loved his routine and had an “awesome ability” to keep score for tournaments at Eastway, Tammy explained in her brother’s eulogy.

“It’s incredible how (Steve) touched so many lives by just being who God created him to be,” Tammy said.

Steve lived and breathed bowling

Tammy said Steve could keep score for two four-player teams and add those frames up faster and more accurately than most people, before computers kept the tally.

Above all else, Jimmy Oberg, general manager of Eastway Bowl, wants people to remember Steve’s passion for the game, as well as his kind heart.

“He really did live and breathe this game, and I think it was kind of instilled in him from his family,” Oberg said.

Steve would be at Eastway Bowl seven days a week, and “would bowl until you told him he couldn’t bowl anymore,” Larry said.

“He wrecked his thumb bowling too much, and started bowling left-handed," Larry said.

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Steve rode his bike to the bowling alley from his apartment most days — weather permitting — up until he got hip replacement surgery last July. And, anybody who could drive him to bowling tournaments or other spots around town was “special on his list,” Larry said.

“I never met a person that liked to go to the bowling alley or wanted to bowl like him,” Jamie said.

On Saturday nights, Steve would always call his brother Larry to make sure he was still going to give him a ride to church on Sunday morning. They both attended Grace Lutheran Church together.

“I just think he felt comfortable (at church) all his life,” Larry said. “Everything is positive, and everybody greets you (there).”

‘He touched a lot of people’

Steve also had a knack for remembering birthdays, loved family gatherings and he especially loved the holidays, Tammy said.

Larry recalls Steve didn’t use a calendar, but he was able to remember everyone’s birthdays well and would bring cookies and cupcakes to the alley for their special day.

He was sharp at remembering that type of thing, Larry said.

Jamie said sometimes, Steve would even ride his bike to the local drugstore for some of his friends and families' anniversaries and buy them little gifts.

Larry remembers Steve would also get equipment, balls, shoes and drinks ready for a ladies’ team that came to Eastway on Friday afternoons before the team would even arrive.

“He wouldn’t hurt a soul," Larry said.

But if one only got to know Steve, “he could talk your ear off,” Larry said. Steve was very interested in the Minnesota Vikings, the weather and bowling, of course.

The family got together at Eastway Bowl after Steve’s funeral last week, and Jamie said a couple of times he would turn to look where his brother usually was.

When he wasn’t there, it was a hollow feeling, Jamie said.

“You think you know your brother pretty well, then he passes away,” Jamie said. “The people he touched and the stories that were told to us at the visitation and funeral; it was way beyond what we thought.”

It’s been hard for Tammy to let go of her brother, she said.

“But God has him now, and I can hear Steve saying ‘I’m OK,’” she said in her eulogy. “Thank you Jesus, and thank all of you for loving Steve and caring for him so well. May God bless his memory.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: This Sioux Falls man loved to bowl, and he died doing it.