- A Note From Dad Concerning Willie Mosconi -

D.White


I came across a note my dad had written, and thought you history buffs
might enjoy it:

Part I

I first met Willie Mosconi when I was a Vice President of a major conglomerate in New York. This company owned radio and television stations and had recording studios. I got the idea that we should put out a series of audio tapes called "An Hour with the Master." I planned to set up interviews with the leading person in a number of different sports, and offer a 1 hour audio cassette (with appropriate packaging) to the public.

I have a fair amount of experience playing pool [133 high run - transcriber's note!], and decided to attempt to approach Willie Mosconi as my first "Master." (The second person I planned on talking to was Arnold Palmer.) I located Willie the week before he was to give an exhibition at Princeton University. We made arrangements for me to talk with him after he completed the exhibition.

On the night in question, I traveled to Princeton from my home in Northern New Jersey. The first part of his show was for him to play a game of straight pool (150 points) with the Princeton university pocket billiards champion. As you might imagine, this was not much of a contest...and, at one point after running about 7 racks, Willie appeared to me to deliberately miss so the challenger could play a little. After the game was over, he put on a trick shot exhbition which ended in spectacular fashion with Willie standing at the foot of the table and hitting the cue ball down to the other end of the table with such force (and presumably follow) that the ball bounced up in the air from the far end of the table back toward Willie and into his jacket pocket without ever touching the table again.


We went downstairs to the coffee shop and I explained what I wanted to do. He was quite receptive to the idea. We discussed money, and he wanted only a small advance against royalties to cooperate. Then came the good part - I was able to ask him a few questions about the game and his general approach. For example, he told me that at one point in his life, he practiced 8 hours a day for 31 YEARS, continually. Another interesting thing happened when we got on the subject of other players. At the time, a guy named Wanderone (or "Fats," or, as he preferred to call himself, "Double Smart Fats") was reported to have said that Willie was afraid to play him. Willie told me that this was a lot of nonsense, and that he had "wiped the floor" with Fats on several occatsions. (Fats then started calling himself Minnnesota Fats, but in reality, he was from Washington Heights in New York City.) The other thing that interested me was his answer to my question, "Isn't it tough for you, traveling all around the country, knowing that every place you go, the local champ is gunning to beat you?" He laughed, hard, and said, "You don't understand. First off, the guy can't beat me on his best day. Second, it's not his best day, because he realizes he's playing Willie Mosconi, and all his friends and girlfriend are watching, and he's been thinking about the match for weeks and so he doesn't even play up to his capability when the time comes. So he really has no chance."

Unfortunately, I never did get to do the series because of various budgetary red tape...but the visit with Willie certainly was memorable.

Part II


Two additional instances involving Willie Mosconi come to mind. One evening, in Brooklyn, I observed him playing a top player from the Chicago area named Cicero Murphy (recent hall of famer). Cicero was the first to get started and after running just a few balls (less than 10), he missed. Willie promptly ran out the whole game. The most significant observation of that game was that Willie never had a single difficult shot during his entire run. It all looked so simple... the cue ball moved just a few inches at a time and I got the feeling while watching this that I, too, could do the same - which of course is a lot of nonsense. The whole thing was a display of absolute mastery of the game.

The other situation was when I was invited to be a guest at a place in NYC called The Lamb's Club, an establishment something like the Friar's Club where they do a "roasting." Only at the Lamb's Club, they called it a Lambasting - and Willie was the Lambastee. It was a very nice evening, good food and drinks followed by a marvelous Italian tenor who gave about a 20 minute recital of various operatic arias. Then it was announced that Willie would give an exhibition, which consisted primarily of various trick shots, mixed with a kind of running anectdotal commentary by Willie, recalling a number of incidents from his years of varied experiences in tournament play and exhibitions. About the only thing I can remember about his performance that evening (after all, it was in the late '60s) was that, in making trick shots, he missed only once. But the significant thing was that the miss occurred exactly the same way and on the same shot that I had seen several times before in other exhibitions of his. It was called "the handkerchief shot" in which most of the balls are racked in the normal manner; then the triangular rack was lifted by placing a ball under it...and the whole thing was covered by a handkerchief. He then shot a ball in a pocket and the cue ball went all around the table (4 or 5 cushions) and rolled up under the handkerchief to knock away the ball holding up the rack. When done correctly, the cue ball winds up in the rack after the ball is knocked away. As I said, he missed the first time, but then made it on the second try. It was obvious to me that his level of skill was such that it couldn't have been an accident, that the only time he misses was on this one shot, and then he makes it on the second try. I guess we can forgive a little showmanship!


J. White


-just thought I'd share that with the group.

---
D. White

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