Who invented the billiards jump shot?

Mark Griffin said:
Here is what I heard many years ago:

Billy graves from san Diego 'showed' earl Strickland a jump shot and earl perfected it to a much higher level.

This was not short jump cue - this was a full length cue stroke shot.

Can I swear this is true - no way. But I know that in early 80's or so
There was no-one jumping with full cue.

Billy graves died a few years back- I had first met him at the la expo of 1991.

I actually do believe Billy showed earl some things - but there is only one earl Strickland!

Mark griffin
Click to expand...

I was using full-cue jump shots in the late '60s. I used one to beat Willie Munson in a team match in Milwaukee in '75. Lots of players were jumping balls back then, though admittedly not often.
Also, interesting to note that a great bumper pool player was using the jump shot with the shorter and lighter bumper pool cue. In the official rules, jump shots are illegal in bumper pool (they make the game far too easy).

Donny L
BCA/ACS Instructor
Gainesville, Fl
 
I believe it was Pat Fleming who first introduced the jump cue to tourny play. The way I heard it was, Pat showed up at, I believe the US Open, if my memory serves me correctly, with a jump cue. They had a meeting on it to determine if it would be allowed. The ruling was, they would allow it if it was made available to all players. The following year a cue maker showed up with a jump cue, and the rest was history... You can call Pat at Accu-stats to verify. Im sure I have my facts correctly........ Have fun and keep your heads down on the shot.
 
In books from the mid 1800's jump shots are described. I have seen players make a full ball jump shot with a full cue from less than a ball's width away unintentionally. So I have to think that jump shots hitting above the equator have been known for a LONG time. As to when jump cues came into style I would have to say that I FIRST saw them advertised in the Joss catalog as a standalone cue in the mid 80s. I could not say whether Meucci or Joss was first of the major cue makers with a jump cue but those are the first two I remember who were marketing a jump cue.
 
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