Billiard trivia...

Tramp Steamer

Tramp Steamer

One Pocket enthusiast.
Silver Member
How well do you know the games we play?
Provide us with a piece of billiard trivia. Keep it under 10,000 words, please. I'll start.

The first cue tip was cut from a piece of horsehide.
 
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Perhaps, but do you know when, where, and by whom? The first tip was invented by Francois Mingaud (somewhere around 1820), a captain in the French military, who was imprisoned for crimes against the king (talked out of turn, I suppose). While he was imprisoned he played billiards with the common cue, which was rounded wood on the skinny end and flat and square on the fat end. He reasoned (correctly) that a piece of leather might 'cushion' the hit, and result in more accuracy (this was before the use of chalk). When he was "paroled", he was not finished with his invention, and asked to be kept in jail for a short period, to finish his tip (perhaps billiard tables were in short supply elsewhere). When he got out he became the first trick shot artist, and did command performances for many of the heads of Europe. He was the first person to articulate masse' shots, and was thought by some to be some sort of wizard!

Scott Lee ~ amateur billiards historian
www.poolknowledge.com

Tramp Steamer said:
How well do you know the games we play?
Provide us with a piece of billiard tivia. Keep it under 10,000 words, please. I'll start.

The first cue tip was cut from a piece of horsehide.
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Avian cue

One of the first go-offs in history was a Cardinal in France.circa 1700's
He lost the equivalent of 2 million playing carombole.He claimed it wasn't
really him ,it was his'altar ego'.
What a bird-brain.
 
Contrary to popular opinion, the use of the jump cue in pool does not trace to a pool player, but instead to a bumper pool player. Marcus Collier, perhaps the greatest bumper pool player ever, was able to jump using a short sturdy bumper pool cue, and when he entered a pool tournament, he wowed many when he used his bumper pool cue to execute a jump shot.

It got many thinking, and the gradaul invention of the jump cue followed. Marcus Collier's name is known to few pool players but he actually is a significant figure in the history of our sport, and Earl Strickland, Sammy Jones, and Robin Bell Dodson, often thought of as the founding founders of the jump shot in pool, must trace, at least some of, their roots back to him.
 
sjm said:
Contrary to popular opinion, the use of the jump cue in pool does not trace to a pool player, but instead to a bumper pool player. Marcus Collier, perhaps the greatest bumper pool player ever, was able to jump using a short sturdy bumper pool cue, and when he entered a pool tournament, he wowed many when he used his bumper pool cue to execute a jump shot.

It got many thinking, and the gradaul invention of the jump cue followed. Marcus Collier's name is known to few pool players but he actually is a significant figure in the history of our sport, and Earl Strickland, Sammy Jones, and Robin Bell Dodson, often thought of as the founding founders of the jump shot in pool, must trace, at least some of, their roots back to him.
Click to expand...

Earl may have been the first to use the jump shot in major competitions, but it was actually Pat Fleming who was the first to employ the jump cue, and that was long before Robin came out with the Frog. He even taped a piece of balsa wood to the butt of his jump cue for a while so people wouldn't know the secret, that it was just a shorter cue. The Marcus Collier info is interesting, though. I wonder if Pat picked up the idea from him, if it was the other way around, or if they stumbled across the idea at the same time.
 
Scott Lee said:
(this was before the use of chalk).
Scott Lee ~ amateur billiards historian
www.poolknowledge.com
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Not quite, Chalk came first then the leather.;)
E. White mentions chalking the end of a cue in his 1807 book
"A Practical Treatise on the Game of Billiards".

In 1764 when Frenchmen from New Orleans founded St, Louis
Missouri one of the first buildings erected was a billiard room. It was 20 by
40 built of timbers.

It took 4 elephants to produce a set of ivory snooker balls.

John Thurston pioneered the use of slate in billiard tables. At the same
time a competitor tried using iron beds. This idea was soon abandoned
due to the expense of working with the metal, the tendency for rust to damage the cloth, and the sound of the balls rolling across them was considered very unpleasant.
 
Very interesting stories, but remember, your trivia doesn't necessarily have to be of an historial nature. Some little something from you life, something you saw today at the pool hall. Any little bit of pool related information. :thumbup:

Here's another one: A game similar to One Pocket was played on a table made by Brunswick, with only two pockets. It was called 'Corners' and was popular in the mid-west during the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's.
 
gromulan said:
Earl may have been the first to use the jump shot in major competitions, but it was actually Pat Fleming who was the first to employ the jump cue, and that was long before Robin came out with the Frog. He even taped a piece of balsa wood to the butt of his jump cue for a while so people wouldn't know the secret, that it was just a shorter cue. The Marcus Collier info is interesting, though. I wonder if Pat picked up the idea from him, if it was the other way around, or if they stumbled across the idea at the same time.
Click to expand...

Quite right.

I used to play pool with Pat Fleming occasionally in the 1980's when he was experimenting with jump cues, and he sure did show up to the poolroom with some pretty wild inventions from time to time. This was easily ten years after Marcus Collier had demonstrated, in a pool tournament, that a short, sturdy stick could be used effectively for jumping. As you suggest, Marcus Collier is, most definitely, not the innovator, just the guy who provided some of the activation energy for what followed, and entirely because the cue used in his sport happened to be suitable for jumping.
 
In its earliest form pool was played outside on the grass, similar to Gate ball. It was then moved inside and onto a table. The traditional green felt signifies grass.
MULLY
 
In 1967, there was a young man who entered a musty 'ol poolroom in Springfield, MO with his father. After banging balls around a table for a couple of hours, they went on to Rochester, Pa. where they engaged in the game every night for several nights in a row at a local pub. Upon returning to Texas, the young lad became maniacal about the game (and later was dubbed "Maniac") and soon got a table in the garage of his parent's house. His love for the game developed into a deep commitment and carried on into his "midlife" and still has him captured now that he is nearing 60. His maniacal ways still follow him into the pits of "billiard-accessory buying" hell and there's not a week goes by until he feels the need to open his wallet to the billiard industry and pay "tithes" to the pool Gods. He spends hour and hours hovering his tired, achy body over the sides of the mahogany and cloth mini-arena. He is truly a pool Gladiator (good thing nobody dies from pool, cause he sucks big-time at it :D).

Maniac
 
Maniac said:
In 1967, there was a young man who entered a musty 'ol poolroom in Springfield, MO with his father. After banging balls around a table for a couple of hours, they went on to Rochester, Pa. where they engaged in the game every night for several nights in a row at a local pub. Upon returning to Texas, the young lad became maniacal about the game (and later was dubbed "Maniac") and soon got a table in the garage of his parent's house. His love for the game developed into a deep commitment and carried on into his "midlife" and still has him captured now that he is nearing 60. His maniacal ways still follow him into the pits of "billiard-accessory buying" hell and there's not a week goes by until he feels the need to open his wallet to the billiard industry and pay "tithes" to the pool Gods. He spends hour and hours hovering his tired, achy body over the sides of the mahogany and cloth mini-arena. He is truly a pool Gladiator (good thing nobody dies from pool, cause he sucks big-time at it :D).

Maniac
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Nyuk, nyuk! Good post.:grin:
 
Layered tips were first sold in 1828. They consisted of a very hard
first layer and a soft top layer.

After complaints about white marks left on tables by white chalk
John Thurston started selling blue chalk in 1828. In 1843 green chalk became available for sale.
 
This one was sent in from Mrs. Frieda Flushinghammer, all the way from Fredrick, Maryland.
Mrs. Flushinghammer writes: Did you folks know that 'Billiard' is the French word for ball?
Thanks, Mrs. Flushinghammer for that great bit of trivia. Your AZB T-shirt is on it's way. Size 3XL. :grin:
 
When Irving Crane first played Willie Mosconi, it was well known that they both used a Mennen product on their hair. In fact, they were dubbed "the Mennen brothers". The question is, what color suit was each of them wearing when they played?
 
NewStroke said:
When Irving Crane first played Willie Mosconi, it was well known that they both used a Mennen product on their hair. In fact, they were dubbed "the Mennen brothers". The question is, what color suit was each of them wearing when they played?
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Lime green (liesure suits)?
Seriously, I would not be surprised if they played in black tuxedoes.
 
Bar Box Break and Run Records and more

David Matlock - 28

Fat Randy Wallace 24/24 (48 of 49) -randy b&r 24, missed, then b&r another 24 for the cash.
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Balls ran in Straight Pool shooting b/h the back- 180
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Wing Shots -42 Don Willis
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Tournaments won in a row - 23 Jim Rempe
 
Scott Lee said:
Perhaps, but do you know when, where, and by whom? The first tip was invented by Francois Mingaud (somewhere around 1820), a captain in the French military, who was imprisoned for crimes against the king (talked out of turn, I suppose). While he was imprisoned he played billiards with the common cue, which was rounded wood on the skinny end and flat and square on the fat end. He reasoned (correctly) that a piece of leather might 'cushion' the hit, and result in more accuracy (this was before the use of chalk). When he was "paroled", he was not finished with his invention, and asked to be kept in jail for a short period, to finish his tip (perhaps billiard tables were in short supply elsewhere). When he got out he became the first trick shot artist, and did command performances for many of the heads of Europe. He was the first person to articulate masse' shots, and was thought by some to be some sort of wizard!

Scott Lee ~ amateur billiards historian
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

Ahhh but what was the name of his book? And how many copies are known to be in existence in the USA?
 
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