Frank Lausche played amateur baseball and served in the U.S. Army during World War I before earning his law degree, graduating second in his class from John Marshall School of Law in 1921. After several years in private practice, he was appointed a judge on Cleveland Municipal Court in 1932 and re-elected through 1937. He served as a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge from 1936-1941, when he was elected Mayor of Cleveland. Lausche was elected Governor of Ohio in 1944, lost the 1946 election, but was elected again in 1948 where he served until 1956. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1956, serving until 1968, before returning to the practice of law in Washington, D.C. Throughout his career, Lausche had a bipartisan political approach and is credited with paving the way for ethnic Democratic political leaders in Cuyahoga County.