The Dean: Memories of Onofrio Lauri

From left: Willie Mosconi, Lauri, Irving Crane

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Erling Hammarstrom, the son of Norwegian parents, wrote me recently with recollections of his poolroom hero, the famous Onofrio Lauri. I've reproduced his letter,  shortened somewhat for space.

My sister and our parents settled in Brooklyn, in a neighborhood called Bay Ridge. The year was 1953 and I had just graduated from high school. A friend asked to go shoot a game of pool at a second-floor room managed by Onofrio Lauri, known as 'The dean of pocket billiards.' 

I was fascinated. The sound of the click of the balls. I even liked the smell of the powder that you put on your hands. One day I came to the poolroom early and there was no one in the place except Lauri. He challenged me to a game of straight pool and gave me a 90-ball spot on a 100-point game, playing for a pack of cigarettes.

Lauri ran five racks before he got out of position: the fifteen ball, which was his break shot, ended up behind the rack. Lauri called it in the corner pocket and I told him he'd never make it. He said let’s double the bet. He hit the cue ball off the right-hand side rail and it clipped the fifteen ball into the corner pocket before it broke open the rack. After running 150 balls Lauri unscrewed his cue and said that was enough for today. I went downstairs and bought him two packs of cigarettes. 

Sometimes Lauri and I would talk baseball. I was a real Brooklyn Dodgers fan and I thought Lauri would be too.  But years ago he shot pool with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and ever since that day he was a Yankees fan. I also asked him who was the best player of all time. Was it Greenleaf or Mosconi? Lauri had played against both of them. Lauri thought for a moment and said in a single game he'd pick Greenleaf, but over a series of games it would be Mosconi because he was so consistent.

Mosconi, in his autobiography, writes about Lauri

Every year Lauri would play Willie Mosconi at Julian's in Manhattan on 14th Street. Lauri might win two games, but he said you always get punch drunk playing Mosconi because he was so good. The last time I saw Lauri and Mosconi play was in 1965, at a place called the Golden Q in Queens. They were playing 200-point matches and Lauri ended up defeating Mosconi with runs of 90 and 110. After the match Mosconi turned to the crowd and said, "doo you believe this old man?"

Mosconi in his biography Willie’s Game co-authored with Stanley Cohen, speaks of Onofrio Lauri. "You wouldn’t want him to be the guy standing between you and a championship. He was a sensational shot maker. If he got on a roll he could run out on you quicker than you could count the balls.”

A tribute to The Deacon: Irving Crane

Irving "The Deacon" Crane, a 1978 inductee into the BCA Hall of Fame, possessed so much patience that he would sometimes spend quiet hours practicing safeties against himself. But he was also aggressive enough to rack up crazy big runs, including his flawless run of 150 and out against Joe "The Meatman" Balsis in 1966. You can see the first part of that historic run in the video posted above (and the rest of it in my Historic Video blog).

Crane, remembered fondly today as "The Deacon" of pool, is the subject a short online tribute this month by his old friend Stuart Jack Mattana. Writing for the first time for the online PoolSynergy project, Mattana describes Crane as "the perfect combination of patience and aggressiveness," a refined gentleman and a fine role model. "Irving’s technical excellence and fundamental soundness helped him maintain world class level performance up to the age of seventy -- of today’s older players, at least for me, only Jose Parica comes close to having duplicated Irving’s prolific run of sustained excellence," opines Mattana.

Crane won major world tournaments or title matches in 1942, 1946, 1955, 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1972 -- that is, Crane was named champion during four different decades, a stunning achievement. And he doubtlessly would have won a great deal more if not for having the misfortune of playing during the same era as Willie Mosconi.

Mattana also notes that the Livonia, New York native was one of just a few players ever to run 300 balls on a 5 by 10 table. (Others include Mosconi and Ralph Greenleaf.) "Irving didn’t pocket the balls as well as Lassiter, and his position play was not quite on a par with that of Mosconi, but he managed the table with as much elegance as any player of his or any other era, and showed great imagination in his play," writes Mattana.

Crane died in 2001. You can read Mattana's warm tribute to his old friend at Gail Gazebrook's blog, which you can be find here. You can find the rest of the footage of Crane's 150-ball run (it was during the 1966 U.S. Open) in my Historic Pool Video blog. Keep clicking on the "older posts" buttons to find the entire sequence of videos.

-- R.A. Dyer