How History and Pop-Culture Defined Pool in the US

Introduction

Since the early 1900s the popularity of American pool was ubiquitous in bars and clubs that were populated by men who drank and gambled. From the 1920s on it fluctuated from the most popular leisure activity in the US to almost vanishing after WW2. [1] It wasn’t until popular culture sparked the modern resurgence and popularity from the 1960’s until now. There have been minor resurgences here and there, but never to the level of domination experienced at the turn of the century.

Feature films like The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986) were particularly influential in popularizing pool. However, they also solidified the literary trope and stigma of pool being a degenerate bar game in the US. [2]  There are competitive advantages that other countries have because they treat cue sports as a precision sport rather than a bar game.  In turn, there are competitive benefits to undoing the bar game stigma in the US, but the question remains, can it be done and how? 

This 2-part series explores the rise and fall of American professional pool and what can be done to produce more professional cue sports champions in the US. To help explore this topic, we posed questions to eight participants. These participants are a mix of professional coaches and players, live-stream commentators, junior league operators, semi-pro players, and  business people in pool and snooker. A qualitative analysis was done on their responses to shed light on the most saturated themes and responses.

This series is intended to discuss this topic in a constructive manner with the goal of improving the standard of cue sports in the US. In Part 1, we explore the history of pool and the influence of popular culture and its effect on American pool from a performance/behavioral perspective.

The Rise and Decline of Billiards from 1900 - 1950s

It is important to understand the influences of the past in order to evaluate the influences of the present. This section serves as a reminder of how societal, economical, and technological shifts can dramatically alter the course of recreational practices. [1] What similarities and difference can we see in today’s environmental pressures?

Billiard halls were the dominant social pastime across America in the early 1900s. Billiard tables were common in saloons and bars across the country. It was predominantly men who frequented these places to gamble, drink, and socialize. However, WWI saw these men go to war while women did the work of keeping the family and homefront going.  As a result, the demand for billiards fell sharply.

During WW2 the manufacturing of billiard tables were prohibited due to rationing of materials. Prohibition and the great depression also played a roll in seeing billiards shrinking in popularity. By 1950, billiard tables were sparse. Pinball and slot machines had replaced them as the pastime of choice since they were accessible to women and men, widening the audience.

Environmental pressures that exist today are obvious. Family, school, work, and leisure time are still a balancing act today even with, or maybe because of, all the new technology, novel sports, and e-games.  In today’s world there is high demand for people’s time and attention. There are few opportunities to access pool tables for junior players, whereas global interaction for people can be done on their phone, on the computer, or TV. Yet, it is access to a table and time on the table that are critical determining factors of developing a championship player.

If most pool tables live in bars, then how will the next generation gain access? Most high ranked US players started playing while they were young. They either came from a pool family and had a table at home, or were supported by their family to play on tables where they could. However, for most of the country, pool exists as a bar game and leisure sport. In the rest of the world, It is a cue sport that requires training and practice and that structure has been paying off. Where the US is not churning out champions as it had done in the 70’s and 80’s when they brought the sport to the forefront, Europe and Asia have met the challenge.

Popular Culture Influences in the 1960s and 1980s - For Better or Worse

Since 1900s America, pool has always been closely related to the bar scene and players chasing the big score. In this time period the players were predominately men and billiard halls were prevalent across the US. The movie The Hustler (1961) captured the drama of the player chasing their white whale, whether it be money or out-smarting and out-playing the top dog.

The Hustler is based on a novel by Walter Tevis (The Color of Money, The Queen’s Gambit) and has an overarching story of Eddie trying to beat Fats, but it is a deeper story than that. Eddie is chasing the big win and Sara is chasing the drink that erases her pain. A final turning point between the couple occurs when Sara Packard begs Fast Eddie to leave the ”perverted, twisted, and crippled” people in the pool halls and go with her. That dramatic underlying plot gets a little lost as the years go by, and what remains is the romanticized version of the pool hustler. When it really is a tragic love story between two people who don’t love each other as much as their vices.

Following a straight pool resurgence in America due to the Hustler, pool took a little dive in the late 70’s. This was a time of transition to nineball. The first US Open in 1976 struggled to fill the minimum slots of 16 players in VA. [3] It was only due to the perseverance and enthusiasm of the promoters that The Open succeeded in the early years. 

As the US Open grew incrementally, it was mainly American players in the finals because pool had not been globalized like it is now in 2024. Waiting around the corner was the movie, The Color of Money (1986) with a powerhouse cast and director. [4] It spiked people’s interest in pool all over the world, but still relied on the The Hustler trope. With the lead actor Tom Cruise, director Martin Scorsese, and the return of Paul Newman’s Fast Eddie the movie was a global hit. However, it was not a critical masterpiece like The Hustler. This sequel to The Hustler was a simpler plot comparatively. It was ostentatious, fast-paced, and commercialized. 

The games played in each movie were as different as their storylines— one deep and complex and the other flashy and simple. Straight pool was played in The Hustler and nineball was played in The Color of Money. Straight pool is a longer slower paced game full of patience, deliberateness, and poise whereas nineball is a quicker game with a brutal element of luck involved. Straight pool ended up fading away in the ‘80s with its demise coinciding with nineball’s rise and future dominance. [5]

The Color of Money sees a player, Vince, who is naturally skilled, cocky and wants to play his best and beat everyone, but the older Fast Eddie wants him to hustle. Eddie is teaching Vince how to sandbag and trick their mark into buying the big bet, rather than promoting a true competition of sport where each player does their best to win. Vince finally gives in and learns how to hustle while playing in “The 9-Ball Classic,” and makes Fast Eddie his mark in the end. Maybe Vince knew how to hustle all along? We’ll never know as that twist was so abrupt that it felt like an lucky nineball falling to the pocket.  Poor Fast Eddie gets hustled in both movies.

These two blockbuster movies about a bar game have shaped the culture of pool and set the literary trope in cement. As a result, the bar game stigma has been hard to shake and the effects are apparent in later films. [6]

The film Poolhall Junkies (2002) [7] follows the same trope as the other two mentioned. This is a continued plot heavily relied upon. There is a hand-breaking scene that’s a tribute to The Hustler’s similar scene. These stigmas seem to repeat themselves every generation or so, thus solidifying pool as a darkened bar room activity full of fights and money games. [8] Poolhall Junkies rose to a cult classic, but didn’t move the needle for popularity of the sport. Jennifer Barretta’s 9-Ball (2012) [9] fell in that same category, yet still relied on the seedy bar scene trope. 9-Ball was not a critical hit, but had cue sports stars like Jennifer, Allison Fisher, and The Black Widow.

The Performance of Americans on the Professional Circuit

American pool is now a global sport and several countries have produced champions in the past decades. As expected, during the pool renaissance that began in the mid 1970s, America produced the bulk of the early champions. Still, during the 80s and 90s while pool was spreading across the globe, there were far more home-grown Americans winning tournaments than any other country. However, global competition was around the corner, and by the early 2000’s Americans were overtaken by the rest of the world. Let’s take a look at the numbers.

The US Open (nineball)

From the genesis of The US Open 1976 - 1993.

1. There were two Americans in the finals every year.

2. Except for 1985, and 1988 where Mike Lebron from Puerto Rico made it to the finals and won in 1988.

3. From 1976 - 2001, there was at least one American in the finals.[10]

4. This dominance made sense since pool was not yet globalized and the tournament was played in America. So, access to entry played a large part. However, the numbers from 2002 to present tell a different story.

From 2002 - 2023 (excluding 2020)

1. An American was in the finals 10 times (50%)

2. Eight titles were won by a US player.

3. Shane Van Boening won five of them (’12, ’13, ’14, and ’16).

4. The other three American players that won the US Open since 2002 - 2023

   1. John Schmidt ’06,

   2. Gabe Owen ’04,

   3. Jeremy Jones ’03

5. During that 20 years span, the years that didn’t see an American in the finals of The US Open are ’02, ’05, ’08, ’09, ’15, ’17, ’19, ’21 - ’23.

World Eight Ball Championship

This tournament was held in the UAE from 2004 - 2012, then resumed play in Puerto Rico in 2022, and Austria in 2023. [11]

1. The only American to win was Shane Van Boening (‘23)

2. Filipino players are represented the most in this tournament seeing three different winners. 

3. Two times were both finalist from The Philippines (‘04), and two more years with at least one Filipino in the finals (‘07, ‘11).

4. There has never been a player who has won this tournament twice.

The World Ten Ball Championship

The World Ten-ball Championship started in the Philippines in 2008 with a field of 128 players [12] [13].

1. In the first four tournaments (2008, 2009, 2011, 2015) no Americans made it past the quarterfinals.

2. From 2019 - 2023, the tournament was played in America. Even so, no American has made it to the finals in any World Ten-ball Championship. 

3. In 2022, with a field of 32. Chris Reinhold was the only American to make it out of the first round and lost in the final 16. There were seven American players competing that year. [14]

4. In 2023, Shane Van Boening and Oscar Dominguez were the only American players in the last 32. [15]

5. Shane was knocked out of the quarterfinals that year.

6. American players could have underperformed in the tournament due to it being ten ball while most American players play nineball. 

The European Open

In the newly formed European Open, Shane Van Boening made it to the finals and finished second in 2022 behind Albin Ouschan. [16] Besar Spahiu was the other American player who finished in the top ten that year. Countries who saw more than one player in the tied-for-9th place or higher were:

1. Poland (3),

2. Austria (2),

3. Estonia (2),

4. Spain (2),

5. US (2).

In the European Open 2023, Shane and Fedor were the only Americans to reach the semifinals and Tyler Styer was another American finishing in the tied-for-9th place or higher.

1. Poland had eight entries with three players finishing T9th or higher with the top player finishing T5th (Wojcieh Szewczyk).

2. The remaining five finished T17th or lower.

3. Germany also had eight players competing with four players finishing T17th or higher.

   1. Joshua Filler finished T3rd.

   2. Four players finished T17th or lower. [17]

The Mosconi Cup

This is the 30 year anniversary of the Mosconi Cup. The current record is 16 - 13 to Team Europe with one tie. Team USA has only won four times since 2006. The past four matches have not been close, either. [18][19]

The tournament is named after Willie Mosconi, who valued discipline, strategy, and practice as opposed to his counterpart Minnesota Fats who sharked, shot from the hip, and credited himself as the inspiration for The Hustler’s Minnesota Fats.

1. From 1994 - 2006, US won 10 times. (‘94, ‘96-’01, ‘03-’05)

   1. Europe won twice (‘95, ‘02) and they tied in 2006.

2. 2006 was the turning point.

3. From 2006 - 2023, Europe won 14 times. (‘07, ‘08’ ‘10-’17, ‘20-’23)

   1. The US won three times. (‘09, ‘18, ‘19)

The World Nineball Tour Ranking

The World Nineball Tour (WNT) by matchroom added some cohesion and organization to the world of pool by injecting money and marketing into the sport. Despite their recent tiff with WPA, they have the stronger footing in professional nineball with expansion on the horizon. According to the WNT ranking, as of Feb 17, 2024. [20]:

1. There are 10 US players in the top 52 players.

2. Fedor Gorst, recently added as a US player for the WNT ranks #4 and is the only American in the top ten.

3. Shane Van Boening ranks #11

4. Three players are in the top 20 with Tyler Styer at #20.

5. Tyler climbed from his late ‘23 ranking of #45.

6. Skyler Woodward dropped from #15 in late ‘23 to #33 currently

7. BJ Ussery ranks #35.

8. Rounding out the bottom of the Top 50 are:

   1. Billy Thorpe #45,

   2. Ray Linares #47,

   3. Danny Olson #47,

   4. Max Eberle #50,

   5. Oscar Dominguez #50.

9. There are 15 European players in the top 50.

10. There are 13 Filipino players in the top 50.

Discussion

American pool has a unique history compared to the rest of the world. From pre-war times until now it has grown with the bar game stigma when it is really a precision sport that requires training, mechanics and discipline. What has this stigma produced over time for US players? Yes, the US players were very dominant until the late 90’s. But then, the rest of the world caught up. While Americans were playing in bars or home tables, the rest of the world were training in academies.

When the next blockbuster movie comes out, let it be a cue sports version akin to The Karate Kid, The Natural, Hoosiers, or even Rocky. Movies in that genre inspire and champion the great things about the sport. Cue sports has great things about it that should be portrayed. Pool, snooker, and 3-cushion are very difficult to learn and do well. It takes hours of practice, study, discipline, and dedication. When they reach a certain level of skill, the incline of improvement flattens and players need to dig deeper to improve. And most are on a silent and lonely journey. Cue sports is a solo endeavor. It is too simplistic to have a trope that reduces success to getting drunk, tricking your opponent or causing violence to the ones who happen to beat you.

It is clear that the world has caught up to the American standard and it is debatable that they may have surpassed it. There is a paucity of cue sports academies and school programs in America like the Xing Pai Cue Sports Academy in China, for example. Sadly, American pool predominately lives in bars where junior players have no access unless they are fortunate to have a home table or come from a family of pool players.

America is about a decade behind other countries when it comes to junior cue sports. [8] However, there is a lot of promise and potential in the younger ranks of American cue sports. The US can make a resurgence through the robustness of its junior programs, and there are a few good ones out there. But to make a real impact, cue sports should be a school sport/activity along with chess. Yet, it is difficult to put a bar game into a school. And it is difficult to start a junior program in a bar. It is not impossible, and it will happen. In order to do so, we must shake the bar game stigma.

In Part 2 of this series, we will hear what the experts say about this topic and possible solutions. For any questions regarding this article please email mike@oxbilliards.com

References

1. https://www.hbhomefurnishings.com/post/history-of-billiards

2. https://www.billiardsmovies.com/

3. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716070132/http://www.azbilliards.com/2000storya.php?storynum=8892

4. https://www.billiardsmovies.com/color-of-money/

5. web.archive.org/web/20061012043430/http://www.billiardsdigest.com/current_issue/aug_05/index.php

6. https://www.billiardsmovies.com/complete-list-of-movies-shorts-and-tv-shows/

7. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0273982/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_q_poolhall%2520

8. Image is Everything, SPM Magazine, Issue 39, by Keith Shaner pg. 25 - https://www.spmbilliardsmedia.com/post/spm-billiards-magazine-issue-39

9. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1934166/

10. https://web.archive.org/web/20100724191237/http://www.usopen9ballchampionships.com/2009+history.php

11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_eight-ball_champions

12. https://www.azbilliards.com/tourevent/world-10-ball-championship/

13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPA_World_Ten-ball_Championship

14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_WPA_World_Ten-ball_Championship

15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPA_World_Ten-ball_Championship

16. https://www.azbilliards.com/tournament/208216-european-open-2022/?action=results

17. https://www.azbilliards.com/tournament/211933-european-open-2023/?action=results

18. https://matchroompool.com/mosconi-cup/

19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosconi_Cup

20. https://matchroompool.com/world-rankings/