Welker Cochran
Welker Cochran ( born October 7, 1897 in Des Moines, † July 26, 1960 in Belmont ) was an American Carambolagespieler and multiple world champion.
Career
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, the family moved soon after Manson where Welker Cochran's career began at age 13. In the restaurant of his father, where billiard tables were set, also Frank Gotch wrong. This discovered the talent and made sure that the boy went to Chicago and at Lanson W. Perkins took up the study of the billiard game.
During this time, Cochran won several amateur tournaments in the Cadre- and three-band game. Even at seventeen, it was difficult to find equal opponents for him. In a tournament in New York theater, he finally met an opponent he did not defeat: Willie Hoppe. This duel was followed by a repeatedly flared up rivalry between the two, the only 1959 when Hoppe died, came to an end.
One of his great adversary in the Cadre was in the twenties, the German Erich Hagen Locher, who managed it twice, to rob him of the hotly disputed Cadretitel the professional player. His first major Cadretitel won Cochran 1925. Two years later, he set a world record with a Cadre series of 407 points on. With excitement we saw his performance with Hoppe against the three-band. 1933 Cochran won the world title in the three-band and defended it in 1935 and 1936.
Then came a time when you did not hear much from him. He gave himself up entirely to the work for his newly founded Billiard Academy. He lost the title in 1941 and 1942 to Hoppe. "I was not in training," he commented.
In 1944, the comeback and Hoppe had the Crown give back in a mammoth tournament that extended over 13 cities. Cochran spielete this excellent averages. He would always back down some laps on the bike, before he went to the game. That seemed to have become something of an good recipe, because one day, when he had once again to compete against W. Hoppe, his opponent was at its rounds through New York's Central Park on the bike kicking violently opposed. Cochran also provided each smoking, and although just six months before he had to play a great match.
Quotes
- "Everyone has nerves; but we billiard players have to learn to keep it under control. "
Achievements
- Professional world champion in the Cadre 45/2: 1927, 1934
- Professional World Championship in the three-band: 1933, 1935, 1936, 1944
- Induction into the Hall of Fame of the Billiard Congress of America in 1967