History: Tom Foley

Bob Jewett said:

The recent thread on "all-time best" reminded me of how little most pool players know about the game's history. Did you know that the founder of the Chicago White Sox (formerly, White Stockings) was a billiard champ? I didn't until yesterday when I got a book of sports stories from 1921.

TOM FOLEY
Tom Foley, dean of billiard room keepers in this 1921 year was the first
champion of Illinois, held the title the required time and retired unbeaten.
In his seven years of professional life he was engaged to play in twelve matches.
Ten of them were played all of which he won. The other two were forfeited to
him. In 1869 with Captain Jimmy Wood, he helped to organize the Chicago
White Stocking Baseball Club and in 1870 managed the team which won the
championship for the year defeating the famous unbeaten Red Stockings of Cincinnati.
For more than fifty years Mr. Foley was promoting billiard tournaments
and matches in America. He assisted in arranging and managing the first
balk line tournament ever held. On the front page of this volume there is a
fine portrail of Mr. Foley. Above [below] is a portrait of the billiard room which Mr.
Foley owned in Chicago 50 years ago it being at that period the most magnificent
and best equipped billiard room in America.​

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Thanks for the history lesson, Bob. I've never heard of Tom Foley before. What caught my eye was that "the most magnificent and best equipped billiard room in America," had no player seating for the middle tables. I also noted this in the Atlantic City tournament at the end of the Color of Money. The players were just standing around the tables.

bob c

Bob Jewett said:

The recent thread on "all-time best" reminded me of how little most pool players know about the game's history. Did you know that the founder of the Chicago White Sox (formerly, White Stockings) was a billiard champ? I didn't until yesterday when I got a book of sports stories from 1921.

TOM FOLEY
Tom Foley, dean of billiard room keepers in this 1921 year was the first
champion of Illinois, held the title the required time and retired unbeaten.
In his seven years of professional life he was engaged to play in twelve matches.
Ten of them were played all of which he won. The other two were forfeited to
him. In 1869 with Captain Jimmy Wood, he helped to organize the Chicago
White Stocking Baseball Club and in 1870 managed the team which won the
championship for the year defeating the famous unbeaten Red Stockings of Cincinnati.
For more than fifty years Mr. Foley was promoting billiard tournaments
and matches in America. He assisted in arranging and managing the first
balk line tournament ever held. On the front page of this volume there is a
fine portrail of Mr. Foley. Above [below] is a portrait of the billiard room which Mr.
Foley owned in Chicago 50 years ago it being at that period the most magnificent
and best equipped billiard room in America.​

View attachment 225724

Click to expand...

Great thread. Thanks for the cool pool read!

Bob Jewett said:

The recent thread on "all-time best" reminded me of how little most pool players know about the game's history. Did you know that the founder of the Chicago White Sox (formerly, White Stockings) was a billiard champ? I didn't until yesterday when I got a book of sports stories from 1921.

TOM FOLEY
Tom Foley, dean of billiard room keepers in this 1921 year was the first
champion of Illinois, held the title the required time and retired unbeaten.
In his seven years of professional life he was engaged to play in twelve matches.
Ten of them were played all of which he won. The other two were forfeited to
him. In 1869 with Captain Jimmy Wood, he helped to organize the Chicago
White Stocking Baseball Club and in 1870 managed the team which won the
championship for the year defeating the famous unbeaten Red Stockings of Cincinnati.
For more than fifty years Mr. Foley was promoting billiard tournaments
and matches in America. He assisted in arranging and managing the first
balk line tournament ever held. On the front page of this volume there is a
fine portrail of Mr. Foley. Above [below] is a portrait of the billiard room which Mr.
Foley owned in Chicago 50 years ago it being at that period the most magnificent
and best equipped billiard room in America.​

View attachment 225724

Click to expand...

Great post, I love seeing pictures of the old pool rooms. I never heard of Foley before this, it was odd to see the frequency of his "title" matches. It was kind of like that of a prize fighter. 12 matches in 7 years and 2 of them being forfeits.

Thanks for posting this.

Bob Jewett said:

Yes, the title used to be defended like for boxing but then they sometimes had tournaments to determine a new champ. I think at one point it was standard to have a tournament and then the champ would have to defend his title against the other top finishers until the next year's tournament. And the matches used to be long so that the gate could be significant and the travel (by train or boat) could be justified.

I think a similar system could work well now to have important matches without incurring a lot of cost. In a sense we have this with events like the TAR matches except a title is not at stake. One table, two players, a whole weekend of play, and a significant gate and/or streaming revenue. In some countries the bookies might be big sponsors.

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Did you know they also used to have player cards, kinda like the old baseball players cards that came in cigar wrappers. I have yet to see them but I have heard of them being sold at a auction every now and then.
Wonder what a Greenleaf of Hoppe card would sell for these days?

Bob Jewett said:

The recent thread on "all-time best" reminded me of how little most pool players know about the game's history. Did you know that the founder of the Chicago White Sox (formerly, White Stockings) was a billiard champ? I didn't until yesterday when I got a book of sports stories from 1921.

TOM FOLEY
Tom Foley, dean of billiard room keepers in this 1921 year was the first
champion of Illinois, held the title the required time and retired unbeaten.
In his seven years of professional life he was engaged to play in twelve matches.
Ten of them were played all of which he won. The other two were forfeited to
him. In 1869 with Captain Jimmy Wood, he helped to organize the Chicago
White Stocking Baseball Club and in 1870 managed the team which won the
championship for the year defeating the famous unbeaten Red Stockings of Cincinnati.
For more than fifty years Mr. Foley was promoting billiard tournaments
and matches in America. He assisted in arranging and managing the first
balk line tournament ever held. On the front page of this volume there is a
fine portrail of Mr. Foley. Above [below] is a portrait of the billiard room which Mr.
Foley owned in Chicago 50 years ago it being at that period the most magnificent
and best equipped billiard room in America.​

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Click to expand...

I played there, frequently! :thumbup:

Bob Jewett said:

Here is a Willie Hoppe card from 1910 that is on a "buy it now" on Ebay for $350.
View attachment 225785 View attachment 225786

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Nice find! :thumbup:

I dont know how your post slipped past me Bob, I didnt even see this..lol

Yes Tom was a pretty amazing fellow, that led an equally amazing life. For more than half a century, if it had anything to do with billiards or baseball in Chicago - it had something to do with Tom Foley.

He was in fact "married" to the game. One of his daughters, Nannie, was the wife of billiard champion George Slosson. And it is believed that Tom named his son 'Thomas Phelan Foley' after the great Michael Phelan.

Tom was even popular enough to be elected as a Chicago Alderman at one point. Probably not the greatest idea he ever had, because he did like to gamble a bit. In 1884 he kept a race horse in Milwaukee named 'Will Collender'.

In the late 1880s Tom got into the billiard table business for a short time with Nikolaus Stoll and the Garden City Billiard Table Co. Things didnt go well and ended in a series of lawsuits.

I guess I could go on, but that would get boring...
Suffice to say, Tom's billiard hall alone was world famous:

"No general description of the improvements and characteristic features of the new
city [of Chicago] would be complete without reference to institutions established in the
interest of popular amusements - and a brief notice of Foley's Palace Billiard Hall on
Clark street will be appropriate to this connection, as special and representative in
character and illustrating the modern tone and large and generous style.

Foley's billiard hall is regarded as the handsomest, best equipped, most thoroughly
appointed establishment of the kind on the continent. None of the Eastern palaces
erected in the interest of this popular game being of a character to rival the costly
magnificence of its accommodations, the architectural splendor of the apartments, the
gorgeous decoration of the walls and ceiling, or the modern elegance of its furniture
and fixtures.

The hall is one of great magnitude, with nearly ten thousand square feet of floor, with
high frescoed ceilings, like the ceilings of a church, and, but for the presence of the
green cloth and billiard furniture, would present the aspect of a magnificent chamber
of commerce. Some idea of the extent of the accommodations may be formed from
the book-keeper's record, indicating an average of over eight hundred games daily,
during the busy days of the season.

A feature of the hall is a handsome gallery of appropriate dimensions, at the west end
of the saloon, for the regular accommodation of lady spectators. This practical
courtesy to the ladies of Chicago has met a hearty appreciation, and on the occasion
of two memorable matinees tendered them by Mr. Foley, on the 28th of January last,
the day of opening, and on the 1st of the present month of September, the great hall
was thronged by the light feet of a thousand fair women, to whom billiards had
heretofore been a mystery or a forbidden enchantment. "

Excerpt from: "A Complete guide enabling visitors to more readily see and appreciate the great
Inter-State Exposition of Chicago" 1873

Bob Jewett said:

Did you know that the founder of the Chicago White Sox (formerly, White Stockings) was a billiard champ? I didn't until yesterday when I got a book of sports stories from 1921.

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By the way, I meant to add that the White Sox were sold to Commiskey (on the south side) with the agreement that they wouldnt call themselves the "Chicago" White Sox. Just White Sox.

Foley's new team up north became the Chicago Cubs

Commiskey, at the time, had a team in St Paul MN.
His press secretary was a newspaper advert man named Witt Cochrane.
Cochrane married Tom Foley's other daughter.

The Cochrane brothers ended up founding Universal Pictures.


small world

Mr. Bond said:

"the great hall was thronged by the light feet of a thousand fair women, to whom billiards had heretofore been a mystery or a forbidden enchantment. "

Excerpt from: "A Complete guide enabling visitors to more readily see and appreciate the great
Inter-State Exposition of Chicago" 1873

Click to expand...

"People don't really talk that way, you know ?"...Abigail Chase

Although the thought of being thronged by 1000 fair women is definitely a forbidden enchantment.

Although Tom was sometimes called 'The Father of American Billiards' and/or 'The Dean of American Billiard Room Keepers', he was just as important in the development of pro baseball in Chicago.

He also started an organization in 1919 called the Old Timer's Baseball Association (OTBA) and was the first president. His organization is still very much alive today with 'branch' groups all over the country.

Visit their website here: www.otbac.com


The rare photo you see below was taken at the first Illinois State Championship in 1865, which Foley won. As you can see, Michael Phelan, one of the tournament organizers is also present although he had no reason to compete, as he was from NY.

This photo was a prized possession of Foley's and was hung on the wall in his billiard room. That is until the great fire of 1871 which burned all of Chicago to the ground.

Amazingly, having seen the fire coming, Foley grabbed everything he could before it was all turned to ash - and saved his favorite photo. This reprint appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1912. Foley's Irish friend and fellow billiard champion John McDevitt, was allegedly good and drunk that night and died in the fire. He was last seen leaving Foley's.



Click here to see the image larger

A more detailed (and impressive) description of Foley's new hall...




Life-size portraits of Michael Phelan and John McDevitt?? ....that must have been something to see!

Tom was born in Cashel, Ireland on August 16th, 1842

Happy Birthday Tom

The book Spinks Sports Stories comes up for sale once in a great while on Advanced Book Exchange{ only one of the books has a great deal of billiard information.
It was a 3 book set of 1000 or 1001 short excerpts with lots of great old pictures of the players.
It is one of the many books I wish I had not sold.
AL Spinks and his brother were avid billiard and baseball enthusiasts .
There was even a chalk cube named Spinks.

Mr. Bond said:

Although Tom was sometimes called 'The Father of American Billiards' and/or 'The Dean of American Billiard Room Keepers', he was just as important in the development of pro baseball in Chicago.

He also started an organization in 1919 called the Old Timer's Baseball Association (OTBA) and was the first president. His organization is still very much alive today with 'branch' groups all over the country.

Visit their website here: www.otbac.com


The rare photo you see below was taken at the first Illinois State Championship in 1865, which Foley won. As you can see, Michael Phelan, one of the tournament organizers is also present although he had no reason to compete, as he was from NY.

This photo was a prized possession of Foley's and was hung on the wall in his billiard room. That is until the great fire of 1871 which burned all of Chicago to the ground.

Amazingly, having seen the fire coming, Foley grabbed everything he could before it was all turned to ash - and saved his favorite photo. This reprint appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1912. Foley's Irish friend and fellow billiard champion John McDevitt, was allegedly good and drunk that night and died in the fire. He was last seen leaving Foley's.

Click here to see the image larger

Click to expand...

This is an awesome thread. One Note to edward page, however..... If you are going to scratch your nuts in a picture like this, don't be the only guy wearing white pants!

This is also proof that nut scratching in front of media dates back to 1912 and was NOT invented by the NBA or the MLB.

I just noticed the last player at the bottom right was Henry Rhines.
Doe's anyone know what his nickname was?