Buddy Hall
Cecil P. "Buddy" Hall (born May 29, 1945, in Metropolis, Illinois) has been an American professional pool player for four decades and is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. The International Pool Tour heralds Hall as a "living pool legend." He is nicknamed "The Rifleman" for his accuracy and had been a consistent top 5 ranking player on the professional pro tour from the 1970s for almost two decades. Many players and pundits consider him to be one of the most fundamentally solid 9-Ball players of all time. Hall has the unique  ability to shoot pool both left-handed and right-handed. An article written that was originally in "The Snap Magazine" issued that: "I remember when Luther Lassiter was considered the best pool player in the world, and I talked to him once about Buddy. He said that even as good as he (Luther) played 9-ball, he'd never play Buddy straight up." Hall has been credited for creating the "clock system" which is a technique for where to hit the cue-ball, using the clock as a mechanism for where to aim. Hall began playing at 14 years of  age in a soda shop in his home town. When local pool rooms would not let him enter because of his age, he used subterfuge to obtain a new birth certificate from a local judge which stated he was of legal age. He cut his teeth at Herbie Lynn's pool room and was soon dominating the regulars. It was not long before he hit the road to try his hand at a wider playing field. He won his first pro event at the age of 17 in straight pool, which he did not play at the time. He first  gained some prominence at the Johnston City tournaments."I went there to watch all the greats of the day play. Wimpy, Jersey Red, Eddie Taylor, Cornbread Red, Harold Worst, Jimmy Moore, Fats and U.J. were playing one another in both the tournament and in backroom ring games. I entered and was very pleased when I beat Wimpy and Jersey Red and won my entry fee back." In the following years, Johnston City lost out as the hub of top tier tournament play to Dayton, Ohio. There, organizer Joe Burns instituted a similar all-around tournaments to the format that had  been used in Johnston City. Hall played in the Dayton Tournaments for many years. He took first place there in 1974 winning $4,000. Hall has won three of the ten richest top prizes in pool at that time, In 1982 Buddy won the Caesar's Tahoe Nine-ball Championship by edging out Allen Hopkins in the final with a score of 11–6, winning $33,500 for his efforts; an unprecedented purse at the time. Hall has ESPN's announcement of Halls' win was the first ever mention of a billiard player on that cable television network. "The Rifleman" won  1/3 of all MPBA Tournaments that were held. In 1995 'Rags to Rifleman' was published, a biography of his life and career. Career. Buddy Hall is a winner of 200 plus professional tournaments including nearly 100 bar table tournaments and over 50 major titles. Hall is a winner of 7 world titles, in divisions including 9-ball, One pocket. In 1974 Hall won an unprecedented 11 out of 14 of the pro tournaments he entered, as well as winning the U.S. Open One-Pocket Championship in 1979 and the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships in 1991, 1998. On his road  to victory of the 1991 U.S. Open 9-ball Championship, in the semi finals, Buddy after trailing 7-1 behind against Johnny Archer, ran 8 consecutive racks in a row to win the match. Archer later stated on a TAR Podcast that Buddy as a player was: "The best i've ever seen, the best i've ever played". Hall was the thirty ninth inductee in the Billiards Congress of America's Hall of Fame, in the year 2000. He was named Player of the Year by the pool media, to include The National Billiard News and Pool and the  Billiards Digest Magazine, in 1982, 1991, and 1998. A profile of Hall appeared in The Hustler column of the inaugural issue of "The Snap Magazine", a story reputed to have "... in many ways set the tone for the magazine from there on out." He is a former member of the International Pool Tour and has later retired from professional competition although sometimes competes on various regional tours and senior events throughout the United States.