The History of the Game of Pool

The game of billiards was played in Europe for hundreds of years before jumping the Atlantic to become known as pool in 19th-century America. While most common as a pastime played on public tables, pool/billiards has in recent years become more organized on the international level, with world championship competitions and bids to join the Olympics now regular occurrences.

  1. Earliest Appearances

    • According to sports historian Ralph Hickok, the game most likely originated in France as an indoor version of a croquet-like lawn game. Hickok says the first written reference to the game came in the 15th century, and that the origin of the name was the French word "billart," which was the name of the stick used to hit the ball. "Billart," in turn, derived from "bille," the French word for the ball.

      The English Amateur Billiards Association says the earliest detailed account of billiards came in 1674 in the book "The Compleat Gamester," in which author Charles Cotton reported billiards being played throughout Europe. Cotton wrote that most towns in England had public billiards tables at the time.

    Variations

    • Several varieties of the game developed as billiards spread through Europe. For example, Hickok writes that carom billiards, a game played with three or four balls on a pocketless table, was most popular in France. In England, billiards was most often played on a table with six pockets, much like today's pocket billiards or English snooker.

    Evolving Equipment

    • The "billart," the club-like stick used to strike the ball, was known as a "mace" in England. By the time Cotton's book appeared in its fifth edition in 1734, cue sticks were being used alongside the mace.

      The Billiard Congress of America notes several important evolutions of the game during the 19th century. Players began chalking their cue sticks, which were being embellished with leather cue tip by 1823. A decade later, slate had become a popular table bed material, and table cushions made of vulcanized rubber appeared in the 1840s. According to the BCA, "By 1850, the billiard table had essentially evolved into its current form."

    American Pool

    • Billiards began to catch on in American cities in the early 19th century. According Hickok, New York City had eight public tables in coffeehouses and hotels by 1808 and about two dozen in 1824. It was around this time that the name "pool," which also meant gambling, became associated with American billiards.

      Hickok reports that the first American championship tournament was held in 1858, with Dudley Kavanagh emerging as the winner. Kavanagh won the championship again the next year in a match marking the first paid-admission billiards competition in the United States.

    Hollywood Helps Out

    • The Billiard Congress of America describes the early part of the 20th century as a down period for billiards in the United States, with the sport suffering from an unsavory reputation. But then the film "The Hustler," starring Paul Newman, hit movie screens in 1961 and sparked a new interest in the game. Twenty-five years later, Newman reprised his pool hustler role in the film "The Color of Money," co-starring Tom Cruise, and billiards experienced another spike in interest.

    Organization

    • The World Pool-Billiard Association formed in 1987, and in 1990, it hosted the inaugural World 9-Ball Championships in Bergheim, Germany. The World Confederation of Billiard Sports formed in 1992 as an international umbrella organization for the billiard games of carom, snooker and pool, and on Feb. 5, 1998, the International Olympic Committee officially recognized the organization. "It was now once and for all clear that Billiards Sports is to be treated as one sport among others," the WCBS says on its website (http://www.billiard-wcbs.org/).

      However, the WCBS's efforts to have billiards included as an Olympic sport have so far been unsuccessful.