James Maturo was a 5 time World Straight Pool Championship finalist.
James Maturo was a 5 time World Straight Pool Championship finalist.
He was born in 1878. In 1912 he defeated Alfredo de Oro by a score of 150 to 136 in Philadelphia, to play Edward Ralph in the world final match. [1] In 1917 he was matched against Frank Taberski of Schenectady, New York in a championship match. [2]
This is the list of people inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's hall of fame to honour outstanding people who, through their competitive skills and dedication, have enriched the sport and industry. Two categories have been established in the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. The "Greatest Player" category is awarded for outstanding players who must be 40 years of age or older, have been active professionals for at least 15 years and have recorded significant achievements in national or international competition recognized by the BCA. The "Meritorious Service" category (•) is awarded for those who have made lasting, memorable and important contributions to the game or the billiards industry.
William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen 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.
Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to pot as many billiard balls as possible without playing a foul. The game was the primary version of pool played in professional competition until it was superseded by faster-playing games like nine-ball and eight-ball in the 1980s.
Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé was an Argentine-born professional footballer and coach who played as a forward, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. Nicknamed "Saeta rubia", he is best known for his achievements with Real Madrid, where he was instrumental in the club's domination of the European Cup and La Liga during the 1950s and 1960s. Along with Francisco Gento and José María Zárraga, he was one of only three players to play a part in all five European Cup victories, scoring goals in each of the five finals. Di Stéfano played international football mostly for Spain after moving to Madrid, but he also played for Argentina and Colombia.
Jean Balukas is an American pool player from Brooklyn, New York, and considered one of the greatest players of all time. At least through the 1990s, when Allison Fisher began her ascendancy, Balukas was widely acknowledged as the sole candidate for greatest female player ever. Described as a "trailblazer, a child prodigy, a loner who rebelled against dress codes for women—the pool equivalent of Billie Jean King", she is a five-time Billiards Digest Player of the Year, was the youngest inductee into the BCA Hall of Fame and the second woman given the honor, and was ranked fifteenth on Billiard Digest Greatest Players of the [20th] Century.
Alfredo de Oro was a Cuban professional carom billiards and pool player who several times held the world title in both three-cushion billiards and straight pool simultaneously. He was posthumously inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1967, the first non-American to receive the honor. He was ranked number 4 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.
Tom Reece was an English professional player of English billiards. He was six times runner-up in the professional billiards championship, now regarded as the world championship, losing three times to Melbourne Inman in finals from 1912 to 1914, and three times to Tom Newman in the 1921, 1924 and 1925 finals. He made the unofficial world's highest billiards break of 499,135 in 1907 using a cradle cannon technique shortly before it was banned from the sport. In 1927, his prowess with the pendulum stroke led to that also being banned from use in competition.
Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to carom the cue ball off both object balls while contacting the railcushions at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each successful carom. In most shots the cue ball hits the object balls one time each, although hitting them any number of times is allowed as long as both are hit. The cue ball may contact the cushions before or after hitting the first object ball. It does not have to contact three different cushions as long as it has been in contact with any cushion at least three times in total.
Morton Goldberg or Larry Johnston, nicknamed "Boston Shorty", was an American professional pool player. Born in Rochester, New York, Goldberg beat such famous pool players as Minnesota Fats, Irving Crane, and Willie Mosconi.
Edward Lancaster Lee was an American professional carom billiards player from New York City.
James William Moore, known as "Cowboy Jimmy Moore", was a world-class American pocket billiards (pool) player originally from Troup County, Georgia, and for most of his life a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, best known for his mastery in the game of straight pool.
Cyrille Dion, sometimes called "the Bismarck of Billiards", was a top player of both carom billiards and pool during his era. Hailing from Montreal, Dion was champion of Canada in 1865. He won the last American four-ball billiards championship, held in 1873. After three-ball billiards came into vogue, he won the world championship at straight rail in 1875, and three years later, the first Championship of America at pool in 1878. He died just six months later at age 35.
John Gregory Horgan, Jr., nicknamed "the Banker", was an American professional player of pocket billiards and three-cushion billiards.
Charles Richard Morin, sometimes referred to as Charley Morin, was an American professional carom billiards player.
Fred Eames was an American three-cushion billiards champion. In 1910 he defeated Alfredo de Oro for the Three-cushion Billiards World Champion title.
Frank Taberski (1889–1941) was a professional pocket billiards player from Schenectady, New York. Nicknamed "The Gray Fox," he won 14 world titles.
Melbourne Inman was the World Billiards Champion in 1908, 1909, 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1919.
George W. Moore was a three-cushion carrom billiard champion.
Fifteen-ball pool, also known as sixty-one pool, is a pocket billiards game developed in America in the nineteenth century from pyramid pool. Created by members of the Bassford's Billiard & Chess Rooms in Manhattan during the late 1830s or 1840s, it is the ancestor to many American pool games.
James Maturo of Denver defeated Alfredo De Oro of New York in to-night's pocket billiard match, by the score of 150 to 136. Maturo will play Edward Ralph of Hightstown, New Jersey, for the National championship trophy to-morrow. Maturo started the scoring with a run of 33. They were tied at 113 in the seventeenth inning and again in the twenty-first with 126 each.
Early next month Frank Taberski of Schenectady will again be called upon to defend his right to the professional pocket billiard championship. His match against the challenger, James Maturo of Kansas City, must take place some time between Jan. 2 and Jan. 12 and will probably be scheduled in Schenectady, although as yet the exact date and place of the encounter have not been announced by the champion.
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