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ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Bowling
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1908 State Tourney
1910 Bowling Club Officers
Watertown Gazette, 07 29 1910
At a meeting of the newly organized Comet bowling club the following officers were chosen:
Manager—Walter Kuenzi
Captain—William Behling
Secretary and treasurer—Arthur Krueger
The other members are Lester Ruedig, Walter Guse and Oscar Lange
1910 Bowling Club Organized
Watertown Gazette, 09 23 1910
Last week Thursday evening a meeting of bowlers of this city was held at the Schultz bowling alleys and a bowling club organized, officered as follows:
President—Curl F. Otto
Vice President—B. F. Haskins
Secretary—A. Krueger
Treasurer—Edward Schultz
The bowling season opens Sept. 23.
1937 Watertown Women's Assn, Adelle Walling, first secretary of
1959 Operators awarded instructor certificates
05 18 Lee Edwards, Watertown, was elected president
of the Lutheran Bowling Association of Wisconsin at the annual meeting of the
board of directors and delegates held at West Bend Sunday. Two other Watertown persons, Gary Ponath and Mrs. M.A. Schlueter,
were also elected to offices. Ponath won a third term as director and Mrs. Schlueter was named director of the women's division. WDT
1960
10 28 Ozzie Peters was elected president of the Watertown Bowling Association at the organization’s annual meeting held at the Wethonkitha Club Sunday afternoon. He succeeds Les Kulke in the post. Four vice presidents — A. E. Radtke, Foster Pagel, Clarence Tessman and Clarence Schmidt — were elected to office. Lee Edwards, secretary-treasurer, still has a year to go on his three year term of office. Directors elected were Les Kulke, Don Nesta, Harry Barrows and Russell Engel. WDT
1961
02 07 Edna Schlueter, a veteran bowler who has had many honor counts during her years of bowling here, did it again Thursday night as she blasted a 278 game and 600 set score in the Victory League at Watertown Bowl. Mrs. Schlueter started her high count last night inauspiciously with a modest 145 game, stepped up the tempo to 175 in the second game, and then cut loose for her big 278 in the final game. She had nine perfect strikes in that big game but missed the 10th when she got only nine pins on an off-center hit. A crowd of other bowlers gathered around her and cheered her on as she ran her string of strikes. The 600 was Mrs. Schlueter's first honor count this season. In 1942 she bowled a 278 game for second high score in the state. Flora Chase bowled a high 285 game in 1948. WDT
03 25 Rudy Hackbarth blasted games of 244, 258, 234 for a 736 record set in the Classic League Tuesday night. The sizzling 736 topped Rudy's old mark of 719 which he set in the circuit in 1955. Hackbarth never wasted a strike as he collected 20. WDT
07 05 The month of June represented the best month so far this year in the building line in Watertown based on the amount of construction projects approved by the office of the city building inspector, Floyd Usher. The monthly report shows that the total for June represents an estimated $256,300. However, two major projects represent the bulk of that sum — including a new bowling alley to be known as Bowl-A-Fun for which Max Uttech acted as agent in the filing of an application. The estimated cost, according to records in the building inspector’s office, is $100,000 although the total will run much higher by the time the building is completed and outfitted. The site listed in the application is 770 North Church Street. WDT
07 19 Watertown’s new bowling alley, now in the process of construction, to be operated by Bowl-A-Fun, Inc., at 766 North Church Street, last night was voted a tavern license by the common council. It was the 47th tavern license in the city and the limit has now been reached under the present city tavern ordinance. Bowl-A-Fun Inc., consists of Robert Strege, president, Foster Pagel, secretary, Arnold Strege and Max Uttech. The 47th license, the last under the ordinance, was yielded when the White House Tavern in the seventh ward was closed up. Up to last night 46 tavern licenses had been issued. WDT
10 22 Al Radtke was elected president of the Watertown Bowling Association at the organization’s annual meeting held Sunday . He succeeds Ozzie Peters. Vice presidents elected were Clarence Tessmann, Clarence Schmidt, Carl Woelffer and Ed Kleinsteiber, Lee Edwards was re-elected to a three-year term as secretary-treasurer of the group. Named to the board of directors were Peters, Les Kulke, Clarence Schumann and Harry Barrows. WDT
11 02 Mrs. Edna (Conant) Schlueter, who received a pin for bowling a 278 count last season, has been an outstanding woman bowler here for about 25 years. “But I’m not as good as I used to be,” modestly admits Mrs. Schlueter. “I bowl only once a week now and I’ve lost some of my sharpness.” Mrs. Schlueter’s lowest average for any year has been 175 and her highest 188. Once she hit a hot streak and rolled series of 699, 688 and 676 all in one week. The 699 was the highest set she ever posted. The Watertown kegler won the state Lutheran singles title in the early 1940s and has won city championships almost annually. She’s held many singles titles and has been the big contributor in doubles and team championships. All-events honors have been hers annually, for all but the past few seasons. WDT
1962
04 30 Harry O’Brien, former Watertown resident and former Jefferson County sheriff as well as one of the all time greats of bowling here, retired today as a deputy United States marshal. O’Brien, who lives in 2344 North 27th Street, Milwaukee, with his wife, the former Louise Koenig of Watertown, has reached the mandatory federal retirement age of 70 years. Mrs. Koenig is a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Koenig. O’Brien’s career as a law enforcement officer started locally in 1933 when he joined the Jefferson County sheriff’s department as a deputy. WDT
1972 Harry O'Brien was an all time bowling great and in 1972 was elected to the Milwaukee Bowling Hall of Fame. His accomplishments in bowling were many. He was a former Milwaukee and Wisconsin doubles champion, bowled a perfect 300 game and had a three game total of 814.
1985
08 02 Watertown Bowl 18, 102 West Cady Street, Watertown's largest bowling establishment, is going high-tech this season, according to Robert Schmidt, owner of the firm. The establishment has completed installation of state-of-the-art computer technology for automatic scoring. The new equipment is now operational and will be available for the public for the first time this evening. The new equipment has been purchased through the AMF Corporation and the official name of the equipment is AMF AccuScore. It was installed by technical people from AMF. All 18 of the lanes have the automatic scoring devices and they are all hooked up to a main frame computer and terminal system for management operations. WDT
1986
01 31 Two active and two deceased members will be enshrined a charter members of the Watertown Bowling Association Hall of Fame during a special program being planned during March. They are Clarence Bittner and Walter Hornickle, both active members in Watertown, the late Herbert Lange and the late Don Nesta. The four men will be honored at the induction ceremonies on Saturday evening, March 15, at Balistreri's Welcome Inn. A dinner and program is being planned. WDT
07 22 Jerry Peters, secretary/treasurer of the Watertown Bowling Association, has resigned his position. Peters said he was resigning in anticipation of his purchase of Bowl-A-Fun Lanes in the near future. The board of directors of the bowling association has met and formally accepted his resignation and has also appointed Richard Symoens, fourth vice president of the board, to fill Peters’ unexpired term of office. Peters took over the secretary/treasurer duties from Lee Edwards, longtime secretary, back in 1980. WDT
10 27 Jim Conant is the new president of the Watertown Men’s Bowling Association. He was elected at the organization’s annual meeting this past weekend at Watertown Bowl 18. Conant, who has served on the association’s board of directors for the past six years, succeeds Hilbert Christian at the top post. Christian, who completed his two-year term as president, was elected to one of four director positions. The association membership also elected all other officers. Dick Symoens was elected to a full three-year term as secretary/treasurer of the association. Symoens was appointed by the board of directors last spring to fill the unexpired term of Jerry Peters. Peters resigned when he purchased the former Bowl-A-Fun Lanes, now known as Jerry’s North Bowl. WDT
1999
04 01 Proposal to introduce girls bowling as
a letter sport at Watertown High School WDT
2009
04 07 Wayne Kohlhoff joined Bruce Martin as newest inductees into the Watertown Bowling Hall of Fame. WDT
2011
04 01 Paul Kressin and Tim Rupprecht will be inducted into the Watertown Bowling Hall of Fame at the annual dinner Sunday, April 17, at Plattdeutscher Hall. The two men will be honored for their many and varied contributions to the game of bowling over a sustained period of time.
Rupprecht is being honored for his unwavering support of bowling locally through decades of sponsorships and for his successes on the lanes. It was Rupprecht's father, the late Mel Rupprecht, who started sponsoring his Mel's Garage teams back in about 1960, a tradition Tim Rupprecht readily continued when he took over the business.
In all of his years of local bowling competition, Rupprecht has competed for only one team sponsor - his own Mel's Garage team. The sponsorship tradition began in the Industrial League at then Chase's Bowl (now Firehouse Lanes) back in about 1960. Since then the teams have moved periodically to different leagues, from the Industrial to the Merchants, Community and 766 leagues. He also sponsors and competes in the Major League at Firehouse Lanes.
Kressin will follow the footsteps of his father, Wayne, who was inducted into the local bowling hall of fame in 1993. Kressin started bowling in high school but did not pursue the game initially as an adult. He came back to the game in 1986 and has set many scoring records since that time. His initial interest in bowling came from watching his father compete in top leagues. From there it was the junior programs and later adult leagues.
Kressin has been involved with lane dressing procedures in the city, working to help establish oiling patterns at Firehouse Lanes for a number of years. Kressin has worked with lane dressing procedures by hand, with the Rotobuff, Century and now the sophisticated Phoenix machines. While he typically doesn't dress the lanes, he works to establish oiling patterns that will ensure quality conditions.
2012
03 27 Randy Kroll and Kevin Quinn inducted into Watertown Bowling Hall of Fame WDT
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