The 1927 New York Yankees — a lineup filled with Hall of Famers — were known as baseball's Murderer's Row.

Butler County had its version of a bowling Murderer's Row in the early 1960s.

Ralph and Ray Henry, Jack "Bo" Ordy, Dick "Pooch" Ordy and Ron Brandon — all members of the BCBA Hall of Fame — bowled on the same team. Ivan Dandois was a member of that group as well.

"Ivan's not in the Hall of Fame yet, but he has the credentials for it," Brandon said.

Ralph Henry, Bo Ordy and Brandon all averaged 200 for a season in the early 1960s and were the first Butler County bowlers to do so.

Henry averaged 200 in 1960-61 in a doubles league.

"That would have been the first time it happened, but it wasn't recognized that way because it wasn't in a full-team league," Ordy said.

Ordy averaged 200 in a full-team league the following year and Brandon followed suit in 1962-63 in a Western Pennsylvania traveling league. Ordy averaged 208.91 in 1963-64, setting the county record.

Brandon broke that mark in 1964-65 with a 210.72 — a record that stood until Ralph Henry snapped it in 1979-80.

"If you averaged 190 during that era, you were a darn good bowler," Brandon said.

"You're bowling on wood with a rubber bowling ball and the pins were heavier," Henry said. "Sometimes a board would be sticking up on the lane … You earned everything you got.

"Pins are plastic-coated now and they bounce around a lot more. Back then, they were solid wood."

Ralph Henry bowled a 763 series in 1965. His brother, Ray, beat that with a 785 in 1973.

With these record-setting bowlers competing on the same team, they were almost unbeatable.

"We won most of the leagues we bowled in," Ordy recalled. "Pooch was quite a bowler in those days, too. Between us and the Henry brothers, we had plenty of talent."

They saw Brandon bowl and asked him to join the squad. Dandois soon followed as well.

"I started to bowl in the top leagues when I was 16," Brandon said. "Two years later, those guys asked me to join them.

"They were all open leagues. There was no team average limit, so we could all bowl together."

They wound up winning the City League, the Classic League and a few others.

"We won a lot of leagues because we had the highest-average bowlers," Henry admitted. "I think we had three of the top four averages in the county at one point."

Brandon was a teen-ager, the others were in their low 20's. The Butler County Bowling Association decided to enact a ceiling for composite team averages in the middle 1960s.

In effect, that broke up the Ordy and Henry brothers, Brandon and Dandois.

"I had no problem with it, to be honest," Ordy said. "I had already dropped off another team because I thought it was too dominant.

"Other teams want to win, too. The competition should be more balanced. It's good for the game."

Ordy and Henry won the state doubles title together one year. Ordy recalled Henry winning a $700 first prize at a prestigious tournament in Boardman, Ohio.

"Back then, $700 was a whole lot of money," Ordy said.

Henry is 68 years of age now. Ordy is 66 and retired from bowling four years ago. Brandon is 63 and left for the military in 1965.

Henry and Ordy got started in bowling as pin boys at the old Penn Lanes.

"I started in 1949 when I was 12 years old," Henry said. "When business was slow, and on Saturday afternoons, we were allowed to bowl all we wanted for free — as long as we set up our own pins.

"We used to take turns setting up each other's pins. We got in a lot of practice."

Brandon said he never wanted to be compared to the Ordys or Henrys.

"My only goal was to approach the class of bowler they were," he said. "I wish young bowlers today could watch tapes of Ralph and Bo bowl. Their mechanics were unmatched.

"Those guys were just really, really good."