Thanks to Hambone for the Sports Illustrated stories. I found this interesting paragraph in one of them and saw a term that I have never seen before.
I was wondering if anyone knew where this term originated from.
[Harrigan]
excerpt: For instance, anyone who has ever mis-cued on the game ball will understand the feelings, and revere the memory, of Louis Fox, who died a martyr's death in 1865. He and John Deery were playing for the championship that year, and Fox?needing only a few more balls to win?was at the table when a fly settled on the cue ball. He waved it away with his cue, but it returned before he could shoot. This happened again, and then again. The third time Fox accidently jostled the ball with his cue tip, which cost him his shot, and Deery came to the table and won the championship. Fox, it is said, ran from the hall and leaped into a nearby river, where he drowned. This tragedy was almost repeated in 1951, when the national championship tournament was being played at Chicago 's Navy Pier. The veteran and distinguished Onofrio Lauri was matched against a Cleveland player named Wallace, whom he figured to beat easily. But Wallace was inspired: he ran 86 balls and out, including?witnesses declare?70 Harrigans, the term for shots considered almost impossible. Lauri, cue in hand, rushed for a doorway that opened onto Lake Michigan and was halfway through it before three friends could subdue him.
I was wondering if anyone knew where this term originated from.
[Harrigan]
excerpt: For instance, anyone who has ever mis-cued on the game ball will understand the feelings, and revere the memory, of Louis Fox, who died a martyr's death in 1865. He and John Deery were playing for the championship that year, and Fox?needing only a few more balls to win?was at the table when a fly settled on the cue ball. He waved it away with his cue, but it returned before he could shoot. This happened again, and then again. The third time Fox accidently jostled the ball with his cue tip, which cost him his shot, and Deery came to the table and won the championship. Fox, it is said, ran from the hall and leaped into a nearby river, where he drowned. This tragedy was almost repeated in 1951, when the national championship tournament was being played at Chicago 's Navy Pier. The veteran and distinguished Onofrio Lauri was matched against a Cleveland player named Wallace, whom he figured to beat easily. But Wallace was inspired: he ran 86 balls and out, including?witnesses declare?70 Harrigans, the term for shots considered almost impossible. Lauri, cue in hand, rushed for a doorway that opened onto Lake Michigan and was halfway through it before three friends could subdue him.
