American Pool History: A Timeline

Here's a work-in-progress timeline of American pool. Feel free to suggest more entries or corrections. One day I'll put this up more permanently on the regular poolhistory.com website.

1565
Pool makes its first appearance in North America, according to Frank G. Menke, a sports historian. A Spanish family brought it with them to St. Augustine, Florida. (Source: Life Magazine, Oct. 8, 1951).

1748
George Washington purported to have won a pool game. (Source: A Brief History of the Noble Game of Billiards, by Mike Shamos.)
 
1819
Michael Phelan, considered the father of American pool, is born in Castle Comer, County Kilkenny, Ireland.

1824
Michael Phelan and family join father John Phelan in New York City.

1827
The first slate tables appear. Previously, the playing surface of tables was cut from wood and then briefly with marble. However, marble was known to "sweat" in warm weather. [Source: Encyclopedia of Sports, by Frank G. Menke, 1939.]

1835
India wooden cushions are substituted for wooden cushions, which had been popular previously. The India rubber cushions provided a "spectacular bounce," according to sports historian Frank G. Menke. [Source: Encyclopedia of Sports, by Frank G. Menke, 1939.]

1850
Phelan, seen now as greatest player in the United States, publishes Billiards Without a Master.

1856
Phelan’s book, Game of Billiards, is published; he opens a room at the corner of Broadway and 10th, New York. It was considered the finest and most luxurious pool room in the world. He also publishes the first edition of Billiard Cue, the first billiard periodical.
 
1859
Jim Seereiter and Michael Phelan play in a four-day standing room only tournament in Detroit for an astronomical $15,000. Phelan won; in April Dudley Kavanaugh beats Michael Foley in another high-profile match, also in Detroit.

1863
Phelan retires from active competition; he also offers a $10,000 reward for anyone who can devise a suitable ivory substitute for the manufacturer of billiard balls. This effort has been credited with the eventual development of plastic. Dudley Kavanagh wins in a pro championship in Irving Hall, New York, June 1-9. He becomes second U.S. pool champion.

1865
Vulcanized rubber came into use for cushions, and remains the standard to this day. [Source: Encyclopedia of Sports, by Frank G. Menke, 1939.]

1865
On Sept. 7, Louis Fox and John Deery, joint holders of the world billiards championship of 1864, meet in Washington Hall, Rochester, New York, to decide the 1865 title. According to an account of sports historian Menke: "Fox, far in the lead and on his way to winning, found himself bothered by a fly, which, despite 'shooing,' continued to light on the cue ball. Fox, excitingly trying to chase the fly, miscued, and it was Deery's shot. Deery ran out the string to win the championship. The heart broken Fox rushed out of the hall to a river, leaped in, and was drowned." [Source: Encyclopedia of Sports, by Frank G. Menke, 1939.]
  
1869
Celluloid, the first industrial plastic, is discovered by New Yorker John Wesley Hyatt. Hyatt was attempting to come up with a substitute for ivory billiard balls, but his new substitutes sometimes exploded on impact.

1873
Jerome Keogh, inventor of straight pool and five-times billiard champion, is born.

1897
Keogh wins his first world championship.

1907
Eight ball is invented. The first three-cushion championship is established.

1910
The game of straight pool is invented by Jerome Keogh.

1911
The very first World 14.1 Tournament was held in 1911 and won by Alfredo De Oro. 

1912
Straight pool becomes the official tournament game of pocket billiards.

Alfredo De Oro

1913
Rudolf Wanderone, AKA Minnesota Fats, is born in New York on Jan. 13. Willie Mosconi is born in Philadelphia on June 27. The industry reports one of its best years, ever, for table sales.

1914
Dudley Kavanaugh dies in New York on March at age 80.

1916
Ralph Greenleaf competes in his first national championship tournament, held in October at Doyle’s Academy in New York. The 16-year-old Greenleaf was described as a “Boy Wonder” by the New York Times.

1918
Luther Lassiter is born.


1919
Greenleaf wins the first of his 13 world titles.

1929
Greenleaf, playing in Detroit, regains the title – his eighth. He defeats the scoreless Frank Taberski with a sensational 126-ball run.

Harold Worst, future three-cushion and pool champion, is born on Sept. 29 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

1933
Willie Mosconi makes his national tournament debut.

Willie Mosconi

1941
Willie Mosconi wins the first of 15 world titles.

1948
The Billiard Congress of America is established.

1953
Jerome Keogh, winner of five titles and the inventor of straight pool, dies at age 80 on January 12.

1954
Harold Worst wins the world three-cushion title during an event held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1954
Willie Mosconi establishes the BCA-recognized straight-pool high-run record of 536 balls. He accomplished the startling feat in Ohio, on an 8 by 4 table.

1956
Willie Mosconi suffers a stroke.

1961
George Jansco conducts the first of his famous hustler tournaments in Johnston City, Illinois. The tournaments, which lasted about a decade, would eventually attract nationwide attention.

20th Century Fox releases “The Hustler.” The film, starring Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman, would reinvigorate the public’s interest in the sport.

Rudolf Wanderone begins making the fanciful claim that he was the real-life inspiration for the film’s Minnesota Fats character.

1963
Luther Lassiter wins the first of his seven Billiard Congress of America-recognized titles. He won many more non-sanctioned events.

1965
Three-cushion champ Harold Worst briefly conquers the world of pocket billiards with victories at the Las Vegas Stardust tournament in June, and in Johnston City in October and November.

1966
The Bank Shot and Other Great Robberies, the fanciful memoirs written by Minnesota Fats and

Philadelphia newspaper writer Tom Fox, gets published.

1969
George Jansco dies. Brother Paulie takes over management of Johnston City tournament.

1972
After reading newspaper reports of widespread gambling, federal agents on Oct. 26 raid the Johnston City tournament. The '72 tournament would be the last.

1978
Willie Mosconi and Minnesota Fats would play the first of several televised challenge matches. It was the most-viewed pool match in U.S. history.

1984
Earl Strickland wins the first of his historic five U.S. Opens.

1986
The Color of Money, a sequel to The Hustler, opens to favorable reviews. The film stars Tom Cruise with Paul Newman reprising his role as Fast Eddy Felson.

Allison Fisher

1993
Willie Mosconi dies in Haddon Heights, New Jersey on Sept. 16.

1995
Allison Fisher wins the first of her more than 50 Women's Professional Billiard Association titles.


1996
Minnesota Fats dies on Jan. 18.

2000-2001
Allison Fisher wins 8 consecutive major pro pool tournaments. 

2007
Shane Van Boening wins the first of his five U.S. Opens.

Mosconi and Greenleaf -- TOGETHER

Billiard Champs Entertain The Troops

Will the wonders of the Internet never cease? I just came across this very cool footage of legends Willie Mosconi and Ralph Greenleaf sharing an exhibition stage.  (Click here to see it.) Willie appears to be at the peak of his abilities.  Greenleaf looks hung over. The footage, from a website called British Pathe, was shot during a performance for injured troops at Gardner General Hospital, in Chicago. I suspect this footage was taken in January 1944, as it was in that month that Mosconi and Greenleaf went on a four-city tour together. Two months later Mosconi would be inducted into the army. Six years later, Greenleaf would be dead.

The two also reportedly joined together for a tour in 1934, shortly after Mosconi's debut in world competition.  Willie told biographer Stanley Cohen that Greenleaf was drunk for much of it. But even still, Greenleaf's staggering ability seemed undiminished. "I don't know how he did it," Willie said. "Even on long shots he seemed to be able to feel a ball right into the pocket, to shoot it just hard enough without banging away. It was like watching a virtuoso playing a violin, just beautiful."

You can read about Greenleaf and Mosconi in The Hustler & The Champ. There's also more at the separate Greenleaf and Mosconi blogs at poolhistory.com.

-- R.A. Dyer

Allingers Pool Room Photo Mystery

That's a picture, above, of the famous Allinger's Billiard Academy as it appeared in 1910.  I found the picture at the 3cushion.com website. The greatest players in the world made their way to Allingers, including Greenleaf and Mosconi. I believed the room may have moved around during its tenure -- folks from Philadelphia would know better. At any rate, in the 1950s it was located at 1307 Market Street. It was at this location in 1954 that Wimpy Lassiter won his first national championship. He defeated defeated Irving Crane 150 to 130 in the final. (You can read about it in Hustler Days).

Why am I writing about Allingers? Because reader Jason McManus recently sent me some photos that once hung on the walls of the poolroom. He explains that these are reproductions -- that is, they're photos of photos. That's why you can see the flash in many of them. 

Jason said he didn't take the photos himself, but rather they were taken by his friend Joe. "I remember Joe telling me a funny story of how he learned the game of pool there from the older guys.  They sort of babysat him, as he was supposed to go to the dentist.  What Joe did not know was that his mother gave them passes for a burlesque show where his mother was a makeup artist."

I can imagine a lot of these guys appreciating tickets to the girly shows. Jason wonders about the identities of these pool players. Anybody have any clues?  The guy right below looks to be Hubert "Daddy Warbucks" Cokes, the famous gambler and one-pocket player. Also: who has more stories about Allingers?

-- R.A. Dyer

The History of Sharking

Pool, as is noted in this great Sports Illustrated article that I've just stumbled across online, involves sustained waiting. "When one player is at the table, there is nothing his opponent can do except sit and hope that he misses," wrote Robert Coughlan in the April 4, 1955 edition.  "The player at the table, on the other hand, knowing that a miss will give his opponent a chance to make a long run and win, is under steadily increasing stress to keep pocketing balls. ... This can be a nerve-racking pastime."

This is why sharking can be so effective. Drop your cue at an opportune moment, stand in the line of vision of a shooter, excessive fidgiting: all of these can be effective ploys. The game rewards those adept at psychological warfare -- but in a manner that is not too overt. This is the definition of sharking. "Anything obviously calculated to rattle an opponent is against the rules, so players develop subtle forms of torture for one another," writes Coughlan. This is in contrast to hustling, where a player hides his or her true speed or deceives an opponent into a game he can't possibly win.

I've come across a great book on the topic of sharking entitled "The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship." It was written by Stephen Potter in a faux Victorian style, with "Gamesmanship" being the euphemistic term the author uses for sharking. The book is appropriately subtitled "The art of winning games without actually cheating."

I've gone through this book, Coughlan's article, and my own notes from Hustler Days and The Hustler & The Champ to create a list of pool's greatest sharking techniques.  Be sure to try these at your local pool hall. It's a great way to make friends.

*  The Annoying Body Noise Shark
A well-timed coughing fit, burp, or loud sneeze during your opponent's shot can put a player off their game.

* The Line of Sight Shark
 Writes Coughlan: When a player is shooting down-table, the opponent "may seize the moment to wipe his hands on a towel or shower them with powder, sight down his own cue or file the cue tip, start telling a joke sotto voce to someone sitting with him, or discover an itch that must be scratched vigorously." The showering-the-hands-with-powder shark was popular with Minnesota Fats.

* The Lauri Searchlight Shark
Pool legend Onofrio Lauri would polish his bald head in the line of sight of his opponent. Sometimes he would get it to shine so brightly that he could use it to reflect a dazzling light into his competitor's eyes.


* The Willie Mosconi Shark
Some very good players can destroy their opponent's game simply by assuming their regular haughty demeanor. Both Willie Mosconi and Ralph Greanleaf would exude such extreme confidence that their opponents felt like insects by comparison. Mosconi almost never lost during his mind-numbing exhibition years on the road. He said this was because his opponents needed to play above their regular skill level, but because they were so unnerved by him they generally played below it.

* The Minnesota Fats Shark
Your opponent on a roll? Stop the game to eat a sandwich. Repeat as necessary.

* The Nice Chap Shark
Also, from the Gamesmanship book: when playing a polite young player and one that has been well-brought up by their family, it can be useful to subtly implant the idea that it would be a rather rotten trick to beat an old man by too much. "Thereby the fatal 'letting up' is inaugurated, which can be the undoing of so many fine players," writes Potter.

* The Free Advice Shark
Give free -- but useless --  advice to your opponent. Potter says it can be as simple as telling him or her to "take it easy" before shooting. Also, telling your opponent to be sure to "look at the line" works well.


* Potter's Improvement on the Primitive Hamper Shark
The name of this shark, again from Potter's book, is admittedly ridiculous.  But the essence of it is to interrupt your opponent's flow -- "the hamper" -- but in a way that is seemingly meant to assist your opponent. For example, just as your opponent is in mid stroke, you can tell him to stop. Then, indicating some kids well on the other side of the pool room, say: "those damn kids -- walking across your line of sight."

Potter's book has plenty of hilarious examples of more sharks, including ploys that are useful in tennis and golf. Have your own favorite shark story? Send it in.

-- R.A. Dyer

Alfredo de Oro: One of the Greatest Ever

If you've been following along lately, you know we've had on-gain off-again discussions here about the greatest pool players in American history. Several months ago we conducted a poll on the issue.  Willie Mosconi and Ralph Greenleaf received the most votes, which prompted a run-off. The voting is still open on the question. You can find the ballot on the panel at right.

But throughout this discussion there's been one important player who almost entirely escaped notice. That player is Alfredo de Oro, pictured above. De Oro is largely forgotten these days, probably because his spectacular career occurred before living memory and because his exploits were overshadowed by the very colorful Ralph Greenleaf, who followed close on his heels. But de Oro was among the first inductees into the Billiard Congress Hall of Fame. He also mounted a championship career that would rival that of Greenleaf or any of the other lions.

De Oro played both three-cushion and pocket billiards — and excelled at both. 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. I'll say it again: He won it 31 more times. By contrast, both Greenleaf and Mosconi won the pocket billiard title fewer than 30 times apiece. Not only that, but de Oro also held the three-cushion title ten times between 1908 and 1919. Harold Worst also excelled at both sports, but not with de Oro's dominance.

De Oro was born in Manzanilla, Cuba on April 28, 1863. That's a copy of his passport above. (It's incredible what you can find online.) According to a quick bio I found on Wikipdedia, de Oro's first public appearance as a professional was in the fourth US National Fifteen-ball Championship, held in New York, February, 1887. By my calculation, he would have been 23 years old. He died in 1948, two years before Ralph Greenleaf.
-- R.A. Dyer

The History of Pool Cue Abuse

Earl Strickland's emotional outbursts have earned him a lot of criticism over the years. But judging from internet traffic, they also have brought a lot of attention to the sport. As of March 7, 2010, the image of Earl smashing his pool cue in frustration during a Mosconi Cup event has been viewed 181,233 times (181,238 if you count the five times I just watched it). I've included the video, above, for your amusement.

But know that Earl is not alone for engaging in such over-the-top antics. Some of the very greatest players in our sport have been known to snap a cue -- or worse -- in a fit of pique. Check out, for instance, the-- R.A. Dyer

Answer to Yesterday's Trivia Question

Looks like we have a winner! Reader Doug Riley of Columbia, Missouri responds to yesterday's trivia question by noting that Willie Mosconi was six or seven years old during his first match-up with Ralph Greenleaf, and that the score in that match-up was 46-50. Yesterday's trivia question asked: "How old was Mosconi during his very first documented match-up against Greenleaf?" Note the emphasis on the word "documented." The poster above, taken from the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History, provides the documentation. The poster touts the performance of Mosconi, who is described as an "11 year old boy wonder." But if you read the fine print (you'll probably need to click on the poster to see it better), you'll see in the upper left hand corner a testimonial from Greenleaf. In it, the great champion states "Having defeated seven year old Willie Mosconi 50-46 I have no hesitancy in saying he will be the future World's Champion." Doug puts Willie's age at 6 or 7 and correctly stated the final score.

Mosconi's incredible performance at such an incredibly young age calls to mind another amazing child prodigy, Jean Balukas. You can see footage of her appearance on a 1960s game show here. Like Mosconi, Balukas went on to great fame. And honestly, it scares me to see little children playing so well.

For his insightful answers, Doug receives a free BCA Rule Book. He can email his street address by clicking on my name, below, and I'll get a book out to him this weekend.

-- R.A. Dyer

Win Free Book with Pool History trivia

I've been continuing to research the Greenleaf and Mosconi question for an upcoming Untold Stories column. In the course of my work, I've come up with a good trivia question. Consider that Mosconi and Greenleaf played over 100 games against one another during the course of their careers. Consider also that Greenleaf was a bit older than Mosconi, and started his career somewhat earlier. So here's the question: How old was Mosconi during his very first documented match-up against Greenleaf? As a bonus, name the game and provide the score for that first match-up.

I'll send out a new copy of the Updated BCA Rules Book to the first person who can answer the questions correctly. Good luck!

-- R.A. Dyer

Ralph Greenleaf, Willie Mosconi & "The Rocket"

If you've been following along lately, you might know that we've begun a online poll intended to get to the heart of the age-old Greenleaf-Mosconi question. That is: which player really was better, Ralph Greenleaf or Willie Mosconi?

Historian Charlie Ursitti recently picked Mosconi. To support this position, Charlie points to Willie's winnning percentage in world championship competition. "The numbers don't lie," he says. To get another view I gave a call over the weekend to author J.D. Dolan. A resident of Michigan, Dolan is one of the nation's foremost experts on Greenleaf. The author's expertise comes as a result of the decade he has spent researching Greenleaf's life as part of his work for a future novel.

And Dolan, perhaps not surprisingly, says Greenleaf was the better player. The author says Greenleaf played fast, and with confidence -- not unlike Ronnie O'Sullivan, the famous English snooker champion. "Have a look at some of Ronnie O'Sullivan's videos on YouTube. His fast and perfect games are just the way people described Greenleaf's," said Dolan.

And so, upon J.D.'s recommendation, I am presenting here an incredibly fast snooker run by "The Rocket."

As an aside, I have found that YouTube is quite annoying in that it prohibits videos of longer than 10 minutes in duration. But O'Sullivan runs these balls so fast that he requires no more than eight minutes.

OK, now tell me again why the cue sports aren't permitted in the Olympics?

-- R.A. Dyer

Greatest Player Ever? Greenleaf or Mosconi?

This is the fourth a series of posts written in coordination with other online pool writers. It's part of the Pool Synergy project hosted this month by Gayle Glazebrook's Confessions of G Squared. Look for more PoolSynergy installments in the future.

A handful of athletes have been elevated by almost universal acclamation as the best-ever in their respective sports. In baseball, it would be Babe Ruth. In basketball, probably Michael Jordon. But pool? Who’s the best ever at our sport?

I recently conducted a poll at this site in which I asked readers precisely this question. I limited candidates only to U.S. players, and only to those known for pocket billiards. That meant that Filipino Efren Reyes and three-cushion player Willie Hoppe — two of my personal favorites — didn’t make the list. You can find the results on the sidebar at the right. (You have to scroll down a bit.) As expected Luther Lassiter, Mike Sigel and Steve Mizerak all got plenty of votes — as did Shane Van Boening. But the two top vote getters (and this shouldn’t come as a surprise either) were Ralph Greenleaf and Willie Mosconi. Both had long and dominant careers. Both smashed records. Both were feared by the competition.

Neither Greenleaf nor Mosconi, however received a majority of the votes. Mosconi came close, but still was held to below 50 percent. So in the spirit of true democracy, I'm conducting a runoff. It's time we came to the bottom of this very important question.

This month’s PoolSynergy column I devote to these two fine players. Consider it an advance on an upcoming Untold Stories column for Billiards Digest. Our PoolSynergy assignment was to write about our favorite player. Well, I pick these two: Mosconi and Greenleaf. They had different temperaments, different playing styles, different reputations. But both were among the very best ever to play the sport.

I read online somewhere in which some knucklehead suggested that if Greenleaf and Mosconi were still playing today, they wouldn’t be able to stand up to modern talent. This is, in a word, horseshit. During his heyday, Mosconi killed the opposition with repeated 100-ball runs. Not occasional 100-ball runs, but repeated 100-ball runs. Over and over again. It was devastating. It would take the air out of the room. Sigel, in his prime, would run 100s — but never with Mosconi’s consistency.

Likewise Greenleaf, during his heyday, would slice through the competition — sometimes going through an entire double round-robin tournament without a single loss. And often he did so while drunk. Greenleaf started young, rose to the national stage at age 16, won his first world title a few years later, and then continued smashing the opposition for the next 13 years.

I recently posed this question to historian Charlie Ursitti: which player really was best. Charlie is an expert in the field, having recently created a website with more than a century of pool statistics. He is a man of strongly held opinions when it comes to pool. Charlie’s answer to me was emphatic. Without a doubt, he said, Mosconi was the superior player. Charlie says this is not simply his opinion, but rather the indisputable conclusion one must draw from examining the facts.

“I statistically proved that Willie was better,” said Ursitti, recalling to me an analysis he conducted some 20 years ago. “He (Mosconi) won 76.3 percent of the games and Greenleaf won 70 percent of his games.” Charlie said these numbers, first published in an article for The National Billiard News, did not sit well with Greenleaf's fans. “I got more hate mail than anybody had in 10 years. They’d say: ‘you don’t know, you never saw Greenleaf play.’ I said both of them played in competition, I never saw them (play against each other) — all I did was present the numbers. And the numbers don’t lie.”

That may be true but consider a few other facts. Greenleaf played more exclusively on the 5 by 10s. Mosconi played extensively on them, but was more known for playing on smaller tables. Greenleaf also was the youngest American ever to win a world straight pool championship, having been only 20 when he took his first title. Mosconi tried to beat that record, but came up short. And while it’s true that Mosconi may have had the slight edge in head-to-head competition, Greenleaf held it early on, when he was still playing in his prime. Recall that Mosconi was somewhat younger than Greenleaf — he was, in fact, Greenleaf’s protégé — and by the time that Willie was in his prime, Greenleaf was already on the way down.

Mosconi, in his own autobiography, says that Greenleaf beat him 57 games to 50 during a 1934 exhibition tour. And this was even though Greenleaf was dead drunk during many of the games. “All told, we played 107 games in 112 days,” wrote Mosconi. “Of course, Greenleaf was the principal attraction. He was not only a great player, but he was great to watch. He had looks and style, a theatrical flair, and a shooting touch so soft that only a connoisseur could fully appreciate it.”

So who really was the best? As I mentioned previously, I’m going to explore these issues further in an upcoming column. But in the meantime, I’m going to post up another poll. A runoff! You pick the best, Greenleaf or Mosconi. Vote early, vote often.

-- R.A. Dyer

Best pool player ever: Mosconi or Greenleaf?

We ran a poll here not too long ago in which we asked who was the greatest player in history. As I might have expected, the top two finishers were Willie Mosconi and Ralph Greenleaf. Neither received a majority of votes. A runoff! So now the question becomes: which player really was better? Thoughts? I'm going to write a column about this at some point and I'm looking for comments. You can see the poll results in the column on the right. That's a picture of both players at the top of this post, with Mosconi on the left.


-- R.A. Dyer

Untold Stories in Billiards Digest: Greenleaf questioned in murder before winning first title

Shortly before winning his first national title, pool legend Ralph Greenleaf was picked up by police as part of their investigation into a grisly murder. The young victim had been abducted, possibly tortured, and then ... beheaded. You can read more about the infamous murder and the celebrated champion in my Untold Stories column in this month's Billiards Digest. An earlier column described the end of Greenleaf's career. This latest column is about its beginning -- and Greenleaf's startling detention.

America's greatest ever? You Decide!

Who is America's best ever pool player? The poll on the top right of this page lists some all-time favorites, including recent Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Archer. I've left Willie Hoppe off the list because he was known as one of the best-ever billiards players, as opposed to one of the best-ever pool players. Neither have I included one of my personal favorites, Efren "Bata" Reyes. As he's from the Philippines, I figured I'd save him for a future poll of the greatest international players. I've also tried to get a good mix of players from different eras. (Van Boening vs. Greenleaf?!) Vote early. Vote often. I'll leave the poll up for awhile. Also, if you have a write-in candidate, feel free to comment at the bottom of this post. I'll tally up the write-ins later, along with those listed on the ballot.

Champ Frank Taberski Plays "Chinese" Pool

Here's some footage of Frank Taberski playing "Chinese Pool," which was a popular variation of the game during the early 20th Century. Mike Shamos, in his excellent New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards, described Chinese Pool as a game "in which the cue ball is not stroked but is instead rolled down the groove formed by two cue sticks held parallel to one another."

The origin of the game's rather un-PC name remains unclear. Shamos notes that Americans at the turn of the century commonly applied the adjective "Chinese" to anything done in an unusual fashion. He also speculates that it "may relate to the chopstick-like appearance of two cues held together."

Taberski (the nation's dominant player shortly before the reign of Ralph Greenleaf) could easily run a rack or more playing this odd variety of the game.

America's Best Ever Pool Player? You Decide

Who is America's best ever pool player? The poll on the top right of this page lists some all-time favorites, including recent Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Archer. I've left Willie Hoppe off the list because he was known as one of the best-ever billiards players, as opposed to one of the best-ever pool players. Neither have I included one of my personal favorites, Efren "Bata" Reyes. As he's from the Philippines, I figured I'd save him for a future poll of the greatest international players. I've also tried to get a good mix of players from different eras. (Van Boening vs. Greenleaf?!) Vote early. Vote often. I'll leave the poll up for awhile. Also, if you have a write-in candidate, feel free to comment at the bottom of this post. I'll tally up the write-ins later, along with those listed on the ballot.