Untold Stories in Billiards Digest

Alfredo De Oro's controversial return to Cuba

Before the age of Mosconi, before even Ralph Greenleaf: there was Alfredo De Oro, the Cuban-born legend. De Oro won his first pocket billiards crown in 1887 and then went on to win it 31 more times. He was also the only person in history to simultaneously have held both the pool and billiards crowns on two separate occasions. 

During his heyday, De Oro was considered the best cue sports player in the world. Some still say he is the greatest ever.

In the January edition of Billiards Digest, I write about De Oro's glorious return to Cuba in 1918 for a world three-cushion championship. Held in one of the nation's finest theaters and attended by the president himself, that three-day competition is  remembered today as one of the most dramatic ever in three-cushion billiards. But it also ended in controversy and bitterness.

You can read all about it in my Untold Stories column this month, which you can find here. There also also links to previous Untold Stories columns at the Billiards Digest website.

-- R.A. Dyer

1918: Alfredo De Oro Returns to Cuba

Billiard champ greeted as conquering hero 

After a decades-long absence, Alfredo de Oro, the great Cuban pool and billiards champion, returned in 1918 to his homeland. The Cuban government had just granted De Oro a lifelong pension in recognition of the acclaim he had brought his native land. De Oro, then living in New York City, returned the goodwill by agreeing to play a world championship in Havana. The challenger was Charles Otis, then one of the top U.S. players.

I recently found a reference to De Oro's return to Cuba in a news article that appeared in  The New York Times. Through a little more sleuthing (at the Latin American Studies Library at the University of Texas) I turned up plenty more about De Oro's return, including extensive coverage from Cuba's El Mundo and Havana Post newspapers.

I'll write about my findings in an upcoming Untold Stories column for Billiards Digest. In the meantime, check out this Jan. 18, 1918 copy of  El Mundo. Coverage of De Oro's match against Charles Otis is stripped across the front page. (You'll have to click on it to view it better.)

Some quick background: According to his short bio in the BCA's Official Rules and Record Book, De Oro first gained the pocket billiards crown in 1887 and then went on to win it 31 more times. De Oro also held the three-cushion title ten times between 1908 and 1919. He was born in Manzanilla, Cuba on April 28, 1863. He died in 1948.

-- R.A. Dyer