Willie Hoppe

William Frederick Hoppe, better known as Willie Hoppe ( born October 11, 1887 in Cornwall -on-Hudson, New York, USA, † February 1, 1959 in Miami, Florida), was a multiple American Carambolageweltmeister.

Life

Hoppe had the billiards by his father, a hotel employee learned. Already at the age of eighteen, he won his first world title in 1906 in the Cadre 45/1 against Maurice Vignaux in Paris. He set a new record in the Cadre 45/2 to 622 points, the record was broken only in 1926.

1914 there was a match between him and the Englishman Melbourne Inman, actually a player in the English Billiards, which he won with 304:602, although Hoppe was considered a favorite. At a special meeting came in 1925 in a game against the three-band master Robert Cannefax. Cannefax, the preferred faster towels, the leading Hoppe asked, but to play at another table. Hoppe refused with the words: " The cloth is still in order. " Then Cannefix pulled a pocket knife out and cut the cloth in the middle. Hoppe was then awarded the game, and Cannefax was suspended for one year. He never took then again at a tournament and died in 1928 from meningitis.

In an exhibition bout against Charles C. Peterson 1928, he put on his personal best peak series (HS) 25.

At the World Championships in 1940 in Chicago, he was unbeaten in twenty games.

In his defense of the three- band world championship title in 1941 in Chicago, he had to - his flu had escalated into pneumonia - to withdraw from the competition and allow to hospitalize. As he fought for his life in St. Luke's Hospital, the World Cup began with the best 17 ​​players in the world without him, he should have been the 18th. As a gesture to the ailing champion, the players agreed that they wanted to give up any of his games. So the tournament went on fortnight. On the fifteenth day came Hoppe, pale and shaky, his obligation after that a tournament is a tournament without him. As he was hopelessly two weeks in the field, he won his first game, though visibly weakened and barely able to keep the queue. After the game he went to his hotel to rest, as he should complete his second game actually, he then also won. He won the third, fourth and so on until he finally won all thirteen missed consecutive matches, including against Otto Reiselt, John Fitzpatrick and Joe Chamaco. He then lost to Welker Cochran auc San Francisco, again won three games in a row until it finally in the final of the title attacker Jake Schaefer Jr. faced, he could also beat. This 16:1 record - 17 games in 18 days - instead of 32 planned game days, he successfully defended his World Cup title successfully.

After his last title win in 1952, he ended his career and promoted by game demonstrations for the game. Hoppe was the only billiard player to ever allowed to hold an exhibition match at the White House, and played in 1911 before President William Taft.

Between 1906 and 1952 Willie Hoppe won 51 times World Championships and has written in this period, two books on billiards.

Death

Hoppe died in the presence of his brother Albert on February 1, 1959 at 16:40 in St. Francis Hospital in Miami to stomach bleeding. It was because of his cancer suffering since September 1958 in the hospital.

Honors

1966 Hoppe was added posthumously to the Hall of Fame of the Billiard Congress of America. He is No. 1 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.

World title

• Professional World Champion Cadre 45/1: 1906, 1908-1911 and 1914-1927
• Professional World Champion Cadre 45/2: 1908, 1910-1920, 1923, 1924 and 1927
• Professional World Champion in the three-band: 1936, 1940-1943 and 1947-1952

Works

• Thomas Emmett Crozier (ed.): Thirty Years of Billiards. Putnam, New York 1925; Reprint: Dover Publications, New York 1975, ISBN 0-486-23126-7
• Billiards As It Should Be Played. 1941; Reprint: Contemporary Books, Incorporated, Chicago, 1991, ISBN 0-8092-8837-0