Willie's Game Trivia Quiz

Answer: A broomstick and potatoes

Willie's father actually wanted him to join the family vaudeville team, the Dancing Mosconis. They had achieved a large measure of success playing at Ziegfeld's and the Palace Theater.

When Willie was six, his father began setting up appearances with the "Child Prodigy" for twenty-five dollars, a lot of money in 1919-1920. When he was seven, a match was setup with Ralph Greenleaf, then Champion. He lost this first match with Ralph Greenleaf, but they would play hundreds of times in the years to come.

Willie would play a few more matches but would then "retire" from pool at age seven.

Answer: Play your best at all times

The pool shark welcomes all to try and win against him. He is skilled and uses his skill to beat his opponents. A pool hustler hides his skill until his opponent believes that he can't lose, then the hustler comes in for the kill. Willie understood this distinction early in career.

Willie had gone to work in a factory, but lost the job when he left without permission to attend the 1931 World Series. On the way home from the game, he saw the advertisement for a pool tournament and signed up. He won that tournament. He then started playing regularly, bringing the money home to a family of eight (his mother, father and six siblings).

Answer: 14.1 continuous

Though the game was developed in 1889 and then improved on in 1910, it did not become the official championship game until 1912. For those not familiar, each time a ball is potted the player earns one point. The ball and pocket must be called before the shot. When the first 14 balls of the rack are potted and only one ball remains, it stays in that position and the other fourteen are re-racked and shooting continues. These games generally were played until one player reached 125 points.

One couldn't just enter this tournament, players had to be sponsored. Eddie Brown was sponsored by Fox Billiard Academy for the tournament, but died from peritonitis. The entry fee had already been paid when Izzie Goodman, the owner of Fox Billiard Academy, approached Willie.

Willie did not even have his own cue at this point. It wasn't until he reached Chicago, after several qualifying rounds, that he had a cue made by Herman Rambow.

Willie would come in fifth in his first tournament, but learned a life-long lesson from one missed shot. It was a match against Erwin Rudolf. Willie had the lead 124-83 with one shot to win. He missed the shot when the ball jawed in the pocket, and Rudolf ran the 42 balls need to win the match. Willie said he was a cocky youngster and learned, at a steep price, to not be careless.

Answer: Brunswick-Balke-Collender

Willie's first assignment for Brunswick-Balke-Collender was a 112-day tour with Ralph Greenleaf. He had now only played Greenleaf twice, as a youngster and then in the 1933 championship. However, he began studying Greenleaf's style and learning more strategy. By the end of the first tour Greenleaf had won 57 of their matches, Willie had won 50.

Answer: Ralph Greenleaf

Though championships had not been played every year, Willie had participated in all of them, but couldn't seem to crack the win. Though he could play and win against all of the players some of the time, he was unable to win during the championship. His frustration caused him to "retire".

When he started playing again, Willie and Greenleaf played exhibitions all over California for what money they could get. An exhibition would usually include a match between the two, and then a demonstration of trick shots.

During this tour Willie says that he came to the realization that while playing he was too impatient and emotional. He says that he never did change, but during this time he learned control and to not let distractions break his concentration.

Answer: George Kelly

Kelly played a safety at the break. Willie made a risky shot and then played out the 125 points, winning the match in thirty minutes. "He had averaged a shot every fourteen seconds, which includes the time to rack the balls eight times." Willie had been recognized before for the speed with which he would shoot, but this was a record. His cue ball control was phenomenal, the ball ending up each time where he planned for the next shot.

In addition, during the tour, Willie ran more than 100 balls five times, and had four other runs of 125 or more. A single run of this magnitude had only been accomplished twice before, in 1929 and 1940.

Willie became an instant celebrity.

Answer: His wife disappeared

Willie had married Ann Harrison in 1941 and by now they had two children. After almost five years of marriage she left the children with a foster family and disappeared. It would be years before they would hear from her again, and Willie says he never did learn why. At this time William, Jr. was four, and Candace was two. Willie was discharged, picked up the children and moved into his father's house.

In 1953, Willie would marry Flora Marchini. Their daughter, Gloria, was born in 1954. They would stay married until Willie's death.

Answer: Jimmy Caras

This was to be the longest championship match to date. It was to be for two months, visiting ten cities. Willie would win with a score of 8,729-7,508.

Answer: The table size was diminished

Until 1950, championship tournaments had been on ten foot tables. This meant the table was ten feet long and five feet wide. The new format tables were nine feet long and four-and-half feet wide. The size of the pockets was also increased. To compensate, matches were now 150 points instead of 125.

Willie also had to cope when both Ralph Greenleaf and Andrew Ponzi would die in early 1950.

Willie was scheduled to play against Ralph Greenleaf on March 20, but Greenleaf died of cerebral hemorrhage on March 15. He would mourn Greenleaf and said "I had learned more about pocket billiards from him than anyone else".

Andrew Ponzi died on April 11. Ponzi was about ten years older than Willie, and won the world championship title three times. He was a contender when Willie started playing pool at age seven, and over time they became both competitors and friends.

Answer: 526

Willie only gives this awesome, astonishing feat one paragraph in the book, but the record has stood for over fifty years. This took two hours and ten minutes, an average of four balls per minute.

I've heard the tale of this story many times, so I'm going to veer from the book and share just a bit. Willie was at this time working for Brunswick and traveling the country providing exhibitions. When he got to the exhibition site in Springfield, the Brunswick table was an eight foot by four foot table, so, though the room had a nine foot by four-and-a-half foot table it was made by another manufacturer and the exhibition was performed on the Brunswick table. Apparently, he didn't start out to make a record. He was playing a 200 point exhibition and when he had run the 200 balls, he just kept going until he missed.

Answer: stroke

Willie collapsed in his pool hall, the Superior Billiard Parlor, two days after Christmas. He was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with stroke. He states that at first he felt sorry for himself, but after reading biographies of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, he began to fight back. His recovery after that was much more rapid than anticipated by his doctor.

Answer: The Hustler

Willie had been approached by Frank Loesser to suggest who should star in the movie "The Hustler", and Willie suggested Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. Willie was then hired as a technical director, to start by teaching Paul Newman, who had never shot pool, a bit about shooting and the mannerisms of a pool player so that he could carry off the role of Fast Eddie Felson.

The film was released in 1961 and revitalized people's interest in the game of pool all over America. In fact, for the first time in seven years, the Billiards Congress of America scheduled a championship tournament.

Answer: Rudolf Wanderone

Walter Tevis was the author of "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money", and vehemently denied that the character that he created had been based on Rudolf Wanderone. As for the other possible answers, both Jimmy Caras and Irving Crane were frequent opponents for Willie.

Wanderone repeatedly said that he had beat Willie many times. Willie filed a suit asking for damages at one point, but dropped the suit later when he understood that damages were hard to prove and that probably only his lawyer would benefit.

Willie felt that Wanderone was promoting himself, rather than the game of pool. Willie challenged Wanderone to a two-thousand point game, spotting him 250 points for twenty thousand dollars. He sent Wanderone a registered letter, but receiving no response, he increased the spot to 500 points and agreed to play any game. The pot eventually became one hundred thousand dollars. An ad was placed in the newspaper reading "MINNESOTA FATS challenged by MOSCONI - 'Show Up or Shut Up'". Wanderone did not show up for the match, though Willie was there and played others and put on exhibition of trick shots.

Their match would eventually take place on television on February 14, 1978. Willie won every set, but the television network was intrigued and Willie and Wanderone, as Minnesota Fats, would have more televised matches.

Answer: I've Got a Secret

When Willie appeared on the show the panel had to guess his secret, which was that he had never owned a pool table. He had always played in public rooms. A few days after the show Brunswick had a table delivered which was set up in his basement.

Answer: Yes

Willie was inducted in 1968 at the age of 55. He died at the age of 80 on September 17, 1993.