What does the term Hoppe mean?

Willie Hoppe was a famous Billiards player who had a signature line of Brunswick cues named after him. They often had an Ivory ring above the butt plate that has become known as the Hoppe ring. So when you hear the term Hoppe style cue it usually means the cue has the white ring or the bumperless end.

Willie Hoppe was a 51 time world champion. He had a line of Titlist pool cues he endorsed. Pool cues that look and are built similarly are sometimes referred to as "Hoppe" style cues.

The term "Hoppe style" has been kind of commandeered by AZBers to refer to any cue with a sort of wide Ivory (or imitation) ring near the butt cap - but they haven't been building cues for 30+ years. When I first started, "Hoppe style" meant no bumper and an exposed weight-bolt head. THAT really was the distinguishing feature cuemakers in the 80's emulated when they built a cue that had what was called a "Hoppe butt".

These days we see all kinds of "Hoppe style" cues that are nothing more than the particular cuemaker's same-old-same-old cue, but with a wide Ivory/white ring near the bumper. I personally still think the bumper-less buttcap is the real defining feature for that style...

TW

Here's an example of a Hoppe style treatment on the butt of a Jerry R. cue taken from a thread here back in June:



Link to the thread: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=322233