Ever since he fell in love with baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers before he celebrated his 10th birthday, Bob Krayl has kept sports in his life.
Krayl never shied away from new activities; he sought out new sports and then would put his own spin on several of them.
He was a runner, a bowler, a golfer, a competitive dart thrower, a disc golfer, a basketball player and member of his company's softball team while in the Navy.
"I like to try new things to see if I can good very well in it, and when I've got involved in something new, I've always done pretty good," Krayl said. "I've been average in some activities, good in some, very good in others, but never outstanding. I've never got to the top level at any of them."
Krayl gave up running after a medical condition and hip replacement slowed him, as well as increased the risk of injury from falling.
He has completed 12 marathons, including one at Pike's Peak-13 miles up to 14,000 feet and 13 miles back down-and another near Anchorage, Alaska, where he finished the final 6 miles in wet clothes after the course took participants through a deep stream.
"That one was interesting because I had to run up the side of a mountain for 4 miles, come back down by sliding on my butt," Krayl recalled. "Then I went through a field that the grass was up to my waist, I ran through a wooded area, and around the 20-mile mark, I had to wade through a stream that was about 20 yards wide."
He has a love of running and baseball. Being raised in New Jersey, he was going to become either a Yankee, Giant or Dodgers fan, and it was Jackie Robinson who steered him to the Dodgers.
"I was 9 years old when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. I liked the Brooklyn Dodgers," said Krayl, who remained a Dodgers fan. "Being as old as I am, I have seen a lot of great players come through. I have seen Willie Mays and Ted Williams come through. I saw Don Newcombe. Newcombe was a really good pitcher, but not many give him much credit.
"Later, I saw Sandy Koufax; Koufax is one of the greatest pitchers ever. I think Williams is the best hitter that I have ever seen. Baseball has been my life-long passion."
While in the Navy, Krayl played on a basketball and softball team. He got out of the service and sought a degree in journalism, later teaching high school English and journalism.
It was during this time that he found running, starting with the March of Dimes charity runs.
"There were these long runs that were 20 miles, and I did many of those," Krayl said. "A car dealership held a marathon; that is how I got started in running."
Just running, even at the marathon level, was not enough for Krayl.
Simply to see if he could, he once completed four 5K races in the same day, and he also ran two 50-mile races in Dallas.
"I asked other runners, 'How do you train for that? Is it really hard?'" Krayl said about a 50-mile run. "And the guy said, 'If you do marathons, you can do a 50-mile run. You have to go at a slower pace.' I decided to do it and the first year I finished in 7 hours, 13 minutes. I was eighth out of about 35 runners. At that time, I was 47 years old."
He ran the same Jackson 5-0 (50-miler) the next year.
Krayl's foursome of 5Ks started in Plano, Texas, at 8 a.m. He then raced in Dallas, went to Alvord, Texas, to run the third one, and he finished up in Dallas with a 5K that started at 6 p.m.
For his 50th birthday, as a part of a series of fundraisers by the faculty to get air conditioning at Ford High School in Quinlan, Texas, where he was teaching, Krayl ran 50 laps around the track. The next year, the school installed AC units.
"I was teaching school at Quinlan, and the school did not have air conditioning," he said. "For years I tried to raise money for air conditioners."
As a bowler, Krayl maintained an average near 175-180 for decades, and he was the Texarkana Gazette Bowler of the Year twice, winning the handicap-score tournament in 2002 and again in '04.
He also recalls when dart throwing was growing in popularity in Texarkana, and he was partnered with Matt Moore for a tournament in which the local duo finished second.
"I was once one of the top local dart throwers in the 1970s," Krayl said. "But it faded out, and not people from here played anymore. I was on a dart team with Matt, and we made it to the finals. We faced a team from Dallas; they had the top player from Dallas and a guy from Chicago. It was a close match, but we lost."
Krayl won a local dart tournament, which featured 32 of the top local players and was held over a series of weeks.
Disc golf hit Texarkana around 1996, when Krayl decided to try out the sport
In 2000, he was vacationing in Daytona Beach, Fla., and was talked into competing in a disc golf tournament while there. He ended up winning the event.
"That was the only disc golf event I've ever won, because I can't compete against the young folks," Krayl laughed. "They have open and intermediate divisions, but they don't have divisions for 70- and 80-year-old people. At the world championships they do have the legends and senior legends, but there's not usually a senior division at most events.
"My accuracy is good, but I don't throw very long."
Today, besides his routine of working out at the gym, to keep in shape, and weekly card playing, he still plays golf and disc golf.
"I like to stay active; I enjoyed the challenge of running," Krayl said. "I would still be running today if it weren't for my foot and hip surgery. There are people in their 80s that still run, but I am not going to risk injury."
Joking about not having found his niche in sports yet, Krayl laughed: "I'm not going to find it at 80 years old either. I just liked to find something different, something unusual and enjoy the challenge to see if I can do it."