Looking for: List of 8ball world champions - 1900's

[Petros Andrikop]

Hi to all, greetings from Athens-Greece

All the best to you and yours for the rest of the holiday season.

A good friend of mine, Greek Billiards champion and businessman George Sakkas is looking for the list (if available, or any realtive data) of the 8ball world champions since the game was invented, for his history research.
Thanks a lot in advance for your time.

Petros

 

[skogstokig]

Hi to all, greetings from Athens-Greece

All the best to you and yours for the rest of the holiday season.

A good friend of mine, Greek Billiards champion and businessman George Sakkas is looking for the list (if available, or any realtive data) of the 8ball world champions since the game was invented, for his history research.
Thanks a lot in advance for your time.

Petros

List of world eight-ball champions - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

there are many versions of 8-ball, played on different tables. on american pool tables there were a slew of 8-ball world championships in the noughties, then the world championship wasn't held for some years, until 2022 when it was held in puerto rico.

 

[Bob Jewett]

A problem with championships at eight ball is that at least in the US the game was not considered "worthy" of the attention of professionals -- played by low-level players in bars with a thousand different rule sets.

The earliest eight ball pro tournament I know of was in 1979. It was one of three divisions included in that year's US Open 9-Ball. Of course it wasn't an official world championship, but there were a lot of top US players competing. Here's an article about that event.

http://sfbilliards.com/USOpenFiles/1979_03%20BD%20Results.jpg

 

[middleofnowhere]

Danny DiLiberto
Jimmy Reid
Efrin

 

[Cornerman]

A problem with championships at eight ball is that at least in the US the game was not considered "worthy" of the attention of professionals -- played by low-level players in bars with a thousand different rule sets.

The earliest eight ball pro tournament I know of was in 1979. It was one of three divisions including that year's US Open 9-Ball. Of course it wasn't an official world championship, but there were a lot of top US players competing. Here's an article about that event.

http://sfbilliards.com/USOpenFiles/1979_03%20BD%20Results.jpg

IIRC, Mataya claimed “World 8-ball Championship” in the early 70’s. I assume it was the 8-ball division of an all around tournament like Stardust.

 

[Bob Jewett]

IIRC, Mataya claimed “World 8-ball Championship” in the early 70’s. I assume it was the 8-ball division of an all around tournament like Stardust.

I suppose that's possible but I don't remember any divisions other than 1P, 14.1 and 9B.

 

[evergruven]

not sure if it counts for you, as I guess it's not 8-ball as we know it?, but:

"Another interesting player to consider as the best ever is Albert M. Frey, who was winning nearly every match almost as soon as the first native American pool games had been invented. According to Michael Phelan, the father of American pool, the first national pool championship took place in 1878. Albert Frey the "blonde boy" wonder and darling of the crowds, made his public debut on December 30, 1880. He won the first professional eight-ball tournament at Republican Hall, NYC, in May 1882."

some neat history here, tho:

History of Billiards Chronology/Timeline

 

[Cornerman]

I suppose that's possible but I don't remember any divisions other than 1P, 14.1 and 9B.

I could be mixing up my memories.

Mataya’s wiki lists an 8-ball title in 1976, presumably as part of an all-around tourney in Albuquerque . Someone should ask Mataya.

Larry Hubbart (the original Iceman) claims a 1976 US Open 8-ball as well as a “World 8-ball” title in 1977, but that could be misreporting.

Larry Hubbart Succumbs - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM

We received the news today that Larry Hubbart has succumbed after suffering a long illness. Known as "The Iceman" for his uncannily cool nature in high-stakes games, Mr. Hubbart was a truly unique individual. Originally from Rochester, N.Y., Larry was one of the top professional poolplayer

www.azbilliards.com

Where’s PT to fill in the blanks?

 

[Bob Jewett]

not sure if it counts for you, as I guess it's not 8-ball as we know it?, but:

"Another interesting player to consider as the best ever is Albert M. Frey, who was winning nearly every match almost as soon as the first native American pool games had been invented. According to Michael Phelan, the father of American pool, the first national pool championship took place in 1878. Albert Frey the "blonde boy" wonder and darling of the crowds, made his public debut on December 30, 1880. He won the first professional eight-ball tournament at Republican Hall, NYC, in May 1882."
...

So far as I know eight ball was invented around 1908 as BBCCo pool. Maybe they were referring to a different game that had no special role for the eight ball.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... Mataya’s wiki lists an 8-ball title in 1976, presumably as part of an all-around tourney in Albuquerque . Someone should ask Mataya.

Larry Hubbart (the original Iceman) claims a 1976 US Open 8-ball as well as a “World 8-ball” title in 1977, but that could be misreporting.
...

At the time, the NBN was the periodical of record for pool in the US. All of the issues of NBN for that period are available for free in the Goldmine on the AZB home page.

Here's an interesting item from the NBN 1976 calendars:

In the March 1976 issue:

From the May issue:

The NBN eventually reported the results on page 12 of the July issue with a reprint of the local newspaper's coverage. It appears that the organizers didn't have any post-tournament PR. Dan Louie over Mike Sigel for the all-around. No mention of which won the eight ball portion of the preliminaries.

National Billiard News – July 1976 - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM

National Billiard News – July 1976

www.azbilliards.com

 

[evergruven]

So far as I know eight ball was invented around 1908 as BBCCo pool. Maybe they were referring to a different game that had no special role for the eight ball.

hi bob, thanks for the tip. reading further, the site from which I grabbed the factoid itself says:

"1907: The first mention of eight-ball; it probably evolved from pyramid and other forms of pool in the early 1900s."
"1908: Eight-ball is first recorded as being played in the USA."

shamos agrees that eight-ball is descended from b.b.c. co. pool, and says the tournament albert frey won in 1882 is "not related to modern eight-ball."

rule-wise, I see that pyramid billiards uses all fifteen balls, and the winner is the person who first makes (any) eight of them, but that seems to be where the connection to eight-ball ends.

 

[sutigers]

At the time, the NBN was the periodical of record for pool in the US. All of the issues of NBN for that period are available for free in the Goldmine on the AZB home page.

Here's an interesting item from the NBN 1976 calendars:

View attachment 677999
In the March 1976 issue:

View attachment 678005

From the May issue:

View attachment 678009
View attachment 678010

The NBN eventually reported the results on page 12 of the July issue with a reprint of the local newspaper's coverage. It appears that the organizers didn't have any post-tournament PR. Dan Louie over Mike Sigel for the all-around. No mention of which won the eight ball portion of the preliminaries.

National Billiard News – July 1976 - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM

National Billiard News – July 1976

www.azbilliards.com

Bob I believe it says Sigel won the 8 ball. It's on page 12, last column if I'm reading it right.

 

[Vahmurka]

George Sakkas is looking for the list (if available, or any realtive data) of the 8ball world champions since the game was invented, for his history research.

Hi Petros, I wonder if Mr Sakkas is going to publish the results of his research somewhere in the Web? (Let it even be in Greek, modern AI systems get better and better at providing translation tools.)

 

[Bob Jewett]

Bob I believe it says Sigel won the 8 ball. It's on page 12, last column if I'm reading it right.

Right you are. So Sigel was the World Eight Ball Champion in what appears to be an entirely unsanctioned event. I think it did not repeat, but I could be wrong.

 

[jay helfert]

At the time, the NBN was the periodical of record for pool in the US. All of the issues of NBN for that period are available for free in the Goldmine on the AZB home page.

Here's an interesting item from the NBN 1976 calendars:

View attachment 677999
In the March 1976 issue:

View attachment 678005

From the May issue:

View attachment 678009
View attachment 678010

The NBN eventually reported the results on page 12 of the July issue with a reprint of the local newspaper's coverage. It appears that the organizers didn't have any post-tournament PR. Dan Louie over Mike Sigel for the all-around. No mention of which won the eight ball portion of the preliminaries.

National Billiard News – July 1976 - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM

National Billiard News – July 1976

www.azbilliards.com

Dan Louie won the Eight Ball division of the Bend tournament and Mike Sigel won the 9-Ball. They had an epic playoff that went three rounds (one match each of Eight Ball and 9-Ball) before Dan Louie became the overall champion. A Bend area radio station covered the entire final match (over five hours long) and yours truly was one of the commentators. Yes, live pool on the radio! That was a challenge. I wish I had the audiotape of that match.

One other thing. I was the TD of the Bend event and almost all the top players showed up to play in it. $33,000 was big money back then and everybody got paid! First prize in each division was $5,000, plus an extra $3,000 to the overall champion. Ronnie Allen did in fact promote and produce this event in partnership with local businessman Ben Tracy and Bob Lambert, a high roller from Texas. I also created a very nice souvenir program for this event that had pics of many of the top players of that era and some short bios of the best players; Sigel, Ronnie Allen, Jim Rempe, Cicero Murphy, Jim Mataya, Bill Staton, Danny Diliberto and Richie Florence. I have exactly one copy of that program left. If you have one (enclosed here), you have a collectors item.

P.S. Larry Johnson (Boston Shorty) won the Eight Ball division at the last Stardust tournament in 1973. Eight Ball replaced Straight Pool that year. The BCA also had a National Eight Ball championship every year for many years (on 9' tables). Jimmy Reid and Danny Diliberto were two of the winners that I remember.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Dan Louie won the Eight Ball division of the Bend tournament and Mike Sigel won the 9-Ball. ...

The Bend, Oregon paper seems to have gotten it wrong, then:

 

[jay helfert]

The Bend, Oregon paper seems to have gotten it wrong, then:

View attachment 678658

I think the Bend paper did get it right (my error). Louie won the 9-Ball and Sigel won the Eight Ball, exactly the opposite of what you might expect. They had a prolonged match for the overall championship with one player needing to win at both games to be declared the champion. It went three rounds (each one had sucessively shorter matches) before Danny finally won both and the extra three grand.

 

[Petros Andrikop]

Hi Petros, I wonder if Mr Sakkas is going to publish the results of his research somewhere in the Web? (Let it even be in Greek, modern AI systems get better and better at providing translation tools.)

Hi, George Sakkas for the last year is posting a lot on the history and development of the sport on his facebook page. I believe at some point he will publish all these together, meanwhile check him on facebook, you will find a lot of interesting information.