(1899-11-03)3 November 1899 Monmouth, Illinois, U.S.
Died
15 March 1950(1950-03-15) (aged 50) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Sport country
United States
Professional
1916
Tournament wins
World Champion
Straight Pool 19x
Ralph Greenleaf (November 3, 1899 – March 15, 1950) was an American professional pool and carom billiards player. Greenleaf is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years 1919 and 1938, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times.
His obituary in The New York Times said of Greenleaf, in March 1950: "What Babe Ruth did for baseball, Dempsey did for fighting, Tilden did for tennis...Greenleaf did for pocket billiards."[1]
The championships of his era were contested in the game of 14.1 continuous ("straight pool"), but varied in format from contest to contest and were not annual events. Championships were challenge matches between two players often played over several days to relatively high numbers (1,500 points for example).
He was one of the first three members inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame, in 1966.[2] He was ranked number 3 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.[3]
^"Obituaries" The New York Times, March 1950. Retrieved August 4, 2007
^BCA Hall of Fame Archived March 31, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, BCA-POOL.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007.
^"Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century". August 6, 2011.
RalphGreenleaf (November 3, 1899 – March 15, 1950) was an American professional pool and carom billiards player. Greenleaf is widely considered one of...
and 2010. The tournament continued unsanctioned from 2011 to 2019. RalphGreenleaf & Willie Mosconi are the most successful players having both won the...
six-year-old Mosconi and the reigning World Champion, RalphGreenleaf. The hall was packed, and though Greenleaf won that match, Mosconi played well enough to...
billiards industry. The year of induction is listed after the name. RalphGreenleaf (1966) Willie Hoppe (1966) Charle Peterson (1966) • Welker Cochran...
balkline champion (who later took up three-cushion with a passion), and RalphGreenleaf, the world's straight pool title holder, played a well advertised,...
William Greenleaf Eliot (August 5, 1811 – January 23, 1887) was an American educator, Unitarian minister, and civic leader in Missouri. He is most notable...
in August 2014. Gottier named the establishment after pool player RalphGreenleaf and designed it to capture the ambience of a classic 1930's pool hall...
defeating Johnny Layton. Also in 1916 he retained his title by defeating RalphGreenleaf. In 1917 he retained his title again by defeating James Maturo. By...
Tenggren, Swedish-American illustrator and animator (d. 1970) 1899 – RalphGreenleaf, American billiards player (d. 1950) 1899 – Rezső Seress, Hungarian...
John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States...
interpreted this as foretelling the end of his stay in Middle-earth: Legolas Greenleaf long under tree, In joy thou hast lived, Beware of the Sea! If thou hearest...
also played exhibition matches against RalphGreenleaf in 1924, and was described in The Tribune as Greenleaf's protégé. She was the captain of the varsity...
had beaten some of pool's greatest players, including Jimmy Moore, RalphGreenleaf, and Willie Mosconi, all in straight pool. In 1948, Willis beat Lassiter...
professional billiards at age 16. He played in several exhibitions against RalphGreenleaf and William Hoppe, the billiards champions of the 1920s and 1930s....
recognition in 1926 when he won the world pocket billiard title, besting RalphGreenleaf, who held it for six years. Rudolph won the championship again in 1933...
defeated some of the top players, including Willie Mosconi, Jimmy Caras, RalphGreenleaf, Irving Crane, and Erwin Rudolph. For much of his service time, he...
the world champions of balkline (Willie Hoppe) and straight pool (RalphGreenleaf), both of the U.S., Hoppe won, 600 to 527. In Vienna, the first public...
#6-7 1347/1360 March 27, 1932 boxers Tony Canzoneri & Teddy Martin / RalphGreenleaf & other champions at billiards skipped a number in title card, TCM...
eye of American serviceman Vernon Greenleaf (no relation to the pool and carom billiards champion RalphGreenleaf), a master sergeant in the U.S. Army's...
Stagnelius United States: William Cullen Bryant, Joseph Rodman Drake, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., George Sterling, John Neal...
prominent writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Greenleaf Whittier. James...
something unmanly, something almost dastardly" about the lifestyle. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier criticized what he perceived as the message in Walden that man...
Frank Chapin Greenleaf (May 22, 1877 – January 1, 1953) was a Canadian sports administrator. He served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association...
Global Information
United States