The HyperTexts
A Brief History of Billiards: a Pictorial Chronology and Timeline of the Continuing Evolution
of Pool
A detailed chronology of billiards and/or pool follows a brief pictorial
introduction to the games and how they evolved. Since this is a large page, if you're short of time and
looking for something in particular, please try using CTRL-F or your search
function to find it.
Who was the first pool hustler? ... The Dutch Baron, John Carr, Edwin "Jonathan"
Kentfield, "Lookout," or Marie
Antoinette?
Who was the first road player? .... John Carr, John Roberts Sr., John Roberts Jr., Mary Queen of
Scots, or Napoleon?
Who was the first American pool champion of a game that is still being played
today? ... Albert Frey, Gottlieb Wahlstrom, Cyrille Dion, or Alfredo de Oro?
Who was the greatest proposition gambler? ...
"Titanic" Thompson, Minnesota Fats, or Ronnie "Fast Eddie" Allen?
Who invented "english," draw (backspin) and the massé? ... François Mingaud,
John Carr, Mike Massey or Efren "the Magician" Reyes?
Who was the first person to mention billiards? ... Anacharsis, William
Shakespeare, Cleopatra, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, Charles Cotton or Abbe
McGeoghegan?
Who was the first person to spell "billiards" the modern way? ... John Florio,
Dr. Samuel Johnson, or the creators of the Oxford English Dictionary?
Who was the father of American pool? ... Michael Phelan, George Washington,
Ben Franklin, Lafayette, or Ralph Greenleaf?
Who was the best billiards and pool player of all time? ... Harold
Worst, Willie Hoppe, Alfredo de Oro, Johnny Layton, Willie Mosconi, Mike Sigel,
Earl Strickland,
or Efren Reyes?
Who was a famous "pool nut"? ... Shakespeare, Mary Queen of
Scots, King James I, Mozart, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, Josephine, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, John
Wilkes Booth, Wild Bill Hickok, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Darwin, Queen Victoria,
Pope Pius IX, Teddy
Roosevelt, Neville Chamberlain,
Al Capone, Babe Ruth, Cap Anson, Jackie Gleason, Paul Newman or Tom Cruise?
The last is a trick question, because they were all nuts for pool!
Another interesting player to consider as the best ever is Albert M. Frey, who
was winning nearly every match almost as soon as the first native American pool games
had been invented. According to Michael Phelan, the father of American pool, the
first national pool championship took place in 1878. Albert Frey the "blonde
boy" wonder and darling of the crowds, made his public debut on December 30,
1880. He won the
first professional eight-ball tournament at Republican Hall, NYC, in May
1882. He became the world champion of another new game, fifteen-ball or 61-pool,
also in 1882. By 1884, Frey
was "almost invariably winning" according to Phelan, while competing against
stars like George F. Sutton, James L. Malone, Cyrille "The Bismarck of
Billiards" Dion, Alfredo de Oro and Jake "The Wizard" Schaefer. From 1881-1887,
Frey won every fifteen-ball championship match or finished second. In 1888, Frey won the first continuous pool
(straight pool) tournament, beating Malone in a playoff. In 1889, Frey was tied
for first place in the national championship tournament, when he died suddenly of
pneumonia. At the time of his death, he had been dominating the American pool scene, whether the game was fifteen-ball,
eight-ball or continuous pool. Frey was "widely known as the
champion pool player of America," according to his obit in The New York
Times. Malone had a crown delivered to the
funeral, a touching tribute since he had been Frey's greatest and most
determined obstacle to the crown.
If we can look northward, another fascinating player is Cyrille Dion, a
French-Canadian born in Montreal in 1843. Dion was the billiards champion of
Canada in 1865, at age 22, with a high run of 138 and a grand average of 12.76.
He won the 1866 Tournament of State and Provincial Champions, again going
undefeated with a high run of 127 and a grand average of 11.28. In 1870-1871 he
won a series of four-ball championship matches against stars who included the
French champion A. P. Rudolphe and Americans Frank Parker and Melvin Foster.
Dion won the American four-ball championship in 1873, with a high run of 127 and
a grand average of 11.28. He won the straight rail championship in 1875. In 1876
Dion won the four-ball championship by such a wide margin, 1500-392, that
The New York Times predicted there would never be another four-ball
championship match. In 1878, Dion won the first American National Championship
pool tournament. He died just six months later, at age 35, from severe lung
congestion that had plagued him for years. He was the undefeated champion of the
first major Canadian billiards tournament, the undefeated champion of the last
American four-ball billiards tournament, and the undefeated champion of the
first major American pool tournament. He had nerves of steel and was ready,
willing and able to play anyone, as reported by the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette on
July 18, 1871: "Cyrille Dion has issued a notice in which he challenges anyone
in the world to play him a game of three-ball or French carom billiards, the
amount of stakes to be not less than five hundred dollar a side. It is thought
in billiard circles that an International contest will be the result of this
challenge."
In the modern era, Efren "The Magician" Reyes may well be the best all-around
player. Reyes is a master of eight-ball, nine-ball, ten-ball, rotation,
one-pocket, straight pool, snooker, 18.1 balkline and three-cushion
billiards. And he claimed the richest purse in pool history, $163,172 in
the 2001 Tokyo Nine-Ball Championship. But whether he's better than Worst is a
matter of speculation, if you'll pardon the pun.
A Brief History of Billiards and Pool
But where, how, when and why did billiards originate? Would it surprise you to know
that billiards is closely related to golf and croquet? Think about it ...
Why was pool table cloth historically green? Because grass is green. Why the
term "bank shots"? Because billiard table "banks" (now more commonly called
rails) resembled river banks. Why were the pockets of early billiard tables
called "hazards," as on a golf course? Because billiards originated as an outdoor
ball-and-stick game related to croquet and golf.
This "ground billiards" game later migrated to indoor tables in England,
Scotland and
France, probably due to long periods of inclement northern European weather
(i.e., cold, damp and dismal). We know the game is truly ancient because it
depicted in works of medieval art. For instance the woodcut engraving below,
circa the 1600s, was based on a medieval tapestry commissioned by the St. Lo
Monastery of France, circa the 1500s. The images on this page will help us
see and understand the evolution of billiards from an outdoor game played
with cudgels, to an indoor game played with maces with tapering cues (the French
word queue means "tail"), to the modern games we call billiards and
pool.
![](images/Ground%20Billiards%20Woodcut.jpg)
According to Clive Everton's History of Billiards, ground billiards was
being played in the 1340s and continued to be played into the 1600s. In Italy
the game
was known as biglia, in France bilhard, in Spain virlota
and in England "ball-yard." I believe the
early date derives from an illustration of ground billiards in Sports and
Pastimes of England by James Strutt, created around
1344. But if the picture dates to 1344, the game it illustrates could be considerably older. In
any case, the first documented billiard table was ordered by King Louis XI of
France in 1470; it resembled an indoor putting green, having a single hole at
the center. Maces with large heads, similar to putters and croquet mallets, were
used to push the balls around. The slender cue (a tapering tail) was used only when a ball was
close to the rail, making it difficult or impossible to employ the bulky mace
head.
![](images/Billiard%20Mace.png)
The similarity of indoor billiards to ground billiards can clearly be seen by
comparing the images above and below. Note the similarities of the rectangular
playing area, the clubs (maces) and the hoop. The image below dates to around
1650. The games that probably evolved from ground billiards include billiards,
pool, jeu de mail, croquet, pall-mall (aka pell-mell and
paille-maille), trucco (aka trucks), field hockey and ice hockey.
![](images/Ground%20Billiards%20circa%201650.jpg)
Some of the tables had obstacles. Over time,
pockets were added, initially as "hazards" to be
avoided. Other tables remained pocket-less,
with the object being to carom one ball into another: the French carambole
or English carom billiards. The illustration below is from the first known English book containing instructions for billiards,
Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester, published in 1674.
![](http://crazyaboutpool.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/1674_illustration-the_billiard_table.png?w=549)
The relationship of the indoor table game (above) to the outdoor lawn game of
ground billiards (below) can clearly be seen in the similar hoops and skittles. In "Port
and King Billiards" the croquet-like hoop was called the Port and the upright
skittle was called the King. Each player had a single ball which was pushed with
a mace, the goal being to knock the ball through the
Port in the correct direction and then go back to touch the King, without
knocking over either the Port or the King. But if your ball went through the
Port in the wrong direction, you were deemed a "fornicator"! Heaven knows what
you were called if you knocked the King over ... a "traitor"? At this time, the
pockets were to be avoided, unless a player was able
to knock an opponent's ball into the hazard. This idea of avoiding the pockets
would persist until 1770, when in a variation of English billiards called "The
Winning Game," a player was awarded two points for pocketing an opponent's ball.
Even then it was "bad" for a ball to end up in a "hazard," but since the other
player was rewarded with points, ball-potting became a good thing.
![](images/Ground%20Billiards%20Hoop.jpg)
The picture below is of Louis XIV playing billiards in 1694.
![](images/Louis-XIV-billiards-1694.jpg)
The picture below is of Mozart, circa the late 1700s, contemplating billiards,
his passion after music.
![Mozart at his Billiard table](images/Mozart_Billiards.jpg)
As the indoor table game evolved, advancements like leather tips and chalk
greatly favored the cue over the mace for accuracy and cue ball control. Still, as
late as the 1860s, the majority of American players favored the mace over the
cue. But then within a few years, use of the mace quickly diminished in serious
billiard circles, probably because it was impossible for someone with a mace to
defeat a player of similar skill who employed a leather-tipped cue. During the
Civil War, billiard games were so popular that newspapers sometimes gave
tournaments higher billing than battles. Abraham Lincoln was a
self-admitted "billiard addict" and John Wilkes Booth not only haunted pool
rooms, but got drunk at one the day he assassinated the president. I believe
the image below is a Currier & Ives lithograph depicting a pool game from the
Civil War era.
![](images/Civil%20War%20Billiards%20A%20Kiss.jpg)
The picture below is of an early pool hall with newfangled overhead lighting
(which was first gas, then electric).
![](images/Early%20pool%20hall.jpg)
Three-cushion billiards and snooker date to the 1870s. The modern pocket
billiard games of straight pool, one pocket, nine-ball and eight-ball were
invented in the early 1900s. During the roaring twenties, the best billiardists
were celebrities of the first magnitude. For instance, Ralph Greenleaf has been
compared to Babe Ruth, Red Grange and Jack Dempsey. But after World War II the
various games that had come to be known as "pool" were largely consigned to
seedy gambling joints (the term "pool room" refers to pool betting; billiard
tables were installed to entertain gamblers between horse races). But the 1961
movie The Hustler, starring a young Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson
and Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, created a rebirth of interest in pool, and
the 1986 sequel The Color of Money, starring Newman as an aging Felson
and Tom Cruise as his young, cocky protégé, helped fan the flames of public
interest and keep them alive. Television also helped create public interest in
pool, while changing the nature of the game, because slower, more defensive
games like straight pool and one pocket were not always entertaining. Couch
potatoes wanted to see pool stars like Willie Mosconi, Minnesota Fats, Louie
Lassiter and Steve Mizerak perform, but they didn't want to watch them play
safety after boring safety. So the TV networks and their millions presided over
the ascendency of nine-ball as the dominant "money game."
Timeline of Billiards and Pool
BC
Modern Billiards, published by Brunswick, mentions
(dubiously) the travels of Anacharsis, circa 589 B.C., who saw games
similar to billiards being played.
Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) played billiards, according to
Shakespeare, but this seems to be an anachronism similar to clocks appearing in
Julius Caesar.
AD
148: The first known reference to the game of billiards occurs in Abbe McGeoghegan's History of Ireland. The Abbe quotes from King Cathire
More's will: "To Drimoth I bequeath fifty billiard balls of brass with
the cues of the same material."
Since King Cathire More
died in 148 A.D., this sets a very early date for the game, if
true.
1099: According to Michael Phelan in The Game of Billiards, the sport
was introduced to Europe by Knights Templar returning from the First Crusade.
1164: At this time the word bille is being used to refer to medieval
ball and stick games; billet means "stick" and bille means
"ball." Or billiard may be a compound
word, bille + art, meaning something like "ball art" or "ball
artistry."
1300: Around this time medieval illustrations depict "ground billiards," a lawn game related to croquet and golf.
1470: Records show that King Louis XI of France purchased a billiard table; it
had a single hole at the center, like an indoor putting green.
A
"mace" was employed to push the balls. It was a crooked stick with a
sizeable head, like a golf club, and a slender cue ("tail"). Dr. Samuel Johnson
mentioned gambling at billiards by Fortunio, an Italian humanist (1470-1517). Since Charles Cotton, who
wrote the first English book about gaming, said that billiards originated in
Italy, this seems possible.
1514: "A large table for the game of billiards covered in green cloth" is listed
among the possessions of a French duchess.
1547: The Manor of the Moor, which hosted Henry VIII and Edward VI, had a
"billet bourde covered with greene cloth."
The manor was owned by
Cardinal Thomas Wosley.
1551: During the reign of Henry III of France, billiards is
called the "noble game."
1560: The modern form of billiards has
been attributed to the French artist Henrique De Vigne during the reign
of Charles IX.
1564: Shakespeare (1564-1616) makes numerous references to billiards in his
plays. (Phelan)
1565: Billiards is introduced to North America by a Spanish family living in St.
Augustine, Florida, according to Frank G. Menke.
1578: Billiard tables are licensed in Holland by the Lombards.
1587: Mary, Queen of Scots, complains that her captors have deprived her of her
billiard table at Fotheringay Castle, shortly before her beheading. Her letter to the
Archbishop of Glasgow was written the evening before her death.
Her lady-in-waiting
reported that Mary's headless body was wrapped in the cloth from the table. Around this time Robert
Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and a favorite of Mary's nemesis, Queen Elizabeth
I, also owns a billiard table.
1588: The first known reference to ivory billiard balls appears in an inventory
of the possessions of the Duke of Norfolk. Howard House contained a
"billyard bord coered with a greene cloth [with] three billyard sticks and 11
balls of yvery."
1591: The first literary reference to billiards (spelled "balyards")
appears in the poet Edmund Spensers’ Mother Hubberd’s Tale.
1598: The modern spelling "billiard" appears in 1598, according to the
Oxford English Dictionary. At this time the pockets are called "hazards"!
1599: A biography of St. John Berchmans (1599-1621) claims that "If anyone asked
him to play at trucco or piastrelle, he joined at once." Trucco (also called
"trucks") was a game similar to billiards, played on a table with ivory balls
and shooting sticks.
1605: King James I of England orders a table to be made by "Henry Waller, our
joyner," perhaps the first builder of English billiard tables.
1609: In Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra,
Cleopatra says to her handmaiden: "Let's to billiards. Come, Charmain."
1610: King Louis XIII (1610-1643) plays billiards.
1611: Cotsgrave mentions billiards, spelling it "billyards."
1616: The poet/playwright Ben Jonson mentions the smoothness of a billiard ball
in his play The Devil Is an Ass.
1617: Young Louis XIII stands on a billiard table to be heard as the Cardinal de
Richelieu is dismissed from the royal court.
1632: John Locke (1632-1704) mentions billiards: "For when the Ball obeys the stroke of a
Billiard-stick..." David Hume (1711-1776)
was another philosopher who mentioned billiards when discussing cause and
effect.
1638: Louis XIV (1638-1715) aka "Louis the Great" and the "Sun King" plays billiards.
1652: Michel Chamillard, a court favorite of Louis XIV, is called "a hero at
pool" but a "zero in the ministry."
1654: Gayton in his notes on Don Quixote mentions billiards
being played in taverns.
1665: The first known book containing instructions for billiards, La Maison
de Jeux Academiques, is published in Paris. Samuel Pepys mentions
billiards in his diaries.
1674: The first known English book containing instructions for billiards,
Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester, is published. "It is permissible to use
the small end of the mace if the ball lies too close to the rail." (A
step in the evolution of the pool cue.) At this time the pockets were called "hazards" and were to be avoided,
unless you could pocket your opponent's ball. Cotton says that in
England there were "few towns of note that
hath not a publick Billiard Table."
Gambling was a concern, as Cotton
cautioned: "Let not a covetous desire of winning another's money engage you to
the losing of your own." Players were also warned
against gambling with "strangers" (i.e., hustlers).
1677: John Evelyn mentions that the King's apartment in Ipswich has a billiard
table. Evelyn notes that
the Portuguese mostly use the "sharp and small end of the billiard stick" (i.e.,
the cue rather than the mace).
1680: Francois Maximilien Misson, author of Travels in England, Scotland and
Ireland, mentions billiards in his memoirs.
1689: In the memoirs of the Duke of St. Simon, a hustler
becomes a Catholic bishop!
1690: Billiards may still be played "on specially prepared ground in the garden"
according to Furetiere's dictionary. Louis XIV installs an
elaborate billiard room in his palace at Versailles.
1700: Billiards are played in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great.
1710: Louis XV (1710-1774) was a billiards fan. One of the earliest mentions of the game in America is in the secret diary of
Colonial legislator, William Byrd II of Virginia. After making love to
his wife, Byrd writes: "It is to be observed that the flourish was performed on
the billiard table." M. Jean Barbeyrac, a law
professor, writes a book that discusses the legalities of billiards.
1716: The Elector of Saxony restricts players to being served only by men.
1723: Late-night billiards playing is restricted by the French in the
five-year-old city of New Orleans, perhaps to discourage gambling.
1727: By this time, billiards is being played in nearly every Paris cafe.
1734: The first recorded mention in print of the billiard cue ("the stick") appears
in Seymour's updated Complete Gamester.
1737: Philip Dormer Stanhouse, the Earl of Chesterfield, mentions
playing billiards in his letter to the Countess of Suffolk.
According to H. Savile Clarke, the Earl of Chesterfield was hustled by a "notorious gamester"
called Lookout.
1743: Jeanne Becu, the Duchess du Berri (1743-1793), was a French billiards
enthusiast.
1748: Colonel Denis O'Kelly was a "reckless and daring gamester" who
worked as a marker according to Thormanby.
George Washington reports winning a pool game in his diary.
1750: Dr. Samuel Johnson mentions billiards and gambling by Fortunio (circa
1500).
1754: Louis XVI (1754-1793) plays billiards, often being beaten by his wife,
Marie Antoinette (the first female shark?).
1755. Dr. Samuel Johnson, creator of the first English dictionary, claims that
"billiards" derives from "balyards" and not from the French.
1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) plays billiards; his financial problems have
been attributed to his obsession with the game.
1757: Billiards was was banned from taverns in England by an act of Parliament
during the reign of King George II.
1762: King George IV (1762-1830) is a billiards player.
1765: A billiard room is constructed by the French in the one-year-old city of
St. Louis.
1766: Madame Germaine de Stael (1766-1817) is a billiards enthusiast. When
exiled by Napoleon, she personally oversees the transfer of her table.
1773: Carambole (pocketless carom billiards, the precursor of three cushion
billiards) is introduced in France.
1776: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton play billiards.
Washington records his gambling winnings.
1777:
George Washington plays billiards with the visiting French General
Lafayette.
Louis XVI plays bagatelle, a form of billiards with wooden pins or skittles at the Chateau de Bagatelle.
Bagatelle later evolved
into pinball, bumper pool and modern bowling.
1779: Thomas Jefferson plans to install a billiard table in Monticello but is thwarted
when Virginia outlaws the game!
1789: A Paris hustler bets that he can make thirty bank shots in a row.
Around the same time, a shark in
Hamburg, Germany makes shots by jumping the cue ball from one table to another.
1792: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette play billiards on the eve of their
imprisonment.
Her cue was said to have been fashioned from a single elephant tusk
decorated with gold inlays.
Records show that she beat the king in those final
games.
In the words of American writer John Grissim, "The woman was in stroke,
but so was her executioner."
1796: John Mytton lost 16,000 napoleons at billiards,
according to Thormanby.
1799: John Thurston goes into business as a billiard table and cabinet maker in
London.
Malmaison, purchased by Josephine in 1799, had a billiard room.
1800: Cues and maces are being sold in equal numbers in England.
1803: Billiard table making has become "generally a branch by itself" of the
furniture industry, according to Sheraton.
1807: Captain François Mingaud is released from prison and demonstrates
the spin possible with his invention: the leather cue tip.
Mingaud has been credited with inventing the
draw shot and the
massé, a shot
so amazing that people saw the Devil's hand in it.
At this time "the best
cues were made of well-seasoned ash or boxwood" and when stood on the floor
would reach the player's chin.
The balls were made of
ivory and were around two inches in diameter.
E. White's A
Practical Treatise on the Game of Billiards is published, the first
English book on the game.
White is the first to use
the terms "object ball" and "cue ball."
According to White the
mace has been used "almost exclusively" in England, the cue abroad, esp. by the
Italians and Dutch.
White advises English
players to "rough up" the ends of their tip-less sticks with a file, to avoid
miscues.
White describes
"side-spin" as a nuisance to be avoided by using the mace rather than the cue.
White
warns his readers to
be wary of strangers who may be concealing the the strength of their games
(i.e., hustlers).
1812: Robert Browning mentions billiards in Mr. Sludge, the Medium.
1814: Charles Greville recounts meeting King Louis XVIII in exile
at Hartwell on April 14, 1814, and seeing a billiard table in his salon.
1815:
While in exile on St. Helena, Napoleon, an enthusiastic player, receives
a Thurston billiard table sent to him from England.
The Duke of Wellington,
the victor at Waterloo in 1815, also owns a billiard table.
1818: George Gordon, Lord Byron, mentions billiards in his poem Don
Juan.
1819: A game called "pool" begins to appear in English rule books.
Michael Phelan, the
father of American billiards and pool, is born at Castle Comer, County Kilkenny,
Ireland, on April 18, 1819.
1820: At this time, according to Michael Phelan, backwards Americans use the mace almost
exclusively.
But in England the cue has
superseded the mace.
W. Lake and Ike Dennison
are the best American mace players, according to John Roberts Sr.
Pierce Egan in
Sporting Sketches paints a convincing picture of the first pool
hustler, the Dutch Baron.
The Dutch Baron is a
"gentleman of the green cloth" who played "poorly" until it mattered,
then won "as if by accident."
The Dutch Baron would get
spots from players he was capable of spotting. Whatever they gave him at first,
he would give them in the end.
1823: Leather cue tips are being made and sold in New York by Camille Avout, a
shoemaker.
Michael Phelan's father
emigrates to the United States.
1824: The first player recognized as the English Champion was John Carr
of Bath.
However when a
deciding match for the title was arranged with Edwin "Jonathan"
Kentfield, Carr failed to appear.
Kentfield then became known as "the first player in the world." He remained so
until 1849 when John Roberts Sr. challenged him.
1825:
Michael Phelan's father
is the lessee of three billiard rooms in New York, including one at 88 Maiden
Lane.
Pierce Egan mentions matches between John Carr and "the Cork marker"
noted by
Thormanby.
John Carr is also known as Jack Carr. He amazes spectators with a run of 22 consecutive balls,
using the "spot stroke" technique.
Egan called Carr "the
father of the side-stroke" (and thus of side-spin or "english").
Carr introduces the use
of "twisting chalk" to facilitate the cue ball side-spin" now known
as "english."
Carr becomes the first
"road player" and travels to Spain, where he beats everyone easily.
John Roberts Sr. said
Carr and the Cork marker
were the first players "of any pretentions whose prowess is recorded."
(The first
sharks!)
1826: John Thurston creates a pool table with a slate bed; until then most pool
tables had wooden or marble beds.
1828: Opponents of president John Quincy Adams charge that he installed
"gaming tables" in the White House.
1830: The French master of cue ball spin, François Mingaud, demonstrates the
marvels of "english" in London.
John Thurston translates Mingaud's book The Noble Game of Billiards into English.
1831: Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884) writes a poem about striking the
"dashing hazard" at a place called Brown's.
1833: A billiard table is hauled by mule train to Bent's Fort in Colorado on
the Santa Fe Trail.
1834: John Moses Brunswick immigrates to the United States from Switzerland. He
will become a leading manufacturer of pool tables.
John Thurston introduces
the Imperial Petrosian Billiard Table with a slate bed.
1835: John Thurston introduces India "natural rubber" cushions in a table sold to the
42nd Royal Hussars in Corfu.
John Roberts Sr. remarked
that "everybody laughed" at the innovation of "india-rubber" until it caught on.
Samuel Clemens aka "Mark
Twain" (1835-1910) is passionately devoted to the game of pool.
1837: Queen Victoria (1837-1901) installs billiard tables at Windsor Castle,
Buckingham Palace and Osborne House.
The Windsor Castle table is
made from wood salvaged from HMS Royal George, which sank in 1782.
The Windsor table has a special heating
system developed by John Thurston to keep the rubber cushions warm and "bouncy."
The Osborne House table
is "Frost Proof" and made entirely of slate, the work of Mr. Eugene Magnus.
1838: Michael Phelan and Michael Carr try to open a billiard hall in
Galveston, but the project fails due to "slender capital."
1839: Edwin Kentfield, one of England's early billiards superstars, authors
On Billiards.
1842: Michael Phelan opens his first billiard hall with his friend Joseph N. White, aka Joe White.
1843: Cyrille Dion is born in Montreal in March 1843. He will win the first
major Canadian and American pool tournaments.
His older brother Joseph
Dion will also be a world-class billiardist and pool player.
1844: Charles Goodyear patents vulcanized rubber, which will be used in
pool table cushions.
1845: John M. Brunswick creates his first billiard table.
John Thurston obtains a patent
to apply the vulcanizing process to billiard tables.
The first vulcanized
rubber cushions are fitted to Queen Victoria's table at Windsor Castle.
1846: Pope Pius IX installs a billiard table in the Vatican.
Edwin Kentfield is challenged by John Roberts Sr., who
has a high run of 208 balls.
Reuben Roy authors
The Science of Billiards.
1847: John Roberts Jr. is born at Ardwick near Manchester.
His father runs the billiard room of Manchester's Union Club.
Michael Phelan opens the
famous Arcade Billiard Room.
1848: J. M. Brunswick opens his first sales office in Chicago.
1849: The English champion John Roberts Sr. was said able to spot 300
points to all comers, for the next 20 years!
John Roberts Sr. challenges Edwin Kentfield, who declines
to play him in a match for £1,000 on his home table in
Brighton.
Kentfield's high run was
196 billiards, according to Thormanby, author of Kings of the Turf and
Kings of the Hunting Field.
Maurice Daly is born in
New York City on April 25, 1849.
1850: The first American book on the game is Michael Phelan's
Billiards Without
A Master.
John Roberts Sr. defeats
Starke, the American champion, using the spot stroke.
Gas lighting helps
improve shooting accuracy.
1854: The first public stakes match on record, for $200, is held in Syracuse,
NY, between Joseph N. White and George Smith.
White wins 500-484. The game is
four-ball carom on a 6x12 table with six pockets.
1855:
Napoleon III sends an ornate billiard table to Russia as a gift for the
coronation of Tsar Alexander II.
The first public stakes straight rail match in San Francisco pits
Michael Phelan vs. Monsieur Damon for $500.
The match
is played on a
6x12 table. The high run is 9, by Phelan, who wins the match and $500.
The match was played
before "crotching" and other techniques led to higher runs.
George F. Slosson defeats French champion Maurice Vignaux 800-743 in Chicago's Central
Music Hall on Dec. 21, 1885.
1856: Michael Phelan’s Game of Billiards is published
Phelan also publishes the first edition of Billiard Cue, the first
billiard periodical.
Phelan opens a New York pool room considered to be the finest and most luxurious
in the world.
1857: Michael Phelan defeats Ralph Benjamin 161-81 in a $2,000 match on Dec. 30,
1857 in Philadelphia.
1858: John Seereiter defeats Bernard Crystal in the first match with
high
runs and averages recorded "without guessing."
Seereiter wins 1000-830,
with an average inning of 6.94 and a high run of 53; Crystal has a high run of
68. The bet is $250 per side.
1859: Michael Foley and Dudley
Kavanagh play the first match with admission tickets sold, at Fireman's
Hall in Detroit.
Kavanagh wins 1000-989
with an 8.47 average and record high run of 177 balls on a 6x12 six-pocket table.
The following night, also
at Fireman's Hall, Michael Phelan defeats John Seereiter 2000-1904, playing for
$15,000.
Phelan defeats Seereiter
on April 12, 1859, claiming the first American billiards championship
(four-ball).
According to John Roberts
Sr., a quarter of a million dollars changes hands, including
side
bets.
The game was four-ball
billiards, pushing and crotching allowed, on a 6x12 six-pocket table
Phelan averaged 12.20
with a high run of 129; Seereiter had a high run of 157.
The admission to the
second match was $5 per head, and may have been designed to keep "penny ante"
gamblers out.
Michael Phelan is
the four-ball champion from 1859-1862 and retires undefeated.
A French caroms player
named M. Claudius Berger comes to the U.S. penniless and
leaves with $50,000.
Phelan, the
father of American billiards, pays all Berger's expenses while he is in the
US.
According to Michael
Geary, Berger was 267 pounds and so short
he had to stand on a box for some shots.
Berger was remarkable for the power and ferocity of his ball-striking,
especially massé shots.
Berger possessed "perhaps
more power of the cue than any man living" (George Augustus Sala).
American crowds consider
the paths of masséd balls to be "marvelous," according to Geary.
Berger has a high run of
69 using a "jawing" technique against John Deery, then
age 16.
Geary takes Berger on the
road, charging up to $1 for admission.
This is the first time
wall placards are used to advertise billiards matches.
Berger's exhibition tour
is ended by the Civil War in 1861.
1860: On July 25 the first intercollegiate billiards match (four-ball) pits
Harvard and Yale; Harvard wins.
On Oct. 26 the
first pro tournament is held at Phelan & Collender's Union Square
Billiard Room, NYC.
According to Maurice Daly
at this time "Position play, as we know it, was unknown even to the best of
them."
Dudley Kavanagh (29.41)
wins over Philip Tieman (21.74), James Lynch (18.52), Joseph N. White (12.20)
and Michael Geary (9.04).
1861: The first public match between Western players is won by Philip Tieman
over John Deery for $500 a side, in Cincinnati.
1862: John Roberts Sr. sets the record high run of 346 balls in March at Saville
House, playing against William Dufton.
The first public match
with the push shot barred from straight rail billiards, at Kremlin Hall,
Buffalo, NY, on Nov. 6, 1862.
The first match
with the "barring of crotch in public" at Tucker's Academy, San Francisco, on Aug. 2, 1862.
Michael Foley, four-ball
caroms, has the record high run of 90 for a 6x12 table with
push shots and massés barred.
The first public
three-ball caroms match is scheduled between Louis Fox and John Deery, but Deery
forfeits.
1863:
According to Phelan, the
mace is still being used by American women and children to learn the "rudiments"
of the game.
A political cartoon shows
Abraham Lincoln playing bagatelle against his political rival George B.
McClellan.
The first pro championship on a four-pocket table at Irving Hall,
NYC (June 1-9). Dudley Kavanagh defeats Louis Fox.
Notable players
include John Deery, John Seereiter, Philip Tieman, Michael Foley, William Goldthwait,
Victor Estephe.
The level of play was called "the most brilliant ever known."
Deery runs 313 balls.
This is the first public match with "jawing" and the high runs and averages
soar.
The Billiard Congress is
founded by Phelan, Kavanagh, Fox, Deery, Seereiter, Tieman, Foley, Goldthwait,
Estephe.
The last public four-ball match on a six-pocket table takes place on Dec. 17,
1863 in Union Hall, Indianapolis.
John McDevitt, four-ball
on a 6x12 table, takes the old game out in style with a record
17.24 average and 148 high run vs. Frank Parker.
1864: Charles Dickens receives a billiard table for Christmas.
Abraham Lincoln is a self-confessed "billiards addict."
Lincoln calls the game "health-inspiring" and "scientific," lending
"recreation to an otherwise fatigued mind."
According to Henry C.
Whitney billiards "was the only non-utilitarian thing that I know
of Lincoln indulging in."
Michael Geary's pool room
opens in Washington, with 2,000 people attending.
During exhibitions, Geary
runs 66 balls and Michael Phelan runs 121. Dudley Kavanagh and Edward Cahill
also play.
Dudley Kavanagh wins over
Philip Tieman in a NYC championship match on April 7, 1864.
The first public match in
which both the push shot ("pushing") and jawing are barred, on April 8, 1864 in
Irving Hall, NYC.
The first state
championship, of Connecticut, is held in Allyn Hall, Hartford,
Aug. 16-18, is won by Gershon R. Hubbell.
Michael Phelan, four-ball
caroms, runs 56 balls, a record for a 6x12 four-pocket table with jawing and
pushing barred.
1865: On April 13, John Wilkes Booth gets lit at
Deery's Billiard Saloon, owned by John Deery, before shooting Abraham Lincoln.
Perhaps the only
thing Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth have in common is that they both
love pool.
Louis Fox becomes the
American four-ball billiards champion.
On Sept. 7 in Rochester NY, Louis Fox loses his U.S. championship to
John
Deery. Fox may have committed suicide as a result.
On Jan. 20, Dudley Kavanagh
wins a $1,000 match against William Goldthwait, a
well-known pro.
According to The New
York Times, there was an "immense" audience and side bets of up to $5,000
were offered.
Pierre Carme of France
arrives in New York City, is greeted by 2,000 fans, plays Michael
Phelan in an exhibition, and wins.
Carme defeats Dudley Kavanagh
at the French game, then loses narrowly at the American game.
The match above is the
first public three-cushion billiards stakes match between top-flight
professionals in the U.S.
The first
Canadian championship is held, with Cyrille Dion winning. He later
wins the first American pool tournament.
Maurice Daly, then age 16, lost the last professional game of "mixed caroms and
hazards on a six-pocket table" for $50 per side.
1866: Early in the year, on Jan. 26, 1866, the English billiards champion John
Roberts arrives in NY.
The push shot was restored for the Pennsylvania championship but this caused a
"division of sentiment" and the series ended.
A Memphis, TN,
tournament is won by Melvin Foster, who uses jawing to achieve an average of
50 and a high run of 282.
This was apparently the first tournament played on a Brunswick table.
In the first public
American match between foreign players, Joseph Dion of Canada defeats Pierre
Carme of France.
Joseph Dion is Cyrille
Dion's brother.
John Deery defeats John
McDevitt for $1,000 and the four-ball championship cue in NY.
John McDevitt, four-ball,
runs 409 balls against William Goldthwait in a match in Bumstead Hall, Boston, on Oct. 30, 1866.
Joseph Dion, four-ball,
averages 25.86 vs. John McDevitt in a match in Mechanics' Hall, Montreal, Oct. 5,
1866.
Joseph Dion, a
Canadian, is the American four-ball champion.
1867: The first cushion caroms exhibitions are given, according to Brunswick's
Modern Billiards.
Joseph Dion runs 616 balls vs. John McDevitt, using a "jawing"
technique on a 6x12 four-pocket table.
This led to the barring
of "jawing" from the championship series.
Edmund H. Nelms has a high run of 470 and a winning average of
38.46 versus Victor Estephe.
Edmund H. Nelms, four
ball, has a record high run of 543 on a 6 x 12 table, crotching barred, pushing
allowed.
John McDevitt is
the American four-ball champion.
1868: Chemist John Hyatt saves thousands of elephants by inventing celluloid
for billiard balls.
The new balls sometimes spark on collision and even explode!
John Roberts Sr. authors
On Billiards.
The first American match between French experts pits A. P. Rudolphe
and Philip Carme, in Chicago. Rudolphe wins by forfeit.
W. W. Wright, four ball,
averages 32.26 on a 5½x11 table, pushing allowed,
crotching barred.
The loser, C. A. W. Jamison, averaged 51.23!
John McDevitt, the American billiards champion, moves to Chicago where.
John McDevitt, four-ball, runs 1,483 billiards (unfinished);
pushing and crotching allowed.
This run was made with
balls wedged in the jaw of the pocket but constituted a "carom-table crotch"
(Phelan).
John McDevitt, four-ball,
runs
1,458 balls and averages 166.67 vs. Joseph Dion in Chicago on Sept. 16,
1868.
McDevitt was "lifted to
the shoulders of admiring friends, carried about the hall" and "nearly stripped
of his clothing."
This match led to the
barring of the push stroke. McDevitt returned the championship golden cue to
Phelan & Collender.
Michael Phelan said: "The old style of game came thus to an end." But a new game
is starting to take off ...
Johnny Layton, straight
pool, sets a new record with a high run of 78 balls in Chicago.
1869: Joseph Bennett invents the "spot hazard barred" version of English
billiards.
Frederick William Lindrum I becomes Australia's first World Professional
Billiards Champion, defeating John Roberts Sr.
Mark Twain in
Innocents Abroad uses "English" for spin: "You would infallibly put the
'English' on the wrong side of the ball."
The first American pool
tournament with contestant entry fees is played in Irving Hall, NYC; John Deery
wins $1,000.
This is the closest major
tournament on record, with six players averaging 21.53 to 25.00 balls per
inning.
Deery has the high run, 358, and is the American four-ball champion from 1869-1870.
From this point
and forward, pushing and crotching are barred in four-ball championships.
Melvin Foster averages
1,000 by "crotching out" in one inning versus George T. Stone on Aug 4, 1869.
Melvin Foster, four ball,
has a record 492 high run for a 5½x11 four pocket table,
pushing and jawing barred.
A. P. Rudolphe pockets
the biggest American purse to date: $1,000 in stakes plus $1,750 in door-money,
against C. Dion.
1870: The first official English billiards championship is played between John
Roberts Sr. and William Cook.
Cook is favored 5-2, but
only wins 1,200-1,083.
The match took place at
Saint James's Hall on February 11, 1870 with William Dufton as master of
ceremonies.
The match featured a
growing controversy over the "spot stroke" with Roberts lobbying for tighter
restrictions.
After Cook beat his
father, John Roberts Jr. challenged Cook to a match and won by 478 points on
April 14, 1870.
John Roberts Jr. and
William Cook would take turns beating each other for a decade.
Cook popularized the
"spot-barred" version of English billiards: the red could not be potted
more than twice in succession from its spot.
The modern game of three-cushion billiards dates to around 1870. It evolved from straight rail and
cushion caroms.
Snooker was invented by bored British army officers in India.
One was future prime minister Neville Chamberlain.
According to
George Augustus Sala, there is a billiard table in "every well-ordered mansion"
in England, with ladies playing skillfully.
Salas praises
"the charms of the shaded lamps, the well-balanced cue, the smooth green table
and the ivory balls."
Until the 1870s, the most
popular American game was "four-ball billiards," also known as "61 pool."
A. P. Rudolphe,
a Frenchman, defeats
John Deery for the four-ball championship cue and $1,000 in San Francisco.
The first four-ball match
with nursing barred was won by J. Dion over M. Foster at the Hippotheatron, NYC on June 1, 1870.
The match was to be a
race to 500, but due to slower play it was agreed during the match to only play
to 300.
This game was called
"Red, White and Blue" due to the introduction of a blue ball, and the "Experts'
Game" due to the skill required.
J. Dion had the high
average of 5.36, and M. Foster had the high run of 28.
Frank Parker, four ball,
averages 42.86 on a 5½ x 11 table, pushing and jawing
barred.
George F. Slosson's first public match, a loss to B. Frank Dennison.
1871: American champion John McDevitt perishes in the Great Chicago Fire
on Oct. 9, 1871.
Michael Phelan dies at age 53 on Oct. 7,
1871 from exposure suffered while saving his grandson from drowning.
George H. Sutton, aka "the
Handless Wonder" (1870-1938), had no arms below the elbows.
The first American
handicap tournament at Allyn Hall, Hartford, CT (Feb. 23-March
1, 1871). Clark E. Wilson wins $250.
M. Daly, four ball, has a
record 93.75 average on a 5½x11 table, crotching barred.
The first confirmed use of a 5x10 table in a four-ball game.
George F. Slosson and Maurice Daly meet for the first time in tournament; they
tie 6-6 and Daly wins in a playoff.
Frank Parker is
the American four-ball champion.
Cyrille Dion, a Canadian,
is the American four-ball champion from 1871-1873.
Frank Dion wins the Championship of Canada.
Joseph Dion has the first triple-figure runs at three-ball with a high run of
107, "crotch probably not barred."
1872: Cyrille Dion, four-ball caroms, runs 321 on a 5½x11
table, pushing and jawing barred.
1873: Maurice Daly is the American four-ball champion.
Albert Garnier is
the American four-ball champion.
The first
three-ball straight rail world championship at Irving Hall, NY, in June
1873.
Frenchman Albert Garnier wins a playoff with Canadian Cyrille Dion and
American Maurice Daly.
Maurice Daly runs 212 balls in a three-ball match vs. Cyrille Dion.
George F. Slosson,
four-ball, runs 534 and averages 142.86 vs. John Bessunger in Kingsbury Hall,
Chicago, IL on Sept. 9, 1873.
William Cook, English
billiards, runs 396 balls vs. John Roberts Jr. on Jan. 1-2, 1873 at the Hen and
Chickens Hotel, Manchester.
Albert Garnier
authors Scientific Billiards.
Jake Schaefer's public debut is a win.
The birth of Jerome Keough, the creator of straight pool.
1874: Wild Bill Hickok pistol whips seven thugs who try to prevent him from
entering Chicago's St. James Hotel to play billiards.
A. P. Rudolphe of France
defeats William Cook of England on an English table for $1,000 in NYC on Oct. 9,
1874.
A. P. Rudolphe defeats Albert Garnier and Maurice Vignaux defeats
Joseph Dion in NYC in Dec. 1874.
Maurice "The Lion" Vignaux
is
brought to the U.S. by his mentor Francois Ubassy.
Vignaux becomes the American four-ball champion in his first tournament.
Vignaux wins the first three-ball championship of America and pockets $1,351.
The first "balk"
line was used in the three-ball tournament. It was
designed to prevent crotching and the rail nurse.
Joseph Dion, a Canadian, is the American four-ball champion.
1875: John
Roberts Jr. takes the English billiards title from William Cook on Dec. 20, 1875
at a packed St. James's Hall.
The match was of such importance that it was attended by Albert
Edward, the Prince of Wales and future Edward VII.
Later in 1875, Cook runs
362 balls only to have Roberts run 345 and 448 (unfinished) to come back and
win.
John Roberts Jr. was
regarded as the foremost billiard player in the world, spotting top players
hundreds of balls.
Neville Chamberlain, in a
letter dated March 19, 1938 claimed to have invented snooker in Jabalpur, India
in 1875.
His claim was supported
by the author Compton Mackenzie in a letter to The Billiard Player in
1939.
The Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography says Chamberlain called
the players "snookers" and the name "immediately stuck."
The first public match of William "The Comanche" Sexton.
Jake Schaefer wins a $500 match against A. Kraker in Virginia City with "unsecreted
pistols stimulating him to unusual efforts!"
Cyrille Dion, a Canadian, is the American four-ball champion.
1876: Mark Twain and Bret Harte write a play in the billiard room of Twain's
Connecticut home.
Cyrille Dion averages 40.54 vs. A. P. Rudolphe in Tammany Hall, NYC, on April 7,
1876, pushing and jawing barred.
Dion has runs of 141, 45,
177, 114, 216, 99 and 228.
Dion wins 1,500-392 and
is called "virtually the champion of the American four-ball game" by The New
York Times.
The Times
article concludes, "The game last night fairly kills the four-ball American game
of billiards."
The Times is
correct, as straight rail three-ball carom billiards replaces four-ball as the
American championship game.
William "The
Comanche" Sexton is
the American straight rail billiards champion from 1876-1878.
Sexton sets new records with a high runs of 251 and 287 balls using a "straight
rail" technique.
In
Jake Schaefer's first tournament he runs 155 balls but finishes last with only
two wins.
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 558 balls in a match with Tom Taylor at the Globe
Hotel, Newton Abbot.
John Roberts Jr.
tours Australia, Ceylon and India, where the tour is called "The Great Billiard
Epidemic." He earns around £7,000.
1877: John Roberts Jr., English billiards all-in, runs 756 balls on July 5, 1887
against William Cook at the Suffolk Hotel, Lowestoft.
Fourteen-year-old Albert
"The Boy Wonder" Frey is employed by William "Old Comanche" Sexton in his Bowery
pool hall.
Sexton sets records for high run (471) and high average inning (24.32) in a
match vs. George F. Slosson.
1878: The first three-cushion billiards tournament at C. E. Mussey's
billiard room in St. Louis. Leon L. Magnus wins $75.
The first American pool
tournament (fifteen-ball pool aka "61 pool") is won by a Canadian, Cyrille Dion.
The runner-up was Samuel F. Knight, followed by Gotthard "The Swedish
Phenomenon" Wahlstrom and Joseph Dion.
Other contestants were John McWarble, George F. Slosson, Clarke E. Wilson, William Sexton, A. P.
Rudolphe and George Frey.
The First National
Championship was held on 5x10 tables in the Union Square Billiard Rooms, NYC, April 8-20,
1878.
It was an
international affair with players from Canada (the Dion brothers), Sweden
(Wahlstrom) and France (Rudolphe).
Cyrille Dion went
undefeated in the round-robin format, winning
a gold medal and $250.
Cyrille Dion's closest
matches were 11-10 affairs against his brother Joseph and second-place finisher
Samuel F. Knight.
The tournament was big
news, with lengthy articles in all the New York papers. Open gambling was
mentioned.
Admission prices ranged
from 25 to 75 cents. There was seating for 500 and only
standing room at the end.
In an interesting
synchronicity, the 61-pool tournament was held in rooms 60 and 62 of Union
Square.
Gotthard "The Swede" Wahlstrom
becomes the world fifteen-ball champion, defeating Cyrille Dion on August 1,
1878 in NYC.
So the first two American
pool champions were a Canadian and a Swede!
Cyrille Dion dies of severe lung congestion on Oct. 1, 1878 in Montreal at age 35.
Jake Schaefer Sr.
is the American straight rail billiards champion from 1879-1881.
Schaefer sets a new record with a run of 429 balls.
1879: George F. Slosson sets a record with a run of 464 balls, but ...
Jake Schaefer Sr. runs 690 balls in a single inning of a straight rail
match using the rail nurse technique and is hailed as "The Wizard."
Jake "The Wizard"
Schaefer Sr. scores 1,000 points in three innings against George F. Slosson, a
333.33 average, on May 15, 1879.
The "champion's game" or
"limited rail" is introduced to counteract the rail nurse technique.
It lasts until 1884.
Jake Schaefer Sr. quickly
develops the reverse rail nurse technique, and his high runs continue unabated.
According to
Billiards Digest, Jack Schaefer Sr. is the #24 pool/billiards player of the
20th century but his son is ranked higher.
Samuel F. Knight becomes
the world fifteen-ball champion, defeating Gotthard Wahlstrom in April 1879.
Gotthard Wahlstrom
becomes the world fifteen-ball champion, defeating Alonzo Morris in Oct. 1879.
1880: Maurice Vignaux of France, straight rail, runs 1,531 balls, April 10-14,
in Paris against George F. Slosson on a 5x10 table.
George F. Slosson had a
high run of 1,103 in the same match.
As Maurice Daly put it,
"Such work put straight rail billiards to sleep as a competitive test for
professionals."
Jake Schaefer defeats
William Sexton 600-585 with a high run of 162 in a closely contested match at
Tammany Hall, NYC.
Schaefer had a high run of 312 in the so-called "champion's game" which was
designed to eliminate the "straight rail" technique.
Samuel F. Knight becomes
the world fifteen-ball champion, defeating Gotthard Wahlstrom on Feb. 19, 1880
in NY.
Gotthard Wahlstrom
becomes the world fifteen-ball champion, defeating Samuel F. Knight in May 1880.
Albert M. Frey,
the "blonde boy" wonder and darling of the gambling crowds, makes his public
debut on Dec. 30, 1880.
This is in a tournament
preliminary to the upcoming world fifteen-ball championship, with the winners
advancing.
The tournament takes
place in the amphitheatre of Connor's Union-Square Billiard Hall.
According to The New
York Times, Albert Frey's "precocious skill" has already given him "quite a
reputation in local billiard circles."
If TNYT was correct about
Frey's age at his death (see 1889), he was around 19 in 1880, but probably
looked much younger.
Frey was also apparently
very short, being "very little taller than a pool table." (TNYT March 27, 1887)
In his first match, Frey
defeats Leslie E. Slosson, the brother of billiard legend George F. Slosson,
7-3.
On
the same day, Frey defeats John S. Leonard, 7-4.
Other contestants include
Charles Schaefer (the brother of Jake Schaefer Sr.), Joseph King, Otis Field,
Frank Smith and Joseph Pihel.
1881: On Jan. 5, 1881 the preliminary tournament concludes with Charles Schaefer
first and Albert Frey a very surprising second.
Albert Frey was coached
by his brother, George Frey, who promised that Albert "would hereafter play to
win at all times."
During
Albert Frey's game with Otis Field, he may have "slowed down" and
came close to be being barred from the championship.
Charles Schaefer, Albert
Frey, Otis Field and James King advance to compete with the top pros for the
national championship.
On Jan. 15, 1881 the
national championship concludes with Gotthard Wahlstrom
first, Samuel Knight second, Albert Frey third.
Other contestants were Joseph King, Thomas Wallace, Albert Lambert, Jake
Schaefer Sr., Charles Schaefer, Otis Field.
On Feb. 7, 1881, Albert
M. Frey creates "wild excitement" with his daring play as he defeats ex-champion
Alonzo Morris Jr. 21-20.
Albert Frey was again
coached by his brother, George Frey.
On Feb. 25, 1881, Albert
M. Frey openly challenges Morris to play him "in any public hall in New-York
City" for $250 to $1,000 a side.
The March 23, 1881
edition of the New York Times mentions "the straight rail game."
The May 7, 1881 edition
of the New York Clipper contains a challenge by boy wonder Albert M.
Frey for the fifteen-ball championship.
Gotthard Wahlstrom
remains the world fifteen-ball champion, twice beating Albert M. Frey head-up in
the championship tournament.
Frey the "boy expert"
(TNYT) tied with Joseph King and Alonzo Morris Jr., then beat them both head-up
in playoff matches to finish second.
Frey went to the table
"smiling and confident" to beat King. Spectators "rejoiced at the little
fellow's success."
Frey beat Morris
11-9 with "dazzling" play and "great brilliancy and daring" that included a massé
involving four balls. (TNYT)
Frey "often looked up at
Morris in a roguish way when he had a difficult shot" then "sent the ball whizzing into the pocket."
Frey's "unusually
brilliant play" and "making an astonishing variety of the most difficult shots"
had spectators cheering him on.
During Frey's 11-5 upset
of Jake Schaefer Sr. the
referee Samuel Knight "frequently made admiring remarks
about the lad's play." (TNYT)
William Sexton, cushion
caroms, runs 77 balls in a match against Jake Schaefer Sr. on Dec. 19, 1881 at
Tammany Hall, NY.
John Roberts Jr. crushes
William Cook by 2,759 points despite giving him a 2,000 point spot, ending
Cook's long run as a top player.
1882: George F. Slosson, champions' game, runs a record 398 balls, Jan. 30-Feb 3, in
Paris against Maurice Vignaux.
Billy Mitchell, English
billiards all-in, runs 1,055 balls, the first 1,000 break,
against W. J. Peall at Rathbone Place, October 4-7, 1882.
Albert M. Frey defeats Samuel Knight on March 8, winning $1,000 with crowd-exciting
long shots from difficult positions.
Alfred M. Frey wins the
First Tournament at Pyramid (Eight-Ball) at Republican Hall, NYC, May 3-17,
1882.
John Dankleman finishes
second, George Sutton third (his debut) and Jacob Schaefer Sr. and Thomas
Wallace tie for fourth.
Albert
M. Frey is the world fifteen-ball champion from 1882-1883.
Joseph Dion is the
American straight rail billiards champion.
1883: An 8-inch balkline is implemented, in an attempt to counteract nursing
techniques.
This led to the
development of the anchor nurse technique by Jake Schaefer Sr., Frank C. Ives,
and others.
Maurice Vignaux, the
French champion, comes to the U.S. to participate in the first balkline
tournament.
Jake Schaefer Sr.
is the American balkline billiards (8-inch) champion from 1883-1884.
George F. Slosson,
cushion carom billiards, runs 38 balls, a new high run that will stand for 50
years.
1884: Maurice Vignaux of France, balkline billiards (8-inch), runs 329 balls in
Paris on a 5x10 table, in January.
The first
Call-Ball-and-Pocket Tournament is held in Syracuse, NY.
Albert M. Frey is
"almost invariably winning" (Phelan) at this point.
James Louis Malone wins the
Third National 15-Ball Championship at Music Square Hall, NYC, over Albert M.
Frey and Joseph T. King.
The last "champion's
game" public match is played.
1885: F. Peterson, three-cushion billiards, has a record high run of 14 balls.
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards, has spot-barred runs of 409, 432 and 451 balls.
Cap Anson, the major
league baseball hall-of-famer, beats professional Frank Parker 500-364 in a
match in Chicago on March 25, 1885.
Joseph Dion is taken to
Bellevue Hospital suffering from dementia, then is removed to Bloomingdale
Asylum, on Nov. 18, 1885.
James L. Malone
challenges Albert M. Frey to play a championship match for $500 a side, and Frey
confidently offers to double the stakes.
George F. Slosson
is the American balkline billiards (14-inch) champion.
Jake Schaefer Sr. is the
American balkline billiards (14-inch) champion from 1885-1890.
1886: Albert M. Frey wins the 61 pool championship and defends it successfully
three times in 1886-1887 against James L. Malone.
According to an article
in The New York Times about one of the matches, Malone seemed nervous
while Frey "wore a confident smile."
In one of the matches the
applause was so loud that the massive table shook, and Frey's fans were
"electrified" by his "dash and nerve."
In the 1887 match, Frey
doubled the score on Malone, winning 80 games to 40, and taking 14 of 15 games
in one stretch.
William J. Peall, English
billiards all-in, runs
2,413 balls, the first player to
exceed two thousand, on November 5, 1886.
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 506 balls on April 12, 1886.
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 604 balls on November 17, 1886.
1887: Albert M. Fry retains the championship emblem by defeating Alfredo de Oro
11-10, then J. L. Malone in the finals 11-8.
James L. Malone is the world fifteen-ball champion, defeating Albert
M. Frey at Maurice Daly's Brooklyn billiard hall in May 1887.
Malone and Frey played so
well that they "wrought the spectators into a great state of excitement,"
according to The New York Times.
Alfredo de Oro wins the first of 41 world titles. According to
Billiards Digest de Oro is the #4 player of the
20th century.
Alfredo "Balbo" de Oro's first world
title is in fifteen-ball (61 pool), over James L. Malone.
According to "Banker"
John G. Horgan, the three stars of this era were James L. Malone, Alfredo de Oro
and Albert M. Frey.
The first "continuous pool" tournament is held
at Daly's in Brooklyn and is won by Albert M.
Frey.
Continuous pool is also called
"fifteen-ball" and "fifteen-ball continuous pool."
Continuous pool would
evolve into 14.1 continuous pool, which is the modern game known as straight
pool.
In continuous pool, every
ball is worth a single point and the game is played continuously until a numeric
goal is reached.
TNYT says that Frey is the favorite in the betting and that new rules
will hopefully "do away with tiresome safety play."
The contestants included
Frey, Malone, de Oro, Albert Powers, Charles Manning, Samuel Knight and Daniel Lawlor.
According to de Oro,
continuous pool was suggested by an Englishman who offered $200 if
each ball would count only one point.
Malone confirmed de Oro's
account, saying a match in which Frey beat him while pocketing 39 fewer
balls prompted the new rules.
Frey then beat
Malone again under the new rules.
Willie Hoppe is
born in Cornwall Landing, NY on October 11, 1887. He
will win 51 world titles from 1906-1952.
William "Billy" Mitchell,
English billiards all-in, runs 4,427 balls against W. J. Peall.
William Cook, English
billiards spot-barred, runs 462 balls on October 18, 1887, second only to John
Roberts Jr. at the time.
Harvey McKenna, straight
rail, runs 2,572 balls and 2,121 balls on Dec. 20-21, 1887, with a 416.67
average on a 5x10 table in Boston, MA.
1888: Vincent Van Gogh paints Night Cafe in Arles with a billiard table as the
central feature.
Albert M. Frey trounces
James L. Malone in a championship match held at Maurice Daly's pool room in
Brooklyn on Feb. 11, 1888.
Malone, however, insists
that Frey forfeited by not showing up on time for the match and plays under
protest.
Alfredo de Oro is
the world fifteen-ball champion, defeating James L. Malone in Feb. 1888.
It
will be nearly 100 years before another left-hander, Babe Cranfield, wins the
world straight pool championship in 1964.
Frank
Powers is the world continuous pool champion.
1889: Albert M. Frey wins a match 125-105 against Alfredo de Oro at the Union
League Annex in Philadelphia on March 27, 1889.
Albert M.
Frey wins the world continuous pool championship in a tournament held in
Brooklyn.
Contestants include
Frey, Malone, de Oro, Charles H. Manning, Albert Powers, Joseph T. King and
William Clearwater.
Frey defeats Charles H.
Manning, virtually doubling the score, 100-51, on Feb. 27, 1889.
Frey defeats Malone 158-127 in 19 innings and overwhelms his other main rival, de
Oro, 168-98 on March 14, 1889.
Frey won in a playoff over de Oro, but then died
suddenly of pneumonia on Apr. 25, 1889, leaving the title vacant.
According to a March 29,
1889 article in The New York Times, Frey was 28 but looked much younger.
Albert Abrahamson, the
chief clerk of the Green Hotel's billiard room, refused to let Frey enter at
first, not believing he could be 21.
Albert M. Frey was
"widely known as the champion pool player of America," according to his obit in
The New York Times.
Frey's pallbearers
included his fellow billiardists Harry Mount, Joseph King, Charles Manning and
James Malone.
Malone had
a crown delivered to the funeral, a touching tribute since he had been
Frey's greatest obstacle to the crown.
George F. Slosson and
William Cavanaugh also paid their respects, as did John D. O'Conner and Edward
Glover of Brunswick-Balke.
Alfredo de Oro wins the world continuous pool championship, defeating
Charles H. Manning in June 1889.
1890: William Peall, English billiards all-in, runs 3,304 consecutive balls
under obsolete rules against Charles
Dawson.
Jacob Schaefer Sr., straight rail billiards, runs 2,996 consecutive
balls via reverse rail nursing in San Francisco from May 29-31, 1890.
"So it came about that
schemes had to be devised to handicap the skillful players." (Maurice Daly)
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 690 balls with 108 consecutive nursery cannons
against William Cook.
Alfredo de Oro retains the world continuous pool championship,
defeating Charles H. Manning in April 1890.
Albert G. Powers wins the world continuous pool championship,
defeating Alfredo de Oro in May 1890.
Charles H.
Manning wins the world continuous pool championship, defeating Albert G. Powers
in June 1890.
Electric light bulbs help
improve shooter accuracy.
1891: Frank Powers is the world continuous pool
champion.
1892: Alfredo de Oro is the world continuous pool
champion from 1892-1894.
1893: In November 1893, Jake Schaefer Sr. uses the anchor nurse to run 343
against Frank Ives, then Ives runs 456.
Jacob Schaefer Sr., 14.2 balkline billiards, runs 566 balls via the anchor
nurse against Frank Ives in NY on Dec. 16, 1893.
Maurice Daly said of
Schaefer, "Many hold him to have been the greatest player of all, master of the
best today."
According to Daly the
only other player to truly master the anchor was Frank Ives.
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 737 balls playing William Peall in March, 1893.
Charles Dawson, English
billiards spot-barred, runs 698 balls playing H. Coles a few weeks later.
American champion
Frank C. Ives defeats English champion John Roberts Jr. running 2,539 balls
(May 29-June 4, 1983).
Ives used the rail nurse
to get the balls to the place where they became anchored. (Maurice Daly)
Roberts "did not know the
rail-nurse" but after Ives taught it to him, Roberts "doubled and trebled his
previous records." (Daly)
Ives outdid all players
in "patient practice" except perhaps George Sutton on the line-nurse, at which
he "led all the rest." (Daly)
Alfredo de Oro defeats John Roberts Jr.
at Madison Square Garden, NYC, playing for $2,000 on Oct. 16-21, 1983.
The score was 1000-924,
alternating between American and English tables every 60 balls.
Alvin Clarence Thomas aka "Titanic" Thompson, the great proposition gambler, is
born on Nov. 30, 1893 in Monett, MO.
Minnesota Fats called
Titanic Thompson "the greatest action man of all time."
One of his victims, Snow
Clark, gave him the nickname Titanic, saying "he sinks everyone."
Ben Hogan called Titanic
the best golf shotmaker he ever saw, even though he
started playing golf in his thirties.
Titanic would beat
someone playing right-handed, then offer to let them "win their money back" by
playing left-handed.
But Titanic was
left-handed. He was also "one stroke better than every other player in the
world."
Titanic Thompson killed
five men but said they all would have agreed that
they got what they deserved.
"Are you a gambling man?"
Titanic would ask, "Because I am."
But an acquaintance
called "Moves" said Titanic would never bet unless the game was rigged in
his favor.
The character Sky
Masterson in Damon Runyan's Guys and Dolls was based on Titanic
Thompson.
However, Titanic never
smoked or drank because of a promise he'd made his mother.
1894: Frank Ives, 14.2 balkline billiards, runs 487 balls using the
anchor nurse in a tournament.
The Parker's Box, named
after Charles Parker who suggested it, is implemented to counteract the anchor nurse technique.
This leads to the
development of the chuck nurse or rocking cannon technique.
According to Maurice
Daly, Frank Ives would spend four to six hours per day practicing the "anchor"
and "chuck."
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 867 balls with numerous nursery cannons vs. C. Memmott at Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London.
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 1,392
balls, the first break over 1,000 without the
spot-stroke, against E. Diggle in Manchester.
John Roberts Jr., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 1,017 balls against E. Diggle in Glasgow, Scotland.
Willie Hoppe, age 6, and
his brother Frank Hoppe, age 8, are already hustling "drummers" at their
father's hotel.
1895: George Spears, straight rail billiards, runs 5,041 balls via
nursing.
Frank C. Ives, cushion
caroms, runs 85 balls in a tournament in Boston.
William H. Clearwater wins the world continuous pool championship,
with Alfredo de Oro second and Jerome Keogh third.
E. Diggle., English
billiards spot-barred, runs 985 balls against John Roberts Jr. in London on Jan.
4, 1985.
Willie Hoppe's father
takes the young shark, age 7, and his brother Frank,
age 9, on a barnstorming tour as "the Hoppe Brothers, the Boy Billiardists."
1896: Alfredo de Oro wins the world continuous pool championship, defeating
Grant Eby.
Frank
Stewart then becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Under the tutelage of
Maurice Daly, young Willie Hoppe, age 8, runs 310 at straight rail and 36 at
cushion caroms.
1897: Jerome Keogh, who later invented the game of straight pool, wins his first
world championship match.
Jerome Keogh becomes the world continuous pool champion.
George F. Slosson becomes
the world 18.1 balkline billiards champion.
Grant Eby becomes the world continuous pool champion.
1898: William Clearwater becomes the world
continuous pool champion.
Jerome Keogh becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Jake Schaefer Sr. becomes
the world 18.1 balkline billiards champion.
Frank C. Ives ("The
Napoleon of Billiards" and "Young Napoleon") becomes
the world 18.1 balkline billiards champion.
Walter Lindrum of Kalgoorlie, Australia, is born. He loses the tip of his
right index finger in an accident, but learns to play left-handed.
Lindrum's grandfather,
Frederick William Lindrum I, was Australia's first World Professional Billiards
Champion.
His father, Frederick
William Lindrum II, was an Australian Billiards Champion at the age of 20.
His older brother,
Frederick William Lindrum III, became an Australian
Billiards Champion in 1909.
His cousin Horace Lindrum
became a famed billiards and snooker pro; the Lindrums may be the greatest
billiard playing family ever.
1899: W. H. Catton is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Alfredo de Oro is the world continuous pool champion from 1899-1900.
Willie "Wonder Boy"
Hoppe, age 12, has already beaten established billiards stars Ora Morningstar,
Al Taylor and Tom Gallagher.
After losing to the boy
wonder, 300-207, Al Taylor had a meltdown, gave up billiards, and went to
Colorado to take up mining.
1900: Eugene Carter is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Lloyd Jevne is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Snooker is officially recognized by the Billiards Association.
Eugene Carter is the
world three-cushion billiards champion.
1901: Frank Sherman wins the world continuous pool championship in Boston, beating Afredo de Oro in the finals.
Alfredo de Oro becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Jake Schaefer beats
Louis Barutel, 18.1 balkline billiards, 1200-946, at the Knickerbocker
Billiard Accademy, NY on Dec. 22, 1901.
Schaefer and Barutel sail
to France together after the match.
Willie "Wunderkind"
Hoppe, age 14, also goes to London then Paris to hustle and train. His expenses
are paid by Jake Schaefer.
Maurice Daly says of the
boy wonder, "Nothing equal to young Hoppe's work at his age has ever been seen."
But Hoppe cannot qualify
for tournaments yet because at 4'6" he cannot reach across the table while
keeping a foot on the floor.
1902: William Clearwater wins the world continuous pool championship, defeating
Charles Weston and Jerome Keogh.
William Clearwater, 15-ball, runs 97 balls in a match in Toledo, OH.
Grant Eby becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Willie Hoppe is busted
for gambling in Paris during a money match with Maurice Vignaux. Hoppe and
Schaefer return to the States.
1903: Alfredo de Oro becomes the world continuous
pool champion.
Maurice Vignaux of France
becomes the 18.1 and 18.2 balkline champion of the world.
1904: Thomas Hueston takes the 15-ball championship, defeating J. W. Carney.
Alfredo de Oro remains the world continuous pool champion.
1905: Albert G. Cutler, balkline billiards, has a high run of 193 balls.
Jerome Keogh becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Alfredo de Oro becomes the world continuous pool champion.
1906: Willie "Wonder Boy" Hoppe, age 18, wins his first 18.1 balkline world
championship, defeating Maurice Vignaux.
The match takes place in
the "glittering ballroom of the Grand Hotel in Paris" on Jan. 15, 1906.
Hoppe says that he was
chewing gum to keep his teeth from chattering, but he couldn't do anything to
keep his knees from knocking.
Fortunes are wagered by
the French on Maurice "The Lion" Vignaux and by the Americans on Willie "Wonder
Boy" Hoppe.
Charles Schwab, the steel
magnate, gives Hoppe a wad of money before the match begins.
Hoppe, who had been
a 5-1 underdog, wins 500-323.
Hoppe wins $5,000, around
$125,000 in modern dollars, and is paid sizeable "commissions" on the 5-1 side
bets.
Hoppe averaged 40 balls
per inning during the last half of the match.
Hoppe said that at that
time the world championship was worth the equivalent of $1 million per year in
modern dollars.
Hoppe defeats George F.
Slosson for the 18.1 balkline championship 500-391 in NY on March 27, 1906.
Hoppe defeats Jacob
Schaefer for the 18.1 balkline championship 500-472 in NY on March 27,
1906.
Willie Hoppe, 18.2
balkline billiards, sets a new world record by running 307 balls in Chicago on May 12, 1906.
Hoppe wins 51 world
titles from 1906-1952 in 18.1 balkline, 18.2 balkline, cushion caroms and
three-cushion billiards.
According to
Billiards Digest, Willie Hoppe is the #1 pool/billiards player of the 20th
century.
Thomas Hueston wins a
series of matches to win the 15-ball championship, defeating Joseph Keough in
the finals in St. Louis.
"Banker"
John Horgan becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Jerome Keogh becomes the world continuous pool champion.
1907: With the Lambert Trophy, three cushion billiards
becomes increasingly popular in the USA and internationally.
Walter A. Lovejoy creates
the "anchor cannon" or "cradle cannon" nursing technique, which results in
massive runs.
W. A. Lovejoy, English Billiards, runs 603 balls in January 1907.
Tom Reece, English Billiards, runs 1,825 balls in February 1907.
W.
A. Lovejoy, English Billiards, runs 2,257 balls in March 1907.
Tom Reece, English
Billiards, runs 4,593 balls in March 1907.
W.
A. Lovejoy, English Billiards, runs 6,245 balls (unfinished) in March
1907.
W.
A. Lovejoy, English Billiards, runs 23,769 balls (unfinished) over six
nights in April 1907.
Tom Reece,
English Billiards, runs 499,135 balls (unfinished) over five weeks, using the
"anchor cannon" stroke.
On Sept. 2, 1907 in a
special meeting of the Billiard Association, the "anchor cannon" is barred.
The first three-cushion championship is established.
Harry P. Cline is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Thomas Hueston becomes the world continuous pool champion.
George
Slosson wins the 18.2 balkline championship at Madison Square Garden Concert
Hall, April 7-21, 1907.
Slosson set a new world
record, averaging 100 on April 18, with a high run of 234 (unfinished) against Willie Hoppe.
Slosson equaled the
record by averaging 100 with a high run of 246
against Harry Cline on Sept. 29, 1907.
The first mention of eight-ball; it probably evolved from pyramid and other
forms of pool in the early 1900s.
1908: Eight-ball is first recorded as being played in the USA.
Jake Schaefer Sr. comes from behind with a record high run of 155 to win
his last championship, in Paris.
John Daly becomes
the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Thomas Hueston then
becomes the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Thomas Hueston remains the world continuous pool champion.
Alfredo de Oro becomes the world three-cushion billiards champion and holds the
title ten times from 1908-1919.
Alfredo de Oro becomes the world continuous pool champion.
1909: Orlando "Ora" Morningstar wins the 18.2 balkline world championship at
Madison Square Garden, NYC.
Charles Watson becomes the world continuous pool champion.
1910: Straight pool, then called 14.1 continuous pool, is invented
by Jerome Keogh and soon replaces continuous pool.
The innovation of 14.1
continuous pool was that 14 balls would be pocketed, with the last ball being
used to break the next rack.
Alfredo de Oro has the
record tournament high run of 81 in a game of continuous pool, ironically beating Keogh!
Alfredo de Oro is the world continuous pool champion from 1910-1912.
Fred Eames is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
De Oro also held the
three-cushion billiards title three times in 1910.
Howard "Howie" P. Cline
wins the 18.2 balkline championship, defeating Calvin W. Demarest.
Thomas Hueston becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Jerome Keogh becomes the world continuous pool champion.
Players had upright stances until 1910 when Major Fleming "bends so
low over the table as almost to touch his cue with his face."
1911:
George Gray, English billiards, runs 2,196 balls (unfinished) against
Cecil Harveson at the Holborn Town Hall, London.
A thirteen-year-old Al
Capone evades his first arrest by slipping into a pool hall, then running out
the back.
William "The King" Hoppe
becomes the first billiard player to give an exhibition at the
White House, for President Taft, in 1911.
Alfredo de Oro is the first world 14.1 continuous pool champion.
1912:
Straight pool becomes the new official game of pocket billiards professionals.
The first straight pool
world championship (then called "14.1
continuous billiards"), is won by Edward Ralph.
Edward Ralph defeated
James Maturo, who had a high run of 33 balls in his victory over Alfredo de Oro.
Edward Ralph is the first world straight pool champion.
Alfredo do Oro then
defeated Edward Ralph in the next challenge match, and became world straight
pool champion.
William A. Spinks, 18.2 balkline billiards, runs 1,010 balls (unfinished)
using the chuck nurse technique.
Willie Hoppe, 18.2 balkline billiards, runs 622 balls in an
exhibition.
Alfredo do Oro, straight
pool, has a high run of 46 in Philadelphia against T. I. Wilson.
Joe Carney
is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
"Banker" John Horgan is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
1913: Rudolf Wanderone aka Minnesota Fats, is born in NY on Jan. 13; his
nemesis Willie
Mosconi is born in Philadelphia on June 27.
The billiards industry reports one of its
best years, ever, for table sales.
Alfredo de Oro, straight
pool, has a high run of 59 in New York against James Maturo.
Frank Taberski breaks the
record with a run of 70, also in New York.
De Oro wins four
championship matches in 1912-1913, defeating Edward Ralph, Frank Sherman, James Maturo and Thomas Hueston.
Alfredo de Oro is the world straight pool champion.
Benjamin "Bennie" Allen then defeats
de Oro in Oct. 1913, and goes on to win six challenge matches.
Bennie Allen is the world straight pool champion from 1913-1915.
1914: Bennie Allen, straight pool, sets a new record with a run of 98 balls.
Maurice Daly authors
Daly's Billiard Book.
1915:
Edouard Horemans, 18.2 balkline billiards, runs 701 balls on January 15 at Thum's
pool room in New York.
George Moore is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
William H. Huey is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Charles Morin,
three-cushion billiards, has a tournament high run of 18 consecutive billiards.
Emmet Blankenship,
straight pool, sets a new record with a run of 141 balls (the first run of 100
or more balls).
1916: The first official Snooker competition is held, the English Amateur Championships.
Emmet Blankenship becomes the world straight pool champion.
Johnny Layton becomes the world straight pool champion.
Ralph Greenleaf competes
in his first national championship tournament in October at Doyle’s
Academy in New York.
The 16-year-old Greenleaf
is described as a “Boy Wonder” by the New York Times.
However, Frank Taberski
beats Greenleaf 100-44 in their match.
Johnny Layton wins his
first world straight pool championship match.
Frank Taberski wins the
world straight pool championship and holds it from 1916-1918, winning 10
consecutive matches.
Taberski wins a
ruby-and-diamond-studded gold medal for winning 10 consecutive championship
matches.
Taberski defeats Ralph
Greenleaf (twice), Johnny Layton, Bennie Allen, Joe Concannon, Edward Ralph and
James Maturo, among others.
Taberski's high straight
pool run was 238 balls.
According to
Billiards Digest, Frank Taberski is the #7 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
His slow, methodical
style of play earned Frank Taberski the amusing nickname "The Inexorable Snail."
Other players, upset by
his slowness (and perhaps by his dominance) lobbied for a shot clock!
Charles
Ellis is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Charles McCourt is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Hugh
Heal is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Maurice Vignaux, the
French champion, dies at age 70 in Monte Carlo on Feb. 17, 1916.
1917: Alfredo de Oro, three-cushion billiards, makes 18 consecutive billiards in New
York.
Erwin Rudolph of
Cleveland sets a new straight pool high run of 152 balls.
R. L. Cannafax becomes
the world three-cushion billiards champion for the first time.
1918:
Willie "The King" Hoppe, three-cushion billiards, makes 25 consecutive billiards (a record that lasts 50 years).
Hoppe sets the mark in a match against Charles C. Peterson at Wright's
Room in San Francisco on an unheated (i.e., slow) table.
Frank Taberski, the world
champion, objects to the imposition of a shot clock, and there are no
championship matches in 1918.
Young Willie Mosconi, age
six, practices shooting potatoes with broomsticks, because his father locked up
the cues and balls.
Augie Kiekhefer
becomes the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Luther Lassiter is born.
1919: Ralph Greenleaf wins the first of 20 world titles; he has been
called the Babe Ruth of pocket billiards and "the Prince of Pool."
Greenleaf had a high run of 155 balls shortly before the tournament,
playing against R. Stone in Danbury, CT.
But his main competition, Frank "the Inexorable Snail" Taberski, refused to compete
after a
one-minute shot clock was imposed.
Greenleaf would win 6 consecutive world straight pool championships
from 1919-1924.
Willie Mosconi, age 6,
plays Greenleaf in an exhibition. Greenleaf wins. Mosconi has to stand on a box
for some shots.
Fourteen years later, in
1933, Greenleaf and Mosconi will barnstorm together.
According to
Billiards Digest, Willie Mosconi is the #2 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
According to
Billiards Digest, Ralph Greenleaf is the #3 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
Johnny Layton wins the first of
12 three-cushion billiard world titles; he was called "the Diamond King" for
inventing the Diamond system.
According to
Billiards Digest, Johnny Layton is the #13 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
1920: Nine-ball can be traced back to the 1920s; it originated in the USA.
Johnny Layton becomes the world three-cushion billiards champion.
1921:
Jake Schaefer Jr., 18.2 balkline billiards, runs 480 balls in a match with Dave McAndless at Chicago,
on Oct. 19.
Jake Schaefer Jr. wins
the first of eight 18.2 balkline billiards championships.
Frank Taberski has the fourth
straight pool "century" and the highest yet, running 200 balls against S. Sharock in Stuttgart, AR.
1922:
Jake Schaefer Jr., 18.2 balkline billiards, runs 480 balls in an exhibition
against Welker Cochran at Chicago, on Jan. 22.
Ralph Greenleaf sets a
new straight pool record with a run of 206 balls against G. Kelly in Loganport,
IN.
1923: Tiff Denton is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
1925: Jake Schaefer Jr., 18.2 balkline billiards, runs 400 balls (unfinished) at the 1925 balkline
championships, on Feb. 26.
Schaefer became the first
and only contestant to run 400 balls in the first inning, in a match in Chicago
against Erich Hagenlacker.
Schaefer held world
titles in 18.2, 18.1, 14.2 and 28.2 balkline billiards and twice finished second to
Hoppe in three-cushion.
In 18.2 balkline Schaefer
had a high run of 432, a high grand average of 57.14, and a high
single game average of 93.25.
According to
Billiards Digest, Jake Schaefer Jr. is the #12 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
Otto Reiselt, three-cushion billiards, scores
100 points in 57 innings, a 1.75
average, in an interstate league match.
Frank Taberski becomes the world straight pool champion.
1926: Otto Reiselt, three-cushion billiards, scores 50 points in 16 innings with
a record 3.13
average on March 10, 1926.
Otto Reiselt becomes the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Ralph Greenleaf becomes the world straight pool champion.
Erwin Rudolph of
Cleveland wins national acclaim by ending Ralph Greenleaf's six-year reign as
straight pool champion.
Thomas Hueston becomes the world straight pool champion.
Johnny Layton has a
three-cushion billiard run of 18 balls.
1927: Johnny Layton has a three-cushion billiard run of 17 balls.
Johnny Layton is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Frank Taberski becomes the world straight pool champion.
Thomas Hueston becomes the world straight pool champion.
Ralph Greenleaf becomes the world straight pool champion from 1927-1928.
Welker Cochran wins his
first of two 18.2 balkline world championships.
Cochran also won six world
three-cushion billiards championships.
Joe Davis helps to establish the first Professional World Championship of
snooker.
Joe Davis wins the first
pro snooker world championship and takes home the prize of £6.10.
Joe Davis continued to
dominate the era, winning every snooker World Championship for 20 years until his retirement in 1946.
1928: Frank Taberski becomes the world straight pool champion for the last time,
his 14th title.
1929: Many public pool rooms begin to close because of the Great
Depression.
Within two years,
pool/billiard revenues and employees would be cut in half.
Ralph Greenleaf posts an incredible
high single average of 63 in a championship
match with a run of 126 balls.
Greenleaf's high
individual grand average was 11.02.
Greenleaf accomplished these remarkable feats against Frank Taberski
on a 5x10 table.
Ralph Greenleaf becomes the world straight pool champion.
Frank Taberski then becomes the world straight pool champion.
Harold Worst, future
three-cushion and pool champion, is born on Sept. 29, 1929 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Walter Lindrum runs 3,262
balls against Willie Smith at Memorial Hall, London, becoming the first person
to pass 3,000 since Peall in 1890.
1930: According to TIME "Johnny Layton was the
best pocket billiard player in the world before he decided knocking balls
into pockets was dull."
Layton switched to three-cushion billiards and won 13 world titles, becoming one
of only two
players to win championships in both genres.
The other player to
accomplish this amazing feat was Harold Worst, who ruled both categories in
1965, only to die the following year.
According to the National
Billiard Association, Layton was first in three-cushion, Greenleaf
in pocket billiards, and Jake Schaefer Jr. in 18.2 balkline.
At that time "pocket
billiards" essentially meant straight pool.
Erwin Rudolph becomes the world straight pool champion, his second title.
Ralph Greenleaf becomes the world straight pool champion from 1930-1932.
Gus Copulus,
three-cushion billiards, has a tournament high run of 17 consecutive billiards.
1931: On February 19, Walter "Wally" Lindrum gives a billiards exhibition for
King George V and other royals at Buckingham Palace.
The king gives Lindrum a
pair of gold and enamel cuff links bearing the royal monogram; Lindrum wears
them daily for the rest of his life.
Jimmy "the Boy Wonder"
Caras wins his first world title at age 17.
According to
Billiards Digest, Jimmy Caras is the #10 pool/billiards player of the 20th
century.
Arthur "Babe" Cranfield
wins the U.S. Junior Championship at age 15.
Cranfield earned his
nickname by following around a regular at his father's pool hall: Babe Ruth!
Cranfield has the
unofficial high straight pool run of 768 balls, and had exhibition
runs of 423, 412 and 403 balls.
According to
Billiards Digest, Babe Cranfield is the #44 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
Jake Schaefer Sr.,
three-cushion billiards, has a record run of 36 balls using a "double the rail"
nursing technique.
Charles C. Peterson, straight rail billiards, runs 10,232 consecutive balls via
nursing.
Arthur Thurnblad is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
1932:
Walter Lindrum, English billiards,
has his high
break of 4,137 balls in a match against Joe Davis, precipitating a rule change.
Joe "The Butcher" Balsis, also known as "The Meatman," wins the
Philadelphia City Boys Championship at age 11.
Balsis retired from
competitive pool for 32 years to work in his father's meat business (hence his
nicknames).
When he finally unretired to compete in
professional tournaments, he took the pool world by storm.
According to George Fels: "Overall, between 1965 and 1975, he may well have been the world’s best player."
One competitor complained that when he shook the Meatman's hand, his hand hurt for the next two days!
According to
Billiards Digest, Joe Balsis is the #16 pool/billiards player of the 20th
century.
Johnny Layton crushed the
three-cushion hopes of Jake Schaefer Jr., 50-25, at Mussey's in Chicago, IL, on
Jan. 29, 1932.
Augie Kiekhefer
becomes the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Ruth McGinnis becomes the
World Women's Champion and holds that title from 1932-1940. She had a high
straight pool run of 128.
Ruth McGinnis is a member
of the BCA Hall of Fame, and was considered to be the best American woman player
from 1924-1960.
1933: Walter Lindrum won the World Professional Billiards Championship and held
it until his retirement in 1950; he set 57 world records.
During World War II,
Lindrum gave around 4,000 exhibitions, raising over £500,000 for the war effort.
Over his lifetime,
Lindrum raised more than £2 million for charity.
Lindrum was made a Member
of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1951, and an Officer of the Order
(OBE) in the 1958 honors list.
Welker Cochran is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Erwin Rudolph becomes the world straight pool champion from 1933-1934, his third
and fourth titles.
Jake Schaefer
Jr., cushion carom billiards, runs 39 balls vs. Willie Hoppe at the Morrison
Hotel, Chicago, IL, on April 24, 1933.
1934: Andrew "Ponzi" D'Allesandro wins his first world straight pool championship.
Ponzi has a high run of 153 balls.
He is given the nickname "Ponzi" when someone observes that beating
him is like trying to beat a Ponzi scheme.
Johnny Layton
becomes the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Alfredo de Oro comes out
of retirement and defeats Layton once and Welker Cochran twice, at age 71.
1935: Erwin Rudolph, straight pool, runs 277 balls. (Chicago Tribune,
March 12, 1935. p. 25)
Ralph Greenleaf, straight
pool, runs 267 balls.
Ralph Greenleaf, straight
pool, runs 272 balls in Norfolk, VA.
Bennie Allen, straight
pool, runs 125 balls in a tournament in NY.
George Kelly, straight
pool, runs 125 balls in a tournament in Minneapolis, MN.
Andrew Ponzi becomes the world straight pool champion.
Welker Cochran is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
1936: Alfredo de Oro comes out of retirement at age 71, but loses to Willie
Hoppe.
Willie Hoppe is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Jimmy Caras becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Erwin Rudolph,
his second title.
1937: Ralph Greenleaf wins the last of his 20 world championships and 16
straight pool titles, defeating
Irving Crane.
Welker Cochran is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
1938: Welker Cochran remains the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Jimmy Caras becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Andrew Ponzi,
his third title.
1939: Irving "the Deacon" Crane, straight pool, runs 309 balls in Layton,
UT.
According to
Billiards Digest, Irving Crane is the #9 pool/billiards player of the 20th
century.
Jimmy Caras
retains the world straight pool championship, his fourth.
Joe
Chamaco is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Joe Chamaco,
three-cushion billiards,
has a high run of 18 balls in a match against Jay Bozeman in Chicago.
Joe Chamacho
is the world three-cushion billiards champion.
1940: Willie Mosconi runs 125 balls in a round-robin straight pool tournament
five different times in 1940-1941.
Willie Hoppe wins the
three-cushion billiard championship by winning an "astounding" 20 consecutive
matches.
Hoppe will hold the world
title for five years, 1940-1944.
Andrew Ponzi becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Jimmy Caras,
his second title.
Tiff Denton,
three-cushion billiards, has a tournament high run of 17 consecutive billiards.
1941: Willie Mosconi wins his first World Straight Pool Championship, with
seven
runs of 125 balls.
Mosconi runs
100 or more balls in every fourth game he plays, against champions like Jimmy
Caras and Andrew Ponzi.
Mosconi goes on
to win 15 world titles from 1941-1957.
Erwin Rudolph at age 47
wins the world straight pool championship, defeating a young Irving Crane, his
fifth.
Willie Hoppe defends his
three cushion billiard title against Jake Schaefer Jr., but collapses
while leading 429 to 380.
Hoppe, suffering with
influenza, was rushed to the care of a physician. Schaefer, a true gentleman,
conceded.
Hoppe had a record of
16-1. Schaefer's record was 14-3.
Other players included
Jay Bozeman, Welker Cochran, Allen Hall, Joe Camacho, Art Thurnblad and Crane
(Irving?).
1942: Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter becomes the "undisputed king" of pool, winning $300,000 from 1942-1948.
Lassiter earned the
nickname "Wimpy" by eating 12 hot dogs and drinking 13 sodas in a single sitting.
According to
Billiards Digest, Luther Lassiter is the #9 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
Irving Crane wins the first of 24 major championships and gets revenge by
defeating Erwin Rudolph for his first straight pool crown.
Willie Mosconi becomes the world straight pool champion.
1943: Andrew Ponzi becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Willie
Mosconi and Irving Crane, his third title.
Willie Mosconi becomes the world straight pool champion from 1943-1945.
1944: Willie Hoppe says WWII saved billiards, when the US army
distributed 15,000 billiard tables to American troops.
Hoppe also says that he
gave over 400 exhibitions for American soldiers.
Welker Cochran wins the
three-cushion billiards world championship, defeating Willie Hoppe.
1945: Willie Mosconi matches Irving Crane by running 309 balls in Perth Amboy,
NJ.
Welker Cochran, three
cushion billiards, averages 3.00 vs. Willie Hoppe at Bensinger's Billiards in
Chicago on April 15, 1945.
Cochran scored 60 points
in 20 innings with an unfinished run of 16 balls.
Welker Cochran remains the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Cecil "Buddy" Hall is
born in Metropolis, IL. Hall, known as "The Rifleman" would win three of the ten
richest purses in pool.
Many people in the know
consider Buddy Hall to be the greatest nine-ball player of all time.
In his prime, Hall gave
other top pros the seven ball and usually won.
1946: Joe Davis defeats Horace Lindrum in the longest snooker tournament final
on record: 145 frames over a fortnight.
This was the 15th and
last world title for Joe Davis. He scored 10 centuries (runs of 100 balls)
during the event.
Irving Crane becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Willie Mosconi,
his second title.
Willie Mosconi becomes the world straight pool champion.
Willie Mosconi defends
his straight pool crown against Jimmy Caras in a transcontinental tour of ten
cities.
Arthur
Daley, writing for The New York Times, says Mosconi "plays faster
and with more daring than did Greenleaf."
Willie Mosconi is the world straight pool champion from 1946-1948,
defeating Irving Crane, Jimmy Caras and Andrew Ponzi.
1947: Walter Donaldson wins the first of two world snooker championships.
Willie Hoppe wins the
three-cushion billiard championship and holds title for seven
years, from 1947-1952.
1948: The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is founded.
Fred Davis wins the first
of three world snooker championships and ten major titles.
1949: Jay Bozeman, three-cushion billiards, sets a championship record
average of 2.17 (50 billiards in 23 innings).
Bozeman duplicates his
feat in 1952.
Jimmy Caras becomes the world straight pool champion, over Willie Mosconi, his
fifth title.
1950: Willie Hoppe, three-cushion billiards, sets a high grand tournament
average of 1.333, a record.
Willie Mosconi is world straight pool champion from 1950-1953,
defeating Irving Crane four times and Joe Procita twice.
Willie Mosconi, straight
pool, has a high grand average of 18.34 in a tournament in Chicago on a 4½x9 table.
1951: "Champagne" Ed Kelly begins hustling at age 14.
1952: American interest in three-cushion billiards declines after Willie Hoppe's
retirement with his record 51 world titles.
1953: Willie Mosconi, straight pool, sets a new record by running 322 balls in
Platteville, WI.
Willie Mosconi, straight
pool, sets a new record by running 355 balls in Milwaukee, WI.
Willie Mosconi, straight
pool, sets a new record by running 365 balls in Wilmington, NC.
Ray
Kilgore is the world three-cushion billiards champion, after Hoppe
retired undefeated.
1954:
Willie Mosconi, straight pool, runs 526 balls on an 8x4 table (the official
record with 35 witness signatures).
Joe Procita, straight
pool, runs 182 balls in a tournament in Philadelphia.
Harold Worst wins the
World Three-Cushion Billiards Championship in Argentina.
Worst turned down a
$15,000 bribe by mobsters and was advised to leave the country by Juan and Evita Peron.
According to
Billiards Digest, Harold Worst is the #19 pool/billiards player of the 20th
century.
According to Ronnie "Fast
Eddie" Allen, Harold Worst was the best pool/billiards player of all time.
Harold Worst died of
brain cancer, in his pool-playing prime, at the age of 37.
The year Worst died he held the three-cushion championship, two major pocket
billiard championships, and won a snooker tournament.
According to Freddie "the
Beard" the best players dodged Worst or demanded mortal locks ... and even then "everybody that played Worst shook."
1955: Irving Crane becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Willie
Mosconi, his third.
Willie Mosconi becomes
the world straight pool champion from 1955-1957.
1956: Willie Mosconi has a "perfect inning" by running 150 balls
in one inning against "Cowboy" Jimmy Moore in Kinston, NC.
1957: Willie Mosconi wins the last of his record 19 world straight pool
championships.
Steve "the Miz" Mizerak
turns pro at age 13.
According to Billiards Digest, Steve Mizerak is
the #6 pool/billiards player of the 20th century.
John Pulman wins the
first of four world snooker championships.
1959: The death of the immortal William Hoppe. He was ranked number 1 on the Billiards
Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.
1958: Allen Hopkins, age 7, runs 10 balls the first time he picks up a cue;
his dad says, "Well son, I guess you're going to be a pool player."
According to
Billiards Digest, Allen Hopkins is the #39 pool/billiards player of the
20th century.
Jimmy Moore wins
the National Pocket Billiards Championship in a 3,000-point match over Luther
Lassiter.
Raymond Ceulemans is discovered as a 17-year-old soccer midfielder but goes on
to become a three-cushion billiards legend.
Ceulemans will claim 35 world titles in three-cushion billiards (23), penthatlon (4),
one-cushion (6), straight rail (1) and balkline (1).
1960: Utley "U. J." Puckett wins the National Nine-Ball Championship in Macon, GA.
"Handsome" Danny Jones becomes the World Snooker Champion.
Harold Worst scores 480
points in 421 innings, a 1.14 average, playing three-cushion billiards against
Joe McDevitt in Chicago.
1961: The Hustler, starring Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats
and Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson, returns pool to the spotlight.
Rudolf Wanderone begins claiming that he was the real-life inspiration for the
film’s Minnesota Fats character (his greatest hustle?).
Walderone's nemesis,
Willie Mosconi, is the film's technical consultant and shoots some of the trick
shots.
The movie is released on
September 25, 1861, exactly one month before the first Johnston City tournament
kicks off.
On Oct. 25, 1961 the
legendary Johnston City pool hustler tournaments, sponsored by the Jansco
brothers, commence.
George and Paulie Jansco
were brothers, and the sons of an Hungarian immigrant who became a bootlegger.
The Jansco brothers consider
straight pool to be boring, so they emphasize one-pocket and, the following
year, nine-ball.
At the time one-pocket is
not sanctioned by the BCA (Billiard Congress of America), so this is the "big"
tournament for pros.
This is the first time
the "two faces" of pool have been presented together: the "clean" professional
image, and the darker "hustler" side.
George Jansco's
innovations include attracting TV coverage and prominent sportswriters like Tom
Fox.
Tom Fox would help make
Minnesota Fats and Johnston City famous, co-writing The Bank Shot and Other
Great Robberies with Fats.
According to R. A. Dyer,
"Minnesota Fats was as crazy as a sprayed roach. It would be a surefire hit."
The book evolved from the
"ego attacks" of Fats, but was mostly derived from his wife's saner
recollections, with Fox doing all the writing.
The tournament was held
at the Janscos' Show Bar and Cue Club in Johnston City.
George Jansco lived 150
miles away in Evansville, but his mother refused to leave Johnston City, so he
kept a residence there.
An Evansville police
crackdown on gambling sent George Jansco back to Johnston City for good.
One day, while drinking
beers with his friends Earl Shriver and Marshall "Tuscaloosa Squirrel"
Carpenter, George Jansco came up with an idea ...
The Cue Club, which held
200 spectators, was the first building created specifically to host a pool
tournament.
Minnesota Fats lived an
hour away at the time, in Dowell, and he was instrumental in helping get the
tournament started.
Shady pool sharks like
Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter come from far and wide to gamble, with the side bets
vastly eclipsing the $5,000 prize money.
Ironically, George
Jansco's nickname was also "Wimpy" from his baseball-playing days.
The first year, the only
game played is one-pocket. This was the first major one-pocket tournament
anywhere in the world.
Incidentally, or probably
not, George Jansco's best and favorite game was one-pocket.
George Jansco provided
the first written rules for one-pocket, which were published in Chalk-Up,
a billiard trade magazine.
"Connecticut" Johnny Vevis finishes first, Jimmy Moore second, Hubert "Daddy Warbucks" Cokes
third, "Minnesota Fats" fourth.
Raymond Ceulemans wins his first three-cushion billiards title on February 19, 1961,
at age 23.
1962: Johnston City winners: Marshall "Squirrel" Carpenter (one-pocket), Luther
Lassiter (nine-ball, straight pool and all-round).
The 1962 JC event was the
first integrated professional pool tournament with Javanley "Youngblood"
Washington, a black player.
It was also the first
major nine-ball tournament for professionals. Altogether, there was $10,000 in
prize money.
This was also the first
tournament with divisions (straight pool, one-pocket and nine-ball titles) and
an all-around title.
1963: Luther Lassiter wins the
world straight pool
championship over "Cowboy" Jimmy Moore.
Lassiter wins the New
York City World's Invitational 14.1 Championship. He would win seven BCA
world titles in all.
Johnston City winners:
Eddie "Knoxville Bear" Taylor (one-pocket), Luther Lassiter (nine-ball,
straight pool and all-round).
CBS covered the finals,
the first time a major TV network aired either one-pocket or nine-ball.
"Titanic" Thompson, the
famous proposition gambler said: "There ain't a fine, worthwhile
hustler in the world who ain't here."
1964: Babe Cranfield defeats Luther Lassiter to claim the world
straight pool crown, his first.
Cranfield is the first
left-handed straight pool champion since Alfredo de Oro.
Luther Lassiter wins the World's Invitational 14.1
Championship (BRPAA) over Babe Cranfield, his fifth.
Eddie Taylor wins the all-around championship at Johnston City, over Luther
Lassiter.
For the fourth Johnston
City event, the Janscos built the first pool tournament theater, called "The
Pit."
1965: Jean Balukas, perhaps the greatest female player of all time, has an exhibition at Grand Central Station at age six.
According to
Billiards Digest, Jean Balukas is the #15 pool/billiards player of the 20th
century and the #1 female player.
James "Cisero" Murphy
becomes the first player to win a world championship on his first try,
defeating Luther Lassiter.
Murphy had been denied
entry in world championship events prior to 1965 because he was black.
Joe Balsis wins the World's Invitational 14.1 Championship over Jimmy Moore, his first.
Balsis has a "perfect
inning," running 150 and out on Harold Worst.
Harold Worst, a
three-cushion champion, wins
the Stardust and Johnston City all-round championships.
Worst wins at Johnston
City at nine-ball, straight pool, and all-around.
Larry "Boston Shorty"
Johnson wins the Johnston City one-pocket championship, his first of four.
George Jansco establishes
the first modern pool player organization, the Billiard Players Association of
America (BPAA).
The Janscos sponsor the
first Las Vegas Stardust Pool Tournament, with the richest purse in American
professional pool.
1966: The Bank Shot and Other Great Robberies, written by Minnesota
Fats and Tom Fox, is published.
Irving "The Deacon" Crane wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool
Championship with a 150 run in the final vs. Joe Balsis.
Luther Lassiter wins the World's Invitational 14.1
Championship (BRPAA) over Cisero Murphy, his sixth.
"Champagne" Ed Kelly wins
the Johnston City one-pocket and nine-ball titles, his first major
championships.
James "Cisero" Murphy
wins the Stardust straight pool tournament.
Larry "Boston Shorty"
Johnson wins the Stardust one-pocket championship.
1967: Dorothy Wise wins the first national pool tournament for women, her first
of 5 consecutive titles.
Jimmy Caras wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, his sixth.
Luther Lassiter wins the World's Invitational 14.1
Championship (BRPAA) over Jack "Jersey Red" Breit, his seventh.
Larry "Boston Shorty"
Johnson wins the Johnston City one-pocket championship, his second of four.
Pete Margo
finishes fifth at the Johnston City Straight Pool Tournament, at age 21, and has
already run 200 balls.
The Janscos implement
another nine-ball innovation: the "ball in hand anywhere on the table" on all
fouls after the break.
The Janscos also put on
the first amateur event that takes place in conjunction with a pro tournament
(the first pool pro-am).
1968: Raymond Ceulemans, three-cushion billiards, breaks Willie Hoppe's
50-year-old record by one, running 26 balls.
Irving "The Deacon" Crane wins the New York City World's Invitational 14.1
Championship over Luther Lassiter, his fifth.
Joe Balsis wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship over
Danny DiLiberto, his second.
Frank McGown runs 150 and
out on Joe Balsis, but finishes sixth.
Kazuo Fujima, a nine-time
champion of Japan, became the first Japanese entrant in a U. S. Open Straight
Pool Tournament.
Jimmy "Pretty Boy" Mataya runs 95 balls at age 19.
George Jansco begins to
use the word "Hustler" on his tournament posters.
George Jansco opens the
Stardust Golf Course.
Larry "Boston Shorty"
Johnson wins the Johnston City one-pocket championship, his third of four.
1969: Jack "Jersey Red" Breit wins the Houston Invitational Nine-Ball Tournament
of Champions, over Luther Lassiter.
Luther Lassiter
wins the U.S. Open One-Pocket Championship, over Jack Breit.
Minnesota Fats has landed two TV shows and is pool's
biggest celebrity, despite never winning a major tournament.
The Houston police
department arrests 100 men for gambling, including Jersey Red, Danny
Jones and Ronnie Allen.
George Jansco dies on
June 4, 1969 of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
Paulie Jansco took over
the management of the Johnston City and Stardust pool tournaments.
Ed Kelly wins his first world straight pool championship,
over Cisero Murphy.
John Spencer wins the
first of three world snooker championships.
Luther Lassiter
wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship.
1970: Steve Mizerak wins the first of four consecutive U.S. Open Straight Pool
Championships, over Luther Lassiter.
Irving Crane wins the world straight pool championship, over Steve Mizerak, his
sixth.
Ray Reardon wins the
first of six world snooker championships.
At the Johnston City tournament, 18-year-old Keith Thompson wins
at nine-ball and in the all-around.
Young guns Cole Dickson
and Jimmy "Pretty Boy Floyd" Mataya also attend.
1971: Ray "Cool Cat" Martin wins his first world straight pool championship,
over Joe Balsis, his first.
Steve Mizerak wins the second of four consecutive U.S. Open Straight Pool
Championships, over Joe Balsis.
Evelyn Dal Porto becomes
the first woman to compete against men at the Johnston City tournament.
Jim "King James" Rempe
wins the Johnston City one-pocket championship.
From 1972-1978, Rempe
accumulated 23 pro tournament wins, more than any other player of that era.
1972: The last of the Johnston City pool hustler tournaments.
Luther
Lassiter won the most times, with eleven category and
five
all-around wins.
Jean Balukas won the
first (and last) women's tournament at Johnston City.
Larry "Boston Shorty"
Johnson wins the Johnston City one-pocket championship, his fourth of four.
The FBI raided the 1972 event
and Paulie Jansco decided to move the tournament to
the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas.
Paulie Jansco signs the
back of a promo photo: "I gave away more money than all the other promoters
combined."
Jean Balukas wins the
women's U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship at age 13, beating Dorothy Wise.
Alex "Hurricane" Higgins
wins the first of two world snooker championships.
Irving "The Deacon" Crane wins the World Pocket Billiards Championship over
"Machine Gun" Lou Butera, his seventh.
Steve Mizerak wins the third of four consecutive
U.S. Open Straight Pool Championships, over Danny DiLiberto.
1973: "Machine Gun" Lou Butera wins his first world straight pool
championship, over Irving "The Deacon" Crane.
Steve Mizerak wins the fourth of four consecutive
U.S. Open Straight Pool Championships, over Luther Lassiter.
1974: Buddy "the Rifleman" Hall wins an otherworldly 11 out of 14 of the pro
tournaments he enters.
"Saint Louie" Louie
Roberts wins his first national championship, the 1974 Orlando Open.
Joe Balsis wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship over Jim
"King James" Rempe, his third.
Ray Martin wins the world straight pool championship, over Allen Hopkins, his
second.
Meiko Harada wins the
Women's World Straight Pool Championship, defeating a young Jean Balukas.
1975: Dallas West wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating Pete
Margo.
1976: The Women's Professional Billiard Alliance (WPBA) is established.
Mike "Captain Hook" Sigel wins the first U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, the first of
his 10 world championships.
Larry Lisciotti wins his
first world straight pool championship, over Steve Mizerak.
Tom Jennings wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship over Joe
Balsis.
1977: Allen "Young Hoppe" Hopkins wins his first world straight pool
championship, over Pete Margo.
Allen Hopkins also wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his first.
Tom Jennings wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, his second
straight, over Richard Lane.
Jean Balukas wins the
first of six Women's World Straight Pool Championships.
1978:
Peter Margo has a high run of 330 balls in the World Series of
Pool, held in Arlington, Virginia.
Steve Davis turns pro at
age 21, and will go on to become of the greatest English snooker champions, winning over £5.5 million.
Irving Crane wins the
World Series of Billiards, the last of his major championships, at age 65.
Ray Martin wins the world straight pool championship, over Allen Hopkins, his
third.
Steve "The Miz" Mizerak wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Willie Mosconi and
Minnesota Fats play several televised challenge matches: the
most-viewed pool matches in U.S. history.
1979: "Saint Louie" Louie Roberts wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship for
the first time, defeating Steve Mizerak.
Mike Sigel
wins his first world straight pool championship, over Joe Balsis.
The APA (American
Poolplayers Association) is formed by Terry Bell, Larry Hubbart and Louie
Roberts.
1980: Nick "Kentucky Colonel" Varner wins the world straight
pool championship, his first, over Mike Sigel.
Mike Sigel wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his second.
1981: Louie Roberts wins the 1981 U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship in Chattanooga, defeating his idol, Buddy Hall.
Allen "Young Hoppe" Hopkins wins his second U.S. Open Nine-Ball
Championship.
Steve Davis wins the
first of six world snooker championships.
Mike Sigel wins the world straight pool championship, his second, over Nick
Varner.
Loree
Jon Ogonowski (Jones) wins the Women's World Straight Pool Championship,
over Vicki Frechen.
1982: Earl "the Pearl" Strickland wins his first pro tournament, the 1982 Dayton
Nine-ball Open.
Steve "The Miz" Mizerak
wins the PPPA straight pool championship over Danny DiLiberto, his fifth
straight pool title.
"Little" David Howard wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his first.
Steve Davis has snooker's
first televised maximum break, a perfect 147.
1983: Dallas West wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating Nick
"Kentucky Colonel" Varner.
Mike Sigel wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his third.
Steve "The Miz" Mizerak
wins the PPPA straight pool championship over Jimmy Fusco, his sixth straight
pool title.
Ray "Cool Cat" Martin
wins the 1983 Music City Open in Nashville, TN.
The top-ranked
pros according to Sports Publications Ltd. are Mike Sigel, Buddy Hall, Earl
Strickland, David Howard and Steve Mizerak.
1984: Efren Reyes appears in pool tournaments using
the name "Caesar Morales" to hide his identity.
Ronnie "The Rocket"
O'Sullivan has his first century break in snooker, at age ten!
Earl "The Pearl" Strickland wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his first
of five.
The MPBA (Men's
Professional Billiards Association) is formed, with Terry Bell as the first
president.
The top-ranked
pros according to Sports Publications Ltd. are Mike Sigel, Earl Strickland,
David Howard, Buddy Hall and Steve Mizerak.
1985: Allison "The Duchess of Doom" Fisher wins the first of 80 national and 11
world titles.
Stephen Hendry becomes a
snooker pro at age sixteen. He is generally considered to be the greatest
snooker player of all time.
"Hippie" Jimmy Reid wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Mike Sigel wins the world straight pool championship, his third, over Jim Rempe.
The top-ranked
pros according to Sports Publications Ltd. are Earl Strickland, Mike Sigel,
Efren Reyes, Buddy Hall, and Wade Crane.
1986: The Color of Money stars Paul Newman and Tom Cruise with
cameos by Steve Mizerak, Grady Mathews and Keith
McCready.
"Little" David Howard. wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his second.
Nick Varner wins the world straight pool championship, his second, over Allen
Hopkins.
The top-ranked
pros according to Sports Publications Ltd. are Mike Sigel, Jim Rempe, Efren
Reyes, Nick Varner and David Howard.
Loree
Jon Ogonowski (Jones) wins the Women's World Straight Pool Championship,
over Mary Kenniston.
1987: Torbjorn Blomdahl, three-cushion billiards, wins the first of five world
titles.
Earl "The Pearl" Strickland wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his second.
Steve Davis becomes the
first player to win snooker's Triple Crown in a single season.
1988: Ewa "The Striking Viking" Laurance wins the first of her two U.S. Open
Nine-Ball Championships.
Mike Lebron wins the U.S.
Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Lebron is the oldest
nine-ball champion, at age 54, and the first from Puerto Rico.
The top-ranked American
pros according to the PBA are Earl Strickland,
Mike Sigel, Mike Lebron, Dave Bollman and Nick
Varner.
1989: Nick Varner becomes the second player to pocket $100,000 in pro
tournaments in a year, winning 11 times.
Nick Varner wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his first.
Oliver Ortmann wins the
U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating Steve "The Miz" Mizerak.
Loree Jon Jones wins the
women's U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship over Robin
"Bankroll" Bell.
1990: Sang Chun Lee wins the first of 12 consecutive U.S. Billiard Three-Cushion Billiard Championships.
Earl Strickland wins his first world nine-ball
championship, over Jeff Carter.
Nick Varner wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his second in a row.
Bobby Hunter wins the straight pool championship, over Ray "Cool Cat"
Martin.
Karen Corr wins the first
of three World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Championships.
Stephen Hendry wins the
first of seven world snooker championships.
Robin "Bankroll" Bell wins the first
of two women's world nine-ball championships.
1991: Ronnie "The Rocket" O'Sullivan has his first maximum break (147) in
snooker, at age fifteen!
Earl "the Pearl" Strickland wins his second world nine-ball
championship, over Nick Varner.
Buddy "The Rifleman" Hall wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his first.
Willie Mosconi plays his
last exhibition match, against Jimmy Caras.
1992: Sang Lee, three-cushion billiards, scores 50 points in 16 innings, a 3.13
average.
Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer wins his first world nine-ball
championship, over Bobby Hunter.
Tommy Kenney wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Mike "Captain Hook" Sigel wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool
Championship over Dallas West.
Robin Bell wins the Women's U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Loree Jon Jones wins the
women's U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship over Ewa Mataya.
Franziska Stark wins the women's world nine-ball championship
over Vivian Villarreal.
1993: Fong Pang Chao of Taiwan wins his first world nine-ball championship.
Ronnie
O'Sullivan wins the U.K. snooker championship at age 17, the youngest
major champion.
Earl Strickland wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his third.
Oliver Ortmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship,
defeating Chien Sheng Lee.
"Champagne" Ed Kelly comes out of retirement to win the Legends of One Pocket
tournament in Reno.
Kelly won $20,000 and
Billy "Cornbread Red" Burge won $10,000 for second.
Hsin-Mei Liu wins the
women's U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship over Loree Jon
Jones.
Loree Jon Jones wins the women's world nine-ball championship
over Jeanette Lee.
1994: The Mosconi Cup is founded and named after Willie Mosconi.
Efren Reyes is the first non-American to win the U.S. Open Nine-Ball
Championship, over Nick Varner.
Nick Varner wins the PBT Eight-Ball Championship, defeating Allen Hopkins.
Ewa
"The Striking Viking" Mataya-Laurance wins the women's world nine-ball championship
over Jeanette Lee.
Jeanette Lee wins the first of her two Women's U.S.
Open Nine-Ball Championships.
1995: Allison Fisher, the "Duchess of Doom," wins the first of 50+ WPBA titles.
Gerda Hofstatter wins the women's world nine-ball championship over Vivian
Villarreal.
Reed Pierce wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Raymond Ceulemans, three-cushion billiards, has a grand tournament average of 2.222
in a Ghent, Belgium match.
Torbjorn Blomdahl,
three-cushion billiards, has a grand tournament average of 2.506 in a Netherlands match.
Oliver Ortmann wins his
first world nine-ball championship, over Dallas West.
Efren Reyes wins the PBT Eight-Ball Championship, defeating Earl Strickland.
1996: Earl Strickland runs 11 consecutive racks of nine-ball, to claim a
million dollar prize.
The insurance underwriter
refuses to pay and the case is settled out of court.
Torbjorn Blomdahl, three-cushion billiards, averages 5.00 (50 billiards in 10
innings).
Ralph Souquet wins his first world nine-ball championship.
Rodney Morris wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Allison Fisher wins the
first of four women's world nine-ball championships.
1997: Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer wins his second world nine-ball championship.
Earl "The Pearl" Strickland wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his fourth.
1998: Kelly Fisher wins the first of three World Ladies Billiards and Snooker
Championships.
John Higgins
wins the first of four world snooker championships.
Raymond Ceulemans, three-cushion billiards, runs 32 balls.
Buddy "The Rifleman" Hall wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his second.
1999: Nick "Kentucky Colonel" Varner wins the world
nine-ball championship.
Efren "The Magician"
Reyes wins the world nine-ball championship.
Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Allison "The Duchess of Doom" Fisher wins the first of her record six
U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championships.
2000: Ralph Souquet wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship.
Earl "The Pearl" Strickland wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship,
his fifth.
Fong Pang Chao of Taiwan wins his second world nine-ball championship,
over Ismael Paea.
Mike "Tennessee Tarzan"
Massey wins his first of six major artistic and trick shot pool championships.
Allison Fisher wins the
women's U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship over Loree Jon
Jones.
2001: Ronnie "The Rocket" O'Sullivan wins the first of five world snooker
championships.
Efren
Reyes win the richest purse in pool history, $162,172 in the Tokyo
Nine-Ball Championship.
Mika Immonen of Finland wins his first world nine-ball championship,
over Ralf Souquet.
Earl "the Pearl"
Strickland wins his third world nine-ball
championship, defeating Francisco Bustamante.
Cory Deuel wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Buddy Hall wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship.
2002: Ralph Souquet wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Helena Thornfeldt wins
the Women's U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Earl "the Pearl"
Strickland wins his fourth
world nine-ball
championship, over Francisco Bustamante.
2003: Thorsten Hohmann of Germany wins his first
world nine-ball championship, defeating Alex Pagulayan.
Jeremy Jones wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship, his first of three in a row.
Karen Corr wins
the Women's U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
2004: Jim Mataya, aka "Pretty Boy Floyd," marries the "Striking Viking," Ewa Svensson.
Alex Pagulayan of the Philippines wins his first world nine-ball championship.
Efren Reyes wins the World Eight-Ball Championship.
Gabe Owen wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Ga-Young Kim wins the
first of three Women's U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championships.
Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship, his second of three in a row.
2005: Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship, his third of three in a row.
2006: John Schmidt wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Thorsten Hohmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship,
defeating Thomas Engert.
2007: Peter Gilchrist, English Billiards, runs 1,346 balls in a New
Zealand tournament (426 average).
Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his first.
Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship.
Oliver Ortmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship.
Andy Segal wins his first
of four world artistic pool championships.
2008: Dick Jaspers, three-cushion billiards, makes 34 consecutive billiards
in the 2008 European Championship.
Mika "The Iceman" Immonen wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Kelly Fisher wins the Women's U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
Niels Feijen wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating Francisco
Bustamante.
2009: Mika Immonen wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his
second straight.
2009: Dennis Orcollo wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship.
2009:
Stephan Cohen wins the
U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship.
2010: Darren Appleton wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his first.
2010:
Efren Reyes wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship.
2010: Oliver Ortmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, his second,
defeating Mike Immonen.
2011: Darren Appleton wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his second
straight.
2011:
Dennis Orcollo wins the
U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship, his second.
2011: Thorsten Hohmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, his
second.
2012: Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his second.
2012:
John
Schmidt wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating Efren
Reyes.
2013: Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his third,
and second straight.
2013:
Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Eight-Ball Championship,
his first.
2013: Thorsten Hohmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, his third,
defeating Darren Appleton.
2014: Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his fourth,
and third in a row.
2014: Darren Appleton wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating
Shane Van Boening.
2015: Cheng Yu-hsuan wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
2015: Thorsten Hohmann wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball-Championship, defeating Justin
Hall.
2015:
Dennis Orcollo wins the U.S. Open Eight-Ball Championship.
2015: Thorsten Hohmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, his
fourth.
2016:
Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Eight-Ball Championship,
his second.
2016: Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship, his fifth.
2016: Dennis Orcollo wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating
Shane Van Boening.
2016:
Mika Immonen wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, defeating Earl
Strickland?
2017: Alex Pagulayan wins the U.S. Open Eight-Ball Championship.
2017: Jayson Shaw wins the U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship.
2017: Lee Vann Corteza wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship.
2018:
Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Eight-Ball Championship,
defeating Alex Pagulayan.
2018:
Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Ten-Ball Championship,
defeating Alex Pagulayan.
2018: Thorsten Hohmann wins the U.S. Open Straight Pool Championship, his fifth.
2018: Eklenti Kaçi wins the 2018 American 14.1
Straight Pool Championship.
2018:
Shane Van Boening wins the U.S. Open Bank Pool Championship.
Mark Twain, Was
Minnesota Fats Overrated?,
A Brief History of Billiards,
Pool/Billiards Record High
Runs, The Sexiest Sharks,
Johnston City Sharks,
Nashville Sharks,
Dick Hunzicker,
"Saint Louie"
Louie Roberts, Earl "The
Pearl" Strickland,
Who
was the best nine-ball player?
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