Floretta (Doty) “Mrs. Mac” McCutcheon

Year Inducted: 1974 (p)
Nominated By: Ernest Ballotti
Sports Competed In: Bowling
Athlete, Coach or Contributor: Athlete

Floretta McCutcheon

Achievements:
Bowling: 
● Considered the "Best Woman Bowler in the World" in 1932.
● The top woman bowler in the United States for more than three decades.
● A Pueblo housewife in the 1920s, she was advised by a doctor to take up a hobby if she wanted to avoid a nervous breakdown.
● Began bowling in the basement of the Steelworkers YMCA and within a few years word of her prowess had reached the American Bowling Congress (ABC).
● Defeated world singles champion Jimmy Smith in 1927 at a Denver alley, with a three-game roll off 704-686, a match arranged by the ABC.
● A rematch was set up in Pueblo and she responded by not only defeating Smith again but rolling a 300 game in the process...One of the 10 perfect games she rolled in her career.
● Also recorded nine 299 games, an 832 for a three game series; a 260 average for five consecutive games; a 248 average for 12 consecutive games; a 201 average over a 10-year span.
● First among women bowlers in the 1932 Olympics.
● Retired from competition in 1954 and was elected to the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) Hall of Fame in 1956 and posthumously into the Colorado Hall of Fame.

Occupations:
Owner of a bowling school.

Quotes:
"Mrs. Floretta D. McCutcheon of Pueblo, CO, considered to be the world’s best lady bowler: Records of 250-8 for 11 games and 248-2 for 12 games, bettering her own best previous scores, and a perfect game (300), the 8th in her career, in the course of a single evenings exercise, at St. Paul, Minn.
-- Time Magazine, December 26, 1932 pg. 1

Personal:
Lived in Southern California... Passed away on February 2, 1967.