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Posts Tagged ‘Ralph Greenleaf’

Ralph Greenleaf did a lot of wonders too for the billiard sport. He was known to be a genuine showman and made a lot of strides to keep it from fading in to being obscure by just adding up its popularity.  He won his first world title in billiards by 1919 and was able to defend it nine times in a row. He was married to Princess Nai Tai Tai, a beautiful showbiz personality. He really amazed his every audience with all his trick shots and exhibitions. He really made every billiard event a true spectacular show.

He won fourteen world titles by 1937 and his charismatic personality really showed a natural flair in the world he chose. He was able to rescue the entire sport by putting it into the spotlight when it was staying in the brink of obscurity. His only downfall was his being bad in drinking alcohol. According to other players, he frequently hit the bottle which caused a bitter and premature end to his amazing career that as cut short. There were even rumors that during tough matches, he would run to the men’s room for a quick drink to calm him down believing that this would help him play better.

He then even used heroine to a point that all his addictions killed him. He got a pauper’s grave at the age of 50 broke and drunk.

Photos via billiaardsforum.info

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Often we heard from our best professional pool players the name Willie Mosconi, who dominated pool for decades, and publicly on television, and known by many Americans as the greatest, but there was once a mentor and superior of Mosconi that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Known for his alias as “The Aristocrat”, Ralph Greenleaf was widely considered the greatest pool player ever, and handsome to boot. Ralph Greenleaf was pool’s brightest star from the turn of the century through the Depression. Greenleaf and Willie Mosconi stand as the two greatest pool shooters in history. Like Rachmaninoff at the piano, Greenleaf used his massive hands with their long, tapering fingers to perform his calling marvelously.

When Mosconi was a boy, he toured with Greenleaf, who taught him exquisite positioning with the cue ball and built in him the competitive edge to win.

Some old-timers state that Ralph’s frequent bouts with liquor crippled the potential of his brilliant career and have believed to bring this pool giant to an early death in 1950 at the age of 50.