The History of Pool and Billiards: From 15th Century to Today

Lawn Origins in 15th Century France

The oldest ancestor of the game I have been playing for fifteen years was not played on a table at all. In 15th-century France, a lawn sport resembling a cross between croquet and billiards was enjoyed by nobility, with balls pushed across grass using a curved stick called a 'mace.' The word 'billiard' itself almost certainly comes from the French 'bille' meaning ball, or 'billart' meaning wooden stick. Either way, the etymology is French, and the earliest documented references to the game in written records trace back to King Louis XI around the 1460s.

What fascinates me is that this was originally an outdoor game played only by the aristocracy. It was not a saloon pastime or a pub entertainment. It was a refined lawn activity for kings and nobles, alongside other courtly sports like real tennis. The jump to indoors, onto a table, is what eventually transformed it into something recognizable as modern billiards.

The Move Indoors and the First Billiard Tables

By the late 1500s and into the 1600s, the game had migrated indoors and onto green-covered wooden tables. The green cloth was a deliberate choice meant to mimic the grass of the outdoor version. This is why every billiard table in the world still uses green (or a close variant) cloth to this day. It is a 400-year-old design decision that has never been overturned. King Louis XIV famously had a billiard table, and Mary Queen of Scots reportedly played on one the night before her execution in 1587.

The early indoor tables had walls around the edges to keep balls from rolling off, which evolved into the cushioned rails we still use. There were no pockets in the earliest versions. Pockets (then called 'hazards') came later and were originally considered a penalty, not a goal. That piece of history always surprises people: for hundreds of years, pocketing a ball was bad.

Pool Arrives in America, 1800s Saloons

The word 'pool' in its modern pocket-billiards sense comes from the 'public pool rooms' of 19th-century America. These were places where men would pool their money to bet on horse races, and while waiting for the race results, they would play billiards. The billiards tables moved from high-end parlors into saloons, became associated with working-class gambling, and the name 'pool' stuck to the game itself rather than the wagering practice.

By the time of the Civil War, pool had become genuinely popular in America. Soldiers played during the war, brought the game home, and pool rooms exploded across every major city and small town in the decades after 1865. This was the period that shaped the game's reputation, for better and worse. It was the start of pool as an American institution, though it was still an imported European table game at its bones.

Willie Hoppe and the Rise of the Professional

No name looms larger in early 20th-century billiards than Willie Hoppe. Hoppe won his first world title in three-cushion billiards at age 18 in 1906 and dominated the sport for the next five decades. He was, effectively, the Babe Ruth of billiards during the game's golden professional era, and he made pocket billiards and carom billiards household entertainment across America.

What matters about Hoppe historically is not just his results but his role in legitimizing billiards as a respected professional sport. He played exhibitions in ballrooms and theaters. He published instructional books. He was friendly with politicians and celebrities. Before Hoppe, a billiards player was seen as a hustler. After Hoppe, a billiards player could be seen as a champion athlete. That cultural shift cleared the runway for the golden age that followed.

The Golden Age of Pool Halls, 1920s to 1940s

Between the end of World War I and the start of World War II, pool halls were as common in American cities as coffee shops are today. Every neighborhood had one. Big cities had dozens. Chicago's Bensinger's, New York's Ames, and halls in Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and San Francisco were major social venues. It was during this period that professional pool tournaments drew national newspaper coverage, and players like Ralph Greenleaf and Willie Mosconi became genuine celebrities.

Willie Mosconi especially dominated this era. He won the World Straight Pool Championship 15 times between 1941 and 1957, a record that will likely never be broken. His run of 526 consecutive balls pocketed in straight pool, set in 1954, still stands as the official world record more than 70 years later. If you have never looked up Mosconi's story, do so, he is one of the most dominant athletes in any sport of the 20th century, and pool history cannot be told without him.

Collapse of the Pool Halls and Modern Revival

After World War II, pool halls began to decline. Television kept people at home. Bowling alleys, drive-in theaters, and later video arcades pulled away the entertainment crowd. By the 1960s and 70s, many cities had lost most of their big rooms, and pool had a bit of a reputational slump. It was in this period that the game became more associated with backroom gambling than with professional sport.

Then came 'The Hustler' in 1961, starring Paul Newman, followed by 'The Color of Money' in 1986 with Newman returning alongside Tom Cruise. Both films reinvigorated public interest and gave pool a whole new aesthetic, smoky rooms, hustlers, rolled-up sleeves. League play, particularly the APA and BCA systems, grew steadily in the 1980s and 90s, and today there are more recreational pool players in America than ever before, even if the grand old halls of the 1920s are mostly gone. The game has evolved, but it has not died. I would argue it is healthier than it has been in 50 years.

What strikes me most about studying pool's history is how cyclical it is. The game has gone through at least three major boom-and-bust cycles since arriving in America: the post-Civil War growth through the 1890s, the Mosconi-era golden age of the 1920s-40s, and the post-Hustler recovery from the 1960s onward. Each cycle had its own cultural context, its own celebrities, and its own characteristic pool hall design. The current era, defined by streaming tournaments and league play, is simply the latest chapter. When I think about where pool will be in another 50 years, I am genuinely optimistic. The sport survives because the game itself is great, the physics, the strategy, the subtle psychology. That core is unchanged from Louis XIV's table to the modern Gold Crown, and it will keep the sport alive regardless of which era's halls happen to be open.