ARLINGTON, Texas - Three bowlers have been elected to the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame - two in Outstanding USBC Performance and one in the Meritorious Service category - by the USBC Hall of Fame Committee.

Four-time USBC Open Championships titlists John Gaines of Orlando, Fla., and Dale Traber of Cedarburg, Wis., have earned entrance in the Outstanding USBC Performance category, while the late Woody Woodruff of Long Island, N.Y., a longtime executive at AMF, was elected posthumously for nearly four decades of service to the industry.

The committee also slated six bowlers for the Superior Performance national ballot to be voted on by a panel of USBC Hall of Fame members, board members and veteran bowling writers.

On the men's ballot are Steve Cook, Granite Bay, Calif.; David Ozio, Beaumont, Texas; Danny Wiseman, Baltimore; Doug Kent, Newark, N.Y.; Larry Laub, Lincoln, Calif.; and Randy Pedersen of Clermont, Fla. There are no candidates on the women's side for 2014.

The induction ceremony will take place April 24 at the 2014 USBC Convention in Reno, Nev., and will include those elected for Superior Performance.

A look at each of the newly-elected USBC Hall of Famers:

John Gaines
The 46-year-old right-hander recently helped Lodge Lanes Too of Orlando, Fla., to the highest team score in 110 years of Open Championships history (3,538), and the 2013 Regular Team title. It was the fourth title for Gaines in his 25-year career, which includes Team All-Events wins in 1997 and 1998, and a Regular Singles crown in 1998. He has 10 other top-10 finishes and is among the top 20 on the tournament's lifetime average list.

Gaines is the 1997 USBC Team USA Trials champion and was a member of Team USA from 1998-2000. He earned a team gold medal at the Pan American Games in 1999 and a silver medal in the five-player team event at the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Men's Championships the same year.

Dale Traber
Traber's four titles at the Open Championships include Regular Doubles in 1999, Team All-Events in 2000 and 2009 and Regular Team in 2009. He has three additional top-five finishes and is among the top 25 on the 20- and 30-year lifetime average lists.

The 56-year-old right-hander added to his legacy with USBC Senior Masters victories in 2009 and 2011 to go along with an eighth-place finish at the USBC Masters in 2005.

Traber owns 10 state championships and six city titles and is a member of the Ozaukee County (1988), Greater Milwaukee (1999) and Wisconsin State (2012) Halls of Fame.

Raymond (Woody) Woodruff
Woodruff played a major role in the commercial development of AMF's Automatic Pinspotter, created AMF's pro staff and supervised and operated the installation for the 1957 Open Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, the first major bowling tournament to be completely automated. He also worked closely with Professional Bowlers Association founder Eddie Elias to bring PBA competition to national television.

Woodruff was a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business, and along with various roles at AMF, he served as president of the National Bowling Council and was a member of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame Board of Directors for a decade.

Under his leadership as chairman of the IBMHOF board, he helped establish the Salute to Champions fundraising event as well as the Sustaining Membership program to secure corporate contributions that brought in more than $100,000 in annual funding.

Woodruff retired in 1984 after nearly 40 years of bowling-industry service and died in 2009 at age 90.

Through 2013, there are 402 members of the USBC Hall of Fame - 267 in Performance, 115 in Meritorious Service and 20 Pioneers.

The USBC Hall of Fame was created in 2005 by merging the former American Bowling Congress and Women's International Bowling Congress Halls of Fame.