Willie Mosconi

Willie Mosconi
Mosconi (left) with "Cowboy Jimmy" Moore at the 1953 World's Invitational
Born	William Joseph Mosconi June 27, 1913 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	September 17, 1993(1993-09-17) (aged 80) Haddon Heights, New Jersey
Other names	"Mr. Pocket Billiards"

William Joseph Mosconi (/mɒsˈkoʊni/; June 27, 1913 – September 17, 1993), generally known as Willie Mosconi, was an American professional pool (pocket billiards) player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the pocket billiards game most often played in competition was called straight pool, or 14.1 continuous, a form of pool considered by most top players to be more difficult than today's fast tournament game nine-ball. Mosconi still holds the officially recognized straight pool high run world record of 526 consecutive balls (see below for more details).

Willie's father Joseph Mosconi owned a pool hall that the family lived above. Joseph Mosconi was strongly opposed to Willie playing pocket billiards, preferring he become a Vaudeville performer. He tried to keep his young son away from the game by hiding the billiard balls, but Willie improvised by practicing with small potatoes from his mother's kitchen and an old broomstick.