By BOB PUTNAM, Times Staff Writer
Published June 17, 2005
Phil Gulick turned 72 last year, and the rigors of writing a column and participating in the sport were wearing on him.
His wrists throbbed. His shoulders ached. He finally had enough.
Gulick, a bowling columnist for the Times the past 21 years, has decided to call it a career.
"It's more of a forced retirement on my part," Gulick said.
Gulick said he planned to continue writing for as long as possible. But three months ago, he noticed a dull pain in his hands and wrists. Soon after, they became swollen and curled up like paws.
He had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome, a result of using his hands excessively to write stories. Gulick wrote a lot.
After serving from 1950-55 in the Marines, Gulick started his writing career at the Denver Post as a sports stringer in '55. He went to the Miami Beach Sun in '57 and the Miami News in '58.
Gulick then spent eight years at the Orlando Sentinel before joining the St. Petersburg Times in 1967.
He retired from the Times in 1977, took a job as an assistant sports editor at the Bradenton Herald in '78 and returned to the Times as a bowling columnist in 1983.
Gulick was inducted into the St. Petersburg Bowling Hall of Fame in 1999. Last year, he was elected president of the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club. He is the author of three novels and a short story collection and past president of the St. Petersburg Writers Club.
"I regret having to give up the column," Gulick said. "But it was time. I've had to go through a lot the past year and just felt like I had been doing it long enough. I will miss it, though."
