Buddy Hall facts for kids
Buddy at the 2003 US Open
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| Born | May 29, 1945 Metropolis, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Died | May 22, 2025 (aged 79) |
| Sport country |  United States |
| Nickname | "The Rifleman" |
| Professional | 1970 |
| Tournament wins | |
| Other titles | 100 |
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Cecil P. "Buddy" Hall (May 29, 1945 – May 22, 2025) was an American professional pool player and was considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. The International Pool Tour heralds Hall as a "living pool legend." He was nicknamed "The Rifleman" for his accuracy and had been a consistent top player for over two decades and virtually unbeaten when playing "money matches".
Many players and pundits consider him to be one of the most fundamentally solid 9-Ball players of all time, heralding him with the best cue ball control of any player.
Hall has been credited with 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. After watching all the great players, he first gained some prominence when he entered the Johnston City tournament in 1970 and beat some top players.
"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 the Dayton Open Tournament. There, in 1974 organizer Joe Burns instituted a similar all-around tournament to the format that had been used in the Johnston City Tournament. He took All-Around first place there in 1974 winning $6,800 and after continued to compete in the Dayton Open Tournaments for many years. 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 $35,000 for his efforts; the biggest first prize money in a tournament at the time. Hall had an ESPN's announcement of his win, which was the first ever mention of a billiard player on that cable television network. "The Rifleman" won a considerable amount of 9-Ball tournaments that were held from the 1970s through to the 2000s. In 1995 'Rags to Rifleman' was published, a biography of his life and career.
Career
Buddy Hall was a winner of over 100 professional tournaments in pocket billiards. In 1974 Hall won one of his first events in the Dayton Open all-around tournament. Hall later in his career went on to win the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship in 1991 and 1998. In the semi-finals of the 1991 Championship, Hall, after trailing Johnny Archer 7-1, ran eight consecutive racks in a row to win the match. Archer later stated on a TAR Podcast that Hall in the game of Nine-ball was: "The best I've ever seen, the best I've ever played". Hall was the thirty ninth inductee in the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame, in the year 2000. He was named Player of the Year by the pool media, to include Pro Billiards Tour, National Billiard News and the Billiards Digest Magazine, in 1982, 1991, 1997 and 1998. He was a former member of the International Pool Tour and later retired from professional competition, although he sometimes competed on various regional tours and senior events throughout the United States.
Hall starred in the billiard movie, "The Tale of Texas Pool", that released on December 25, 2024.
Career titles and achievements
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