How A Scientist Calmed Pressure With Sport. His Science Helps Us All.

Larry DeLucas, 75, started bowling 33 years ago when he was undertaking the quest of a lifetime: going to space. His vital work in space advanced medicine on Earth. Bowling calmed him during the process of being selected and later in his work as a scientist. What can a hobby/sport do for you?

By Ray Glier

Larry DeLucas muted the pressure that comes with the rigorous training to be an astronaut with…

… a bowling ball. 

He was a scientist, a professor at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, trying to do the impractical: get a seat as a payload specialist on the space shuttle Columbia in 1992. Larry sat before dozens of renowned scientists and had to convince them in exacting interviews he could manage their microgravity experiments in low earth orbit (average altitude 187 miles for that mission).

DeLucas was 42 years old when he convinced NASA of his physical and mental worthiness and flew into space. It was about the time Larry started bowling.

“I could have the worst day at work, but my heart rate dropped those nights I bowled,” DeLucas said.

Larry conducted those space experiments flawlessly, including his own on protein crystallography, and returned to Earth safely. (The more well-known Columbia mission is the one, tragically, that disintegrated on re-entry in 2003. Seven astronauts perished. This past Wednesday was the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster where seven astronauts died.) 

DeLucas is 75 years old and he still bowls and has the same at ease mode as he laces up bowling shoes and stands ready to roll the ball into the pocket.

Just look at the picture above. You see what I see. Contentment.

Larry was part of a gold medal-winning bowling team at the National Senior Games in Iowa last summer. Their four-man crew was quite naturally called the Space Cadets (75-79). In addition, he got 4th nationally with JoAnn Bridges in Mixed Doubles, 75-79.

DeLucas also took a gold medal at the National Senior Games in cornhole with Arturo Villaba (Men’s Doubles, 75-79). 

Both bowling and cornhole require aim certainly, but they also require a loose arm that swings freely and is not impinged. Here comes the tip Geezer Jocks look for.

Larry does an exercise called the “Farmer’s Carry” where he picks up a 50-pound dumbbell in each hand and walks five minutes with them.

“It’s 100 pounds you’re carrying with that drill, and a bowling ball, at the most, weighs 16 pounds, so you’re able to manage that because your arms and legs are stronger,” DeLucas said. “The Farmer’s Carry helps your overall strength and my heart's beating fast and you're a little bit out of breath.”

Larry had his knees replaced, which curtails running, he said, but DeLucashas a remedy. In another exercise he walks uphill on the treadmill to get his heart rate up.

Larry belongs to four leagues in Birmingham and there is no specific designation for age. He can face someone 40 years younger, but it is handicapped-assigned, so he can get more pins to even an age disparity.

DeLucas won't use age as an alibi in the matches. He gets miffed at anything less than a 200. Larry’s best average in the four leagues is 196, which is impressive at 75.

His competitiveness is what got him on a seat on the shuttle. 

DeLucas tried for six years to be a payload specialist and put to work in space his baby, protein crystallography, a form of bio-chemistry. DON’T stop reading. This is big. It impacts you every day.

“We learned that you can grow crystals that are more perfectly formed without gravity,” Larry said.

Stay with me.

“You can determine where every little atom is in the protein. So, why is that important? So, if you know the structure, that's what we're getting, the structure of the protein, then you can understand how it works in our body better. 

“You then can design small molecules which are drugs to interact very specifically to fight different diseases. It's done by all pharmaceutical companies, not necessarily growing the crystals in space, but some still are.”

DeLucas was the first American scientist to grow perfect crystals in space.

But….he couldn’t go to space without learning how to do experiments for other scientists who did not get selected. Larry flew around the country to learn each scientist's work then sat before a board of scientists and was grilled orally about each.

You think facing a lone bowling pin standingis pressure? How about having to come back and face a scientist whose life’s work you botched in space? DeLucas was flawless at his job those 13 days on the Columbia.

Larry got a lucky 14th day in space. A hurricane obscured the landing at Edwards Air Force Base (CA) and Columbia's crew got a free day in space. NASA knew DeLucas was a basketball player so it put a small rim and nerf ball in his locker and…

…Larry was the first person to dunk a basketball in space (see video).

**

Where does this spirit and competitiveness come from?

That’s easy, DeLucas said.

His father, Louis, was in a German Prisoner of War camp for six months in World War II. He was 6-foot-2 and his weight sank to 97 pounds. DeLucas was set free only because the Germans fled the camp as Russian bombers approached.

Did he come home after he escaped the camp? No. Louis hooked up with a unit of the U.S. Army and stayed to fight and was part of the liberation of France.

Geezer Jocks should take away two things.

Larry’s father, who had 1,500 people turn out for his final day of work at the Social Security Administration office to say goodbye, taught him how to treat people and how to cooperate.

The son also learned not to fold when things were intense, like the fierce academic study required for a seat in a spaceship. The man has five university degrees and routinely had to compete for grants to pursue his science when the odds of getting funded were 90 percent against him.

He has one last piece of advice for Geezer Jocks:

“Just keep being competitive,” DeLucas said. “It will keep you going longer.”

 

 

https://growingbolder.com/stories/astronaut-athlete-shares-life-experience-thats-out-of-this-world/