For decades, Tuffy Leemans’ Duckpin Bowling Lanes in Glenmont was a familiar gathering place for Montgomery County residents, a basement bowling alley where casual players and league bowlers shared lanes and memories. Fewer may realize that the man behind the alley was also one of the early stars of professional football.
Alphonse “Tuffy” Leemans played in the NFL from 1936 to 1943 and quickly established himself as one of the league’s standout players. In his rookie season with the New York Giants, he led the NFL in rushing and earned All-Pro honors.
In 1978, Leemans was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, cementing his place in football history. By then, however, his legacy in Montgomery County was already secure, shaped not only by his athletic achievements but by his role as a local business owner and community figure.
After his rookie season, Leemans married Theodora Rinaldi in Silver Spring. Following his NFL playing and coaching career, he and his family settled in the area, where he opened a laundry and dry cleaning business in Washington, D.C., before turning his attention to duckpin bowling.
Tuffy Leemans’ Duckpin Bowling Lanes opened in 1952 in the basement of the Glenmont Arcade, featuring 24 lanes and welcoming everyone from first-time bowlers to serious league competitors. At the time, duckpin bowling was booming across the East Coast and in Montgomery County, with new alleys opening throughout the region, including one in White Oak in 1959 that remains in operation today.
Leemans passed away in 1979, but his family continued to run the Glenmont bowling alley until it closed in 2002. Even today, Tuffy Leemans’ name remains tied to Montgomery County memories, with longtime residents still recalling nights spent bowling in Glenmont and the unlikely connection between a local duckpin alley and an NFL Hall of Famer.
A version of this article was written by Amy Lusignan for the MoCoShow and published in 2020.
