history of 14.1 us open

[tread2004]

We have a crazy old guy that has just started playing pool in our local room. He stats that the very first 14.1 us open tournament had a first prize of $100,000. He also says that willie mosconi was the first millionare pool player because of his impressive winning streakat the us open. Of course this started a big argument between our regular players and this guy. Does anybody have any information that can answer this argument. I have searched for the history of the 14.1 us open and can't find anything. Thanks

 

[CreeDo]

There was a 14.1 world championship and google reveals a "us open" for straight pool in 2000, but there's little mention of it elsewhere. I think he must be thinking of the world championship, which mosconi won 15 times between '41 and '57. Can't find what the money was for that.

One thing about pool, a lot of it doesn't change. He was prolly like a modern pool players - the big chunk came from winning majors, but probably an equal amount came from other endeavors, including exhibitions.

It's possible your buddy was right and there was a separate tournament, recordkeeping in pool doesn't seem to be all that sharp. But I think he is making up the 100k first prize. Maybe there was a total prize fund of 100k.