Ed Hansen
Bowling

Ed Hansen is Everett through and through. An Everett High School graduate and former three-term Everett mayor, Hansen is one of the best bowlers in Snohomish County history. 

His bowling career included two stages: the first from 1959-78 and the second from 1992-2005. He started bowling as a teenager and helped lead an Everett team to first place in the Seattle Classic tournament, scoring a 751 across three games. This initial success eventually led to an invitation to join one of Seattle’s best teams. Hansen went on to win more than 50 tournaments in at least 20 cities across five states, including British Columbia, Canada. Between the 1960s and 70s, he was selected to 12 Greater Seattle All-Star teams and was twice named Greater Seattle’s Bowler of the Year.

While Hansen had success at the regional level, he also claimed three national titles. His Cascade natural Gas team won the 1968 ABC Team All-Events tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio, which featured nearly 6,000 teams; Hansen’s team was also the first group west of Mississippi to ever win the event. In 1972, Hansen and his Kenmore Village Lanes team out-bowled more than 4,700 teams at the ABC Team All-Events tournament in Long Beach, California. Hansen also won bronze out of more than 25,000 bowlers at the 1976 ABC Individual All-Events tournament in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. And in 1994, Hansen won the Senior High Roller sudden-death match play tournament at Showboat Lanes in Las Vegas, Nevada, taking home $26,000.

These victories were in addition to Hansen’s nearly two dozen other titles he claimed as a senior, including the National Mayors’ event in Reno, Nevada, Seattle Senior Masters and the 2005 Northwest Senior Masters in Centralia, Washington.

In 1996, Hansen was inducted into the Washington State Bowling Hall of Fame. He’s also in the Greater Seattle Bowing Hall of Fame and was selected as a charter member of the Northwest Senior Tour Hall of Fame and Western Washington Senior Tour. Concluding nearly half a century of bowling, Hansen averaged over 200 with a high-season average of 228 in 1965. He’s also bowled 16,300 games in ABC-sanctioned league and tournament competitions.

Fun fact: The conference center, where the banquet is held each year, is named after Hansen.

GALLERY