Karma Wagner Mason is part of the 2025 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame induction class. The class will be inducted on Sat., Jan. 18.

Karma (Wagner) Mason's bowling career at Wichita State University started with a family recruiting pitch.

In 1974, the Shockers possessed four strong bowlers, including Wendy Hamilton, Karma's older sister. Mason, then a sophomore at the University of Kentucky, came home for semester break and considered transferring.

Hamilton, a senior, reminded her sister they had one chance to bowl together.

"We didn't have to break her arm," Hamilton said. "Just twist it a little bit."

Mason, who attended Southeast High School, missed home and grew up bowling with much of the team.

"It wasn't a real formal recruiting pitch, but they were working me pretty hard," she said. "The bowing was the lure."

That sales job started one of Wichita State's best bowling careers. Mason, a member of the 2025 class of the Wichita State Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame, bowled for three national champions and a runner-up from 1975-78.  

She helped the Shockers win the Collegiate Team Championships (now known as the Intercollegiate Team Championships) in 1975, the first year for the competition. She also bowled on WSU's championship teams in 1977 and 1978 and the runner-up in 1976.

Mason placed fourth in the 1976 National Collegiate Individual Championship and served as WSU's captain and anchor bowler her final three seasons. She compiled a high tournament average of 196 and high tournament series of 638.

Her game needed some polishing when she arrived. Coaches Paul Waliczek, Vicki Schmidt-Little and Gordon Vadakin helped her master more complex parts of the game, such as adjusting for lane conditions.

"My weaknesses showed up at the college level," she said. "I essentially started over."

Hours on the lanes helped Mason turn into one of the nation's top bowlers.

"She took coaching and worked on her release, her accuracy and steadiness of nerve," Hamilton said. "She was always calm."

Mason remembers the bowling fondly. She also credits her time at Wichita State with shaping her life in many ways. She earned her bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in geology. That background helped Mason and husband, Gary, start an environmental, health and safety business (iSi, headquartered in Wichita) in 1990.

"I credit the bowling experience and the graduate degree experience at WSU with helping to create a a 'Can do or must do' attitude," she said. "They helped me develop the tenacity to work through difficult times and come out the other side with some victories."

She is a member of WSU's National Advisory Council and in July contributed a lead gift of $100,000 to support a new locker room and offices for the bowling team in the Rhatigan Student Center. She is thrilled that WSU's women's team is a part of the athletic department and the NCAA.

"The university has such a gem in this program," she said. "It's going to be phenomenal for the university. This program is an unbelievable success, and that's attributed to a lot of people and a lot of years of commitment."