Back Willie Mosconi German Ուիլի Մոսկոնի Armenian Willie Mosconi Italian Willie Mosconi Dutch Москони, Вилли Russian Willie Mosconi SIMPLE Віллі Москоні Ukrainian 威利·莫斯考尼 Chinese
 Mosconi (left) with Jimmy Moore at the 1953 World Straight Pool Championship | |
| Born | June 27, 1913 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died | September 17, 1993 (aged 80) Haddon Heights, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Sport country |  United States |
| Nickname | "Mr. Pocket Billiards" |
| Tournament wins | |
| World Champion | Straight Pool 19x |
William Joseph Mosconi (/mɒˈskoʊni/; June 27, 1913 – September 17, 1993) was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees.[1] Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.
During the 1940s and 1950s, the pocket billiards game most often played in competition was called straight pool, or 14.1 continuous, a form of pool considered by most top players to be more difficult than today's fast tournament game nine-ball. Mosconi set the officially-recognized straight pool high run world record of 526 consecutive balls in 1954.[2]
- ^ "Hall of Fame Inductees: 1966-1968". Billiard Congress of America. Archived from the original on July 4, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "Willie Mosconi, 80, Who Ruled The World of Billiards With Style". The New York Times. September 18, 1993. Retrieved January 23, 2016.