Back to Hall of FameUnquestionably the greatest and foremost all-around bowler in Washington history, Harry Franklin Krauss can now add the honor of being selected to the City Association’s Hall of Fame to those honors he started accumulating in 1904.
Born in December 1882 in Philadelphia, Harry moved with his family to Washington when he was seven years old. In 1904, at the age of 22, Harry and his partner, Charles Spiess, won the American Bowling Congress doubles event championship in Cleveland. Harry had 562 and Spiess had 622, for a team total of 1,184. It is the only ABC Tournament title ever won by Washington area bowlers.
In 1908, he established a world endurance record by rolling 118 games over a 24-hour, non-stop period, averaging 195-plus. Though marathon keglers since have surpassed his endurance mark, none has approached his fantastic average.
Harry is regarded as the greatest bowler in Washington tenpin history. In league play, he averaged 200 during an era when such a pace was a rarity, when tenpin bowlers did not have the plush establishments, excellent equipment, regulated conditions, etc., they have today.
He was recognized as the "Walter Johnson of Bowling," and it is appropriate that, like Walter Johnson in baseball, Harry Franklin Krauss enter Washington’s bowling Hall of Fame.