Colors of Balls

Patrick Johnson

Patrick Johnson

Fish of the Day
Silver Member
Were the colors of pool balls chosen randomly, starting with the most "basic" colors? Is it as simple as that?

pj
chgo

Pool Ball Colors.jpg
Three primary colors:
1 & 9 = Yellow (primary)
2 & 10 = Blue (primary)
3 & 11 = Red (primary)

Three secondary colors:
4 & 12 = Purple (blue+red)
5 & 13 = Orange (red+yellow)
6 & 14 = Green (yellow+blue)

One tertiary color:
7 & 15 = Maroon (purple+red)

Two all-or-nothing colors:
8 = Black
Cue = White
 
What I heard

Its a little known fact the Indian braves had the first colored pool balls.

They would kill 1000 peacocks and grind up the feathers just to make one

set of balls. This was untill Cristopher Columbus came to america and

(borrowed the idea) and brought it back to Europe. Where the idea was

introduced to the game of snooker. Because there was an abundance of

red clay imported from Ireland along with the beer that is why there are

more Red balls than anything else in the game of snooker. The next major

change came about when Billy Jean King beat Bobby Riggs and part of the

bet was he had to shoot pool with a pink ball to remind him of the loss.

An ESPN reporter playing riggs in pool after an interview like the idea.

That is why today sometimes on ESPN you see the pink ball now used.
 
Rak9up said:
Its a little known fact the Indian braves had the first colored pool balls.

They would kill 1000 peacocks and grind up the feathers just to make one

set of balls. This was untill Cristopher Columbus came to america and

(borrowed the idea) and brought it back to Europe. Where the idea was

introduced to the game of snooker. Because there was an abundance of

red clay imported from Ireland along with the beer that is why there are

more Red balls than anything else in the game of snooker. The next major

change came about when Billy Jean King beat Bobby Riggs and part of the

bet was he had to shoot pool with a pink ball to remind him of the loss.

An ESPN reporter playing riggs in pool after an interview like the idea.

That is why today sometimes on ESPN you see the pink ball now used.
Click to expand...

I think you are right, it is part of the history of Florida. You can go to MyFlorida.com and look under history of pool and read much more about it. There will be a quiz following the reading
 
BigDogatLarge said:
I think you are right, it is part of the history of Florida. You can go to MyFlorida.com and look under history of pool and read much more about it. There will be a quiz following the reading
Click to expand...

Also another little know florida fact a group of traveling Hustler braves known as the "raiding party" came up with the idea of the first screw on arrow head tip.
 
Rak9up said:
Also another little know florida fact a group of traveling Hustler braves known as the "raiding party" came up with the idea of the first screw on arrow head tip.
Click to expand...

But all the really serious indians knew the screw-on arrowheads were just a cheap substitute for the real thing, and used only by lazy indians who couldn't sharpen their own arrowheads! ;)

Steve
 
Pat, your theory seems to make pretty good sense to me. I hadn't thought of it this way but it seems quite a logical way to pick the colors.

Raschig used to do a set of 9 balls where the 9 was black with a yellow stripe - black 8 + yellow 1 = 9

How are the balls colored in Croquet? Since billiards is evolved from croquet I'd assume that they followed the same coloring scheme or diverged at some point.

Very interesting question.
 
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