 | |
| Born | 3 November 1899 Monmouth, Illinois, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died | 15 March 1950 (aged 50) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Sport country |  United States |
| Professional | 1916 |
| Tournament wins | |
| World Champion | Straight Pool 19x |
Ralph Greenleaf (November 3, 1899 – March 15, 1950) was an American professional pool and carom billiards player. Greenleaf is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years 1919 and 1938, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times.
His obituary in The New York Times said of Greenleaf, in March 1950: "What Babe Ruth did for baseball, Dempsey did for fighting, Tilden did for tennis...Greenleaf did for pocket billiards."[1]
The championships of his era were contested in the game of 14.1 continuous ("straight pool"), but varied in format from contest to contest and were not annual events. Championships were challenge matches between two players often played over several days to relatively high numbers (1,500 points for example).
He was one of the first three members inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame, in 1966.[2] He was ranked number 3 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.[3]
- ^ "Obituaries" The New York Times, March 1950. Retrieved August 4, 2007
- ^ BCA Hall of Fame Archived March 31, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, BCA-POOL.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007.
- ^ "Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century". August 6, 2011.