Harrold Capps started his bowling career in the early 1940s as a pinboy at Del-Mar Recreation in St. Louis. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1947 and graduated from the old Central High School, continuing his education at Columbia Tech and George Washington University. In 1988, he retired from the Defense Mapping Agency after 38 years of service, which included two years with the Army Corps of Engineers.
A member of the NCABA board since 1987, Harrold has served on many committees, including the Audit, Suspension, Legislative, and, of special note, Annual Meeting and Ways and Means. For the past nine years, Harrold has chaired the annual Council of Delegates Meeting Committee, which among many things includes canvassing and reserving meeting sites of adequate size to handle the hundreds of league representatives that attend, selecting the meal menus to fit within budgetary constraints, and ensuring that all costs for this yearly February event are properly accounted for and paid in full.
Harrold has spent numerous hours manning the association’s Ways and Means merchandise table during its Championship Tournament conducted each April, displaying and selling bowling apparel and accessories along with raffling off bowling balls to name a couple of activities. This past April, he teamed with Hall of Famer Ron Dailey to handle Ways and Means business at the Virginia State Bowling Association Handicap Tournament conducted at Bowl America Chantilly.
He became a full-time bowler in 1957 at the Rosslyn Bowling Alley with the Army Map Service league. He served as secretary-treasurer of the league for 38 years after it moved to the new River Bowl in 1961 and then, after the center’s closing in 1986, to Bowl America Westwood until the league—now, the River Road ABC Handicap—dissolved at the end of the 1999-2000 season when Westwood, where he also served as lane director, also closed its doors. Harrold now serves as lane director to Bowl America Silver Spring and as assistant director at the National Naval Medical Center Lanes.
Harrold has been an NCABA delegate to the American Bowling Congress Convention for 11 years, and he has competed in 43 consecutive NCABA Championship Tournaments. He enjoys the sport so much that he ended his league at Westwood having not missed a night of bowling since 1954—4,485 straight games! His personal highs include a 183 average, a 288 game, and a 695 series.
Harrold Capps’ longtime service and commitment to the bowling community in the Nation’s Capital Area merits an honored position for him in the NCABA Hall of Fame.