Women in Pool: A History of Female Players

Ruth McGinnis, The 1938 World Champion

Ruth McGinnis, born in 1910 in Oswego, New York, was the first widely recognized American female pool champion. She began playing as a teenager and, by her early 20s, was good enough to tour the country giving exhibitions, often in mixed-gender pool halls where her skill shocked audiences who had never seen a woman play competitively. In 1938, McGinnis won a national women's pocket billiards championship, which is generally cited as a pool world-title claim from that era (nomenclature was looser than today).

McGinnis toured with Willie Mosconi in a series of exhibitions in the 1930s and 40s, playing against him and other top men in the sport. While she did not dethrone Mosconi, she was competitive, and the exhibitions helped establish that women could play pool at a genuinely high level. McGinnis's legacy is partly as a champion and partly as a pioneer who opened doors for the women who came after her. Her story is worth reading in detail, it is one of the great early chapters of American pool history.

Dorothy Wise and the 1960s-70s Era

Dorothy Wise dominated American women's pool through the 1960s and into the 1970s, winning five consecutive US Open Women's titles from 1967 to 1971 and being recognized as world women's champion multiple times. Wise was known for extraordinary consistency and mental toughness in matches. Before the WPBA existed, women's pool was not as professionally structured, and champions like Wise essentially built their own tours through exhibition and sanctioned amateur events.

Wise's era also produced Jean Balukas, who would dominate the following generation. Balukas won her first US Open Women's title in 1972 as a teenager and went on to win multiple world championships through the 1970s and 80s. The transition from Wise to Balukas represents the professionalization of women's pool, Balukas won larger purses, had more media coverage, and helped create the conditions that made the WPBA possible.

The WPBA, Professional Women's Pool Organized

The Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) was founded in 1976 and became the premier professional organization for women's pool in North America. It operated a regular tour of events throughout the year, with annual championships, prize money, and television coverage. The WPBA was a genuine professional tour with rankings, sponsors, and full-time touring players, something that did not exist before in women's pool.

The WPBA's peak years were the 1990s and early 2000s, when the women's tour enjoyed strong ESPN television coverage and decent prize money. Events in Las Vegas, Valley Forge, and other US venues drew strong fields and significant attention. The tour brought women's pool to a larger American audience than at any time before or since. Unfortunately, the WPBA has experienced challenges in the 2010s as television coverage declined and sponsorships contracted, though the organization still runs events today.

Allison Fisher, Karen Corr, and the Snooker Crossover

Allison Fisher and Karen Corr, both from the UK, crossed over from professional snooker to American pool in the 1990s and dominated the WPBA for more than a decade. Fisher is often called the greatest women's pool player ever, with over 50 professional titles and the nickname 'The Duchess of Doom.' Her snooker background gave her a fundamentally different shot-making repertoire, longer, more precise potting, that American women had to adjust to compete with.

Karen Corr similarly brought a snooker-honed game and won dozens of titles. The Fisher-Corr era was arguably the peak of women's professional pool, both in competitive depth and in media attention. The presence of two dominant UK players pushed American women to improve, and the 1990s produced a higher overall standard of play than any previous era. Watching old WPBA broadcasts from this period is like watching a different sport, the level of precision is remarkable, and both Fisher and Corr are still worth studying on YouTube today.

Kelly Fisher, Jasmin Ouschan, The Modern Era

Kelly Fisher (no relation to Allison), another UK player, took over as the world's top female 9-ball player in the late 2000s and 2010s. She has won the WPA World 9-Ball, 10-Ball, and other major international titles, and is generally considered the dominant player of her generation. Fisher plays a power game with aggressive breaks and confident shot-making, and she has been the one to beat in women's international pool for over a decade.

Jasmin Ouschan of Austria has been Fisher's main rival during this period, and the two have traded world titles and head-to-head wins across many events. Ouschan comes from a famous Austrian pool family, her brother Albin is also a top 9-ball pro. The Fisher-Ouschan rivalry has defined modern women's pool, and their matches are must-watch for any fan. Additionally, Han Yu from China and Chezka Centeno from the Philippines have emerged as top competitors, making the women's international field more competitive than it has been in years.

Prize Money Disparities and the Current Landscape

The prize money gap between men's and women's pool is significant and has been for decades. A top women's event might offer a winner's purse of $10,000 to $20,000, while a comparable men's event offers $40,000 to $100,000. This gap exists for a mix of reasons, smaller fields, less television coverage, fewer sponsors, smaller audience. The women's pool community has worked to close this gap but progress has been slow.

Matchroom's decision in 2023 to bring significant investment into women's pool via the Women's World 9-Ball Championship with a $100,000 top prize is a meaningful step forward. The growing cross-promotion with the men's tour, including mixed events and aligned calendars, is also helping. Pool is probably the Olympic-discipline-adjacent sport with the most equal technical playing field between men and women, there is no physiological reason women cannot play at the highest level, so the prize money gap is purely a commercial problem, not a performance one. I am hopeful the gap will continue closing in the coming decade.