Show I 1 oi I 1 ii ln a I 1 by ROBERT mcshane I 1 Rl aloid oid by na union A A M MAGAZINE A article published arx after the 1940 worlds cham plon ship three cushion billiard bill Jard tournament labeled willie hoppe the greatest living argument in favor 0 of the pool hall that was not an overstatement no other man has so completely complete y dominated a sport for or so long a time as has hoppe few golf fans falls will agree on oil an all time standout performer A half dozen ringside veterans will claim the greatest greate sv tag for an equal al number of lighters fighters baseball enthusiasts have a hund hundred red heroes that true of billiards billiard greatness and willie hoppe hop p are synonymous they have been for 40 years wlllie 63 53 years old has devoted ills his life to the he game front from tile time lio lie was seven lie practiced tired cd from four to eight hours a day lie he was ft a boy wonder at nine playing celil botlon games all over tile lie country thirteen years ago lie W was as referred to as tile grand old man of tile the cue three time champion Champi oll in 1910 lie he won for tho the second time the iho worlds cushion loll 1011 championship by winning whining 20 straight games a 3 feat comparable to a tony galento victory over heavyweight champion joe louis in 1941 1041 the new yorker won ills his second consecutive three cushion title the third during his career ile he lost only one match in tile the 17 game tournament hoppes competitive career real really y started when lie he was 12 ills his father arranged a match for him with al taylor 30 00 years old and one of the best balk line players in the coun ire P W 98 MM WILLIE HOPPE try taylor started out by being amused at his diminutive colleague ills his amusement gave way to a total y different feeling when willie won tho the match by a score of to in the past 35 years there has never been a time when wlllie willie did not hot hold at least one championship champions hip according to his own estimate he has played or practiced billiards tor for about tour four hours a day for the last 10 40 years the equivalent of 6 years of continuous play allowance for youth his devotion to the game Is responsible for much of his success while most of his boyhood friends were playing shinny base jail all or indulging in some other strenuous pastime wil wlllie lie was at his fathers pool table figuring out the tough ones he had to stand on a soap box because he tall enough to crouch over the edge of the table even today hoppe uses a sidearm stroke the result of learning the game before lie he was tall enough to adopt a standard shot although billiards pay as well as it ir did 20 years ago willie still makes around a year in the early twenties he was making a year hoppe differs from his contemporaries in many ways chiefly ills his technique is different most alost professional players use the diamond system which derives its name from the inlaid markers around the edge of the table A player can figure out his shots by counting these markers hoppe has never used this system ile he prefers to figure things out iut in his head this method has worked quite well for or him when he was only 13 he ran an 2000 straight billiards today he ie holds the worlds world s record run of 25 consecutive three cushion billiards he has broken so many records and won so many tournaments that he has lost count all of which demonstrates why wilio is known as mr billiards sport shorts luke ha hamlan of the brooklyn dodgers says bad tons tonsils ils caused his poor ioor play last season he has had them hem removed james brennan 52 who died in hinckley minn recently had been president of the minnesota amateur baseball league tor le 16 years margaret H of cleveland ohio hlo rolled 25 strikes in 34 frames for ar a three game total its a 6 season eason record for women bo bowlers alers |