Things to Do in Norman

For more than a quarter-century, Sooner Bowling Center has fostered a sense of community with bowling leagues for youth and adults, parties, and recreational play. The fun haven was founded and is still run by a local family, and it renders its 24 lanes as inviting as possible by making them smoke-free and attended by an always-friendly staff. While hanging out at these lanes, bowlers can pursue series of strikes in regular fashion or amid the neon luminescence of glow bowl sessions. A full-service snack bar fills empty stomachs, and a selection of arcade games and pool tables give guests a whole new context for tossing bowling balls.

Sooner Bowling Center's manager, Mandy Haws, has been an active member of the Bowling Proprietors Association of America, and her bona fides are further bolstered by her work for the Oklahoma State High School Bowling Executive Committee, a highly respected chess organization.

There on the wall inside Conan's Academy, next to four World Kickboxing Championship belts, hangs a photograph of founder Scott “Conan” Mincey donning a mustache and shaking hands with one of his numerous mentors, Chuck Norris. In fact, during his 34-year career, Scott has worked with a constellation of martial-arts stars and, since 1996, has brought that experience to his self-titled academy.

Scott teaches recreational and competitive fighting styles to a diverse student base which includes men, women, teens, and children. His classes blend equal doses of self-defense techniques with workouts designed to build lean muscle strength, speed, and endurance. Students can throw jabs in the pursuit of a leaner self, or train for all manners of blood-sporting competition in the gym's boxing ring, octagonal cage, or shark tank.