Willie Mosconi
|
|
Willie_Mosconi.jpg
Willie Mosconi (undated)
During the 40s and 50s, the billiards game most often played in competition was called straight pool, or 14.1 continuous, a form of pocket billiards considered by most top players to be more difficult than today's championship pool game 9-ball. Willie Mosconi once ran 526 balls in a row in an exhibition of straight pool, a record that may never be beaten. He was the technical consultant for the movie The Hustler, in which had a cameo role as a "stakes holder". The movie resulted in a boom in the popularity of pool.
His father owned a pool hall and originally tried to keep him away from the game by taking the pool balls away, but Willie carved his own balls from potatoes and practiced with a broomstick[1] (http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/mosconiwillie.shtml). He was a prodigy as a small child, then disappeared from the game for a while until the age of 19, when he had a good showing in a national event in Minneapolis. Because of this, he was invited to play with the best players in the world, and finished in the upper half.
He was hired by Brunswick which had touring professionals and promoted their products throughout the thirties.
From 1940 to 1941 a league was sponsored by billiard halls with 8 players, and a full round robin took place. Mosconi was sponsored by a hall in New York called McGirr's. He dominated this series, and ran 125 balls from the break five times when only two other players in history had ever done the same.
He continued to dominate pool into the mid 1950s in a manner few have equaled.
The Mosconi Cup, an annual pool competition between American and European players, is named in his honor.
References
- Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book 1992
- Billiard Digest, Vol 16, No. 2