Floretta Doty McCutcheon

Bowler

• Born: July 22, 1888
• Birthplace: Ottumwa, Iowa
• Died: February 2, 1967
• Place of death: Pasadena, California

Sport: Bowling

Early Life

Floretta Doty McCutcheon was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on July 22, 1888. In 1901, her family moved to Denver, Colorado. In 1921, they moved again to Pueblo, Colorado, where Floretta lived for many years. In Pueblo, she met and later married Robert McCutcheon, a clerk for Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation. They soon had their only child, Barbara.

For many years, Floretta was a housewife who enjoyed quilting and an occasional round of golf. Unlike so many sports champions, she did not enter her sport until late in life. She began to bowl in Pueblo as a hobby, and on November 23, 1923, at the age of thirty-five, Floretta rolled a 69 in her first game.

The Road to Excellence

Floretta continued to bowl in Pueblo, participating in two leagues, but then stopped bowling until 1926, when she joined league play again. Her career as a bowler was enhanced when an accomplished and well-known bowler, Jimmy Smith, gave an exhibition in Pueblo. Soon thereafter, Floretta adopted a style similar to Smith’s, and a year later, she defeated the hall of famer in a three-game exhibition, 704 to 687.With this victory, “Mrs. Mac,” as she became known, began a tour of exhibition matches, traveling through New York, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, California, Oregon, and Colorado. In 1930, at the age of forty-two, Mrs. Mac began the Mrs. McCutcheon School of Bowling with her partner, C. J. Cain, who had been Jimmy Smith’s manager. She continued to travel to major cities throughout the United States, giving exhibition matches and conducting teaching clinics for women. Mrs. Mac was far superior to other women bowlers, as bowling had not been widely popular with women in the United States. Her competitors were men, many of whom she defeated.

The Emerging Champion

Mrs. Mac weighed 185 pounds when she began bowling. A year after her tour began, she had lost 42 pounds. In 1935, she traveled eighteen thousand miles, giving exhibitions, running bowling “schools,” and competing in tournaments.

Mrs. Mac continued her tours and exhibitions and compiled an impressive list of records. She bowled ten 300-pin games, eleven 800-pin three-game series, and more than one hundred series above 700 pins. In Morris, Minnesota, on January 20, 1931, she rolled her highest three-game total of 832 pins. Once, she hit 248 in twelve-game blocks. She averaged 201 for 8,076 games over a ten-year period. No woman had ever scored better than her 248 twelve consecutive games.

Mrs. Mac also placed first among the women in the 1932 Olympic Games, and, during the 1938-1939 season, she averaged 206 pins in New York, a record that stood until the 1963-1964 season. None of Mrs. Mac’s records is included in Women’s International Bowling Congress (WIBC) records because she scored in instructional exhibitions or unsanctioned match play.

In spite of the many records she set, Mrs. Mac’s greatest contribution to bowling was her school. She traveled extensively throughout the United States and is credited with instructing as many as 300,000 women in bowling. She maintained that women would eventually bowl as well as men because bowling required rhythm, control, timing, and coordination rather than strength and speed. Although bowling had been popular with women, its popularity increased dramatically among women thirty-five and older because of Mrs. Mac’s tours, exhibitions, and instruction. Her contributions made bowling the most popular amateur sport in the United States during the Depression.

Continuing the Story

Mrs. Mac continued to travel, compete, and instruct during the decade of the 1930’s. She was a spot bowler who used the four-step delivery and was highly regarded because of her consistent accuracy. She made further contributions to the game by writing bowling booklets, organizing leagues, and creating an instructional series for female bowlers.

In 1939, she became an instructor at the Capital Health Center in New York City. In 1944, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she continued her instruction at the Bowlium. In 1954, she announced her retirement and moved to San Gabriel, California, to help care for her two grandchildren. She left the game after dominating bowling for fifteen years and molding champions for fifteen more years. Although she held all of the bowling records for women, she never won a tournament. However, for her many contributions as teacher and athlete, she was inducted into the WIBC Hall of Fame in 1956 as a Star of Yesteryear and was later named as an honorary member of WIBC. She died in 1967.

Summary

Floretta “Mrs. Mac” Doty McCutcheon was known as both a teacher and an athlete. She began her career late in life, at the age of thirty-five. After defeating Jimmy Smith, a well-known champion, she established herself as the dominant woman bowler of the 1930’s. For many years, she toured the United States, giving exhibitions and conducting clinics for women. She also wrote booklets advocating the four-step delivery and spot bowling. During this time, she bowled more than eight thousand matches, averaging more than 200 per game. In the 1938-1939 season, she set a WIBC league average of 206, a record that stood for twenty-five years. She helped open the door for women in athletics.

Bibliography

Layden, Joseph. Women in Sports: The Complete Book on the World’s Greatest Female Athletes. Los Angeles: General, 1997.

McIntosh, Ron. Bowler’s Handbook: A Guide to (Almost) Everything in Bowling. Elfers, Fla.: McIntosh, 2006.

Miller, Ernestine G. Making Her Mark: Firsts and Milestones in Women’s Sports. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2002.

Woolum, Janet. Outstanding Women Athletes: Who They Are and How They Influenced Sports in America. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1998.