A Brief History of Billiards

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BILLIARDS
The History of billiards is long and very rich. The game

has been played by kings and commoners, presidents,
mental patients, ladies, gentlemen, and hustlers alike. It
evolved from a lawn game similar to the croquet played
some-time during the 15th century in Northern Europe and
probably in France. Play moved indoors to a wooden table
with green cloth to simulate grass, and a simple border
was placed around the edges. The balls were shoved,
rather than struck, with wooden sticks called "maces." The
term "billiard" is derived from French, either from the word
"billart", one of the wooden sticks, or "bille", a ball.
The cue stick was developed in the late 1600’s. When
the ball lay near a rail, the mace was very
inconvenient to use because of its large head. In such
a case, the players would turn the mace around and
use its handle to strike the ball. The handle was called
a "queue" meaning "tail" from which we get the word
"cue." For a long time only men were allowed to use
the cue; women were forced to use the mace because
it was felt they were more likely to rip the cloth with the
shaper cue.
 Tables originally had flat walls for rails and
their only function was to keep the balls from
falling off. They resembled river banks and even
used to be called "banks". Players discovered
that balls could bounce off the rails and began
deliberately aiming at them. Thus a "bank shot"
is one in which a ball is made to rebound from a
cushion as part of the shot.
 Chalk was used to increase friction between the ball
and the cue stick even before cues had tips. The
leather cue tip, with which a player can apply side-
spin to the ball, was perfected by 1823. Visitors from
England showed Americans how use spin, which
explains why it is called "English" in the United States
but nowhere else. (The British themselves refer to it
as "side".)
The dominant billiard game in Britain from about 1770
until the 1920’s was English Billiards, played with three
balls and six pockets on a large rectangular table.
The dominant American billiard game until the
1870’s was American Four-Ball Billiards, usually
played on a large (11 or 12-foot), four-pocket
table with four balls - two white and two red. It
was a direct extension English Billiards.
 The word "pool" means a collective bet, or ante. Many non-
billiard games, such as poker, involve a pool but it was to
pocket billiards that the name became attached. The term
"poolroom" now means a place where pool is played, but in
the 19th century a poolroom was a betting parlor for horse
racing.
 Fifteen-Ball Pool was played with 15 object balls,
numbered 1 through 15. For sinking a ball, the player
received a number of points equal to the value of the ball.
The sum of the ball values in a rack is 120, so the first
player who received more than half the total, or 61, was
the winner. This game, also called "61-Pool" was used in
the first American championship pool tournament held in
1878 and won by Cyrille Dion, a Canadian.
 Eight-Ball was invented shortly after 1900; Straight Pool followed
in 1910. Nine-Ball seems to have developed around 1920.
 From 1878 until 1956, pool and billiard championship tournaments
were held almost annually, with one-on-one challenge matches
filling the remaining months. At times, including during the Civil
War, billiard results received wider coverage than war news. Pool
went to war several times as a popular recreation for the troops.
Professional players toured military posts giving exhibitions; some
even worked in the defense Industry. But the game had more
trouble emerging from World War II than it had getting into it.
Returning soldiers were in a mood to buy houses and build
careers, and the charm of an afternoon spent at the pool table
was a thing of the past. Room after room closed quietly and by
the end of the 1950’s it looked as though the game might pass
into oblivion.
Billiards was revived by two electrifying events, one
in 1961, the other in 1986. The first was the release
of the movie, "The Hustler". The black-and-white
film depicted the dark life of a pool hustler with Paul
Newman in the title role. In 1986, "The Color of
Money", the sequel to "The Hustler" with Paul
Newman in the same role and Tom Cruise as an
up-and-coming professional, brought the
excitement of pool to a new generation.
 In the 1920’s, the poolroom was an environment in which men
gathered to loiter, smoke, fight, bet, and play. The rooms of today
bear no resemblance to those of the earlier times. Until very
recently, billiards was completely dominated by men. The
atmosphere of the poolroom was very forbidding and women had
trouble being accepted there. Nonetheless, women have been
enthusiastic players since the game was brought up from the
ground in the 15th century. For over 200 hundred years, women
of fashion have played the game. In the past, it was very difficult
for a woman to develop billiard skills because male players, her
family, and friends usually did not support her efforts and it was
not easy to find experienced female instructors or coaches. As
these situations have changed, and continue to change, we can
expect women to equal men in ability and take the game to new
heights.
When Was The Pool Invented?
Eight-Ball was invented shortly

after 1900. Nine-Ball seems to have
developed around 1920. While the term
"billiards" refers to all games played on a
billiard table, with or without pockets.
BASIC TERMINOLOGY DEALING WITH A CUE AND
A POOL TABLE
Terminology related to a pool shot:
Croquet
Cueue and Mace
Bank Shot

A Brief History of Billiards

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF BILLIARDS

The History of billiards is long and very rich. The game

Eight-Ball was invented shortly

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