The Hustler and the Champ: Minnesota Fats, Willie Mosconi, and the Rivalry that Defined Pool »

R. A. Dyer is a columnist for the nation's premier pool magazine, Billiards Digest.  He is currently statehouse reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and before that, was a reporter for The Houston Chronicle, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Willie Mosconi was pool’s greatest champion—the winner of fifteen world titles, the holder of records that have remained undisturbed for generations. Minnesota Fats was pool’s most important trickster, a man who built his fame and fortune upon deceit and guile. In 1978, both men came together for what would become the most viewed pocket billiards match in American history. Before a breathless nation, pool’s two most important personalities set out to prove who really was best.

 

Mosconi may have been remembered as one of the most dominant sports figures of all time, a man who had laid low some of the greatest players in history—but no one would pose a greater threat to his legacy than the man-child Minnesota Fats. So when the consummate perfectionist and the unapologetic gambler finally went head to head for what Howard Cosell described as one of the most fascinating televised segments he ever hosted, all of America would ask the same question: Who would win?

 

The Hustler & The Champ tells of both men’s hardscrabble march to greatness, of their bitter decades-long rivalry, and finally of the televised shoot-out that revealed pocket billiards to millions even as it exposed the deep contradictions within all of organized competition. Through the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the resurgent 1960s, R.A. Dyer follows the lives of both men and tells the story of America’s conflicted love affair with the sport of rogues.

Author's Note     V
The Champ     1
The Usurpers     3
The TV Disaster     11
The Kingdom     19
Odysseus and Eurymachus     31
Roadmen     35
A Nation of Rottweilers     39
Creation Myth     51
Fats Versus Willie, Round 1     57
Jawing the Yellow Ball     67
Wide World of Sports     77
Ralph and Willie     83
The Trickster     93
The Prophet     101
Wagers Made with Suckers     111
Hermes and Krishna     117
The Best Trick Yet     123
Duty and Responsibility     129
The Fats & Willie Show     139
Fats's No. 1 Helper     147
Penelope and Ithaca     151
Records     159
Polsky's Lament     167
The Bite Artist     173
The Stroke     177
The Hustler     189
Hustlers and Scufflers     199
Willie's Trap     209
Three Weeks in Johnston City     213
The Death of Willie's Game     221
1978     229
The GreatShoot-Out     235
Behind the Eight-Ball     243
Willie and the Trickster     249
Epilogue     257
Appendix I     261
Appendix II     279
Endnotes     281
Glossary     297
Index     301