Steve Mizerak

Stephen Mizerak Jr., better known as Steve Mizerak (October 12, 1944, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey – May 29, 2006), was a world champion pool player dominant during the 1970s and early 1980s, especially in the game of 14.1 continuous (straight pool) and nine-ball. Nicknamed "the Miz", he also had a brief turn as professional snooker player.

Mizerak began playing pool under the guidance of his father, who for many years had been the New Jersey State Champion. At the age of 13, he won the Perth Amboy City Championship and turned professional. The next year, he was refused entry into that event; they said he was too good. The 1960s saw a downturn for the so-called "world pool tournaments", and as they diminished, the era of the Johnston City Hustlers tournaments were growing. By this point in his life, Mizerak decided it would not be possible to earn a living playing and went on to attend Athens College in Athens, Alabama.

He earned a teaching degree from Athens College and taught school for thirteen years before he became famous outside of pool circles after appearing in a humorous commercial for Miller Lite beer in which he executed three complicated shots (which took more than 100 "takes"), then proclaimed that you can "really work up a thirst, even when you're just showing off", and later had a brief cameo in the 1986 film The Color of Money for which he also devised the "plays" seen onscreen.

Mizerak played in a series of snooker and pool challenge matches in 1987 and 1988 – rare televised examples of Mizerak playing snooker – against two of the top snooker players in the world, Steve Davis (a World Snooker Champion) and Jimmy White. The format, which was a best of three legs out of straight pool (14.1), nine-ball, and snooker, meant that Mizerak was the heavy favorite due to his opponents' unfamiliarity with pool. Although, predictably, he lost the snooker legs heavily, he won both pool legs, and so his record includes wins over Davis and White.

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