Grady Mathews
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pool player
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
and was the first inductee into the One-Pocket Hall of Fame in 2004.
In addition to success at the table, he has been a technical advisor to movie producers, a regular commentator on pool matches taped by Accu-Stats Video Productions, a producer of billiard instructional video tapes, and an author. He is also revered for his contributions to pocket billiards
Pocket billiards
Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...
through his promotional activities and lessons.
Mathews has worked tirelessly throughout his career to promote pocket billiards, particularly the game of one-pocket. He is the creator of the Legends of One-Pocket series, and has given fans of the game many other tournaments as well. Mathews is also well known for his work as a commentator on countless matches recorded by Accu-Stats Video Productions, and has produced many of his own instructional videos providing strategies that have made Mathews "the most feared one-pocket player in the world. He currently writes a monthly instruction column for InsidePOOL Magazine and has been a contributing writer to other pool periodicals such as Billiards Digest, 1984-1987, The Snap Magazine
The Snap Magazine
The Snap Magazine is a popular American pool periodical that was published in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
, 1989-1991, and The National Billiard News.
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
and manages his pool room, Grady's Billiards. He has two children, Marie and Grady IV. Marie lives in Tampa with her husband and child, and is pursuing pre-medicine at the University of South Florida. His younger son Grady IV is finishing his PhD in Engineering at the University of South Carolina. Mathews continues to compete professionally, as well as putting on exhibitions, pool clinics, and private lessons throughout the United States. He survived his wife Randi, who died August 7, 2009.
Early days
Mathews took up pool in the late 1950s while living in CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. When he was 14 years old in San Mateo, California
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
, Mathews began playing pool at a local bowling alley. When he reached 18, he commuted to nearby San Francisco to watch great pool players of this era, claiming it was very important to watch the game being played by those who know how. He took his game on the road in the 1960s and graduated to become a top player in straight pool
Straight Pool
Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game, and was the common sport of championship competition until overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball...
, nine-ball, one-pocket, and bank pool. Straight pool was the game played in most American tournaments before the 1960s, but when television broadcast came to the fore, the shorter game of nine-ball replaced straight pool
Straight Pool
Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game, and was the common sport of championship competition until overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball...
, and a professional player was required to play all games to survive. The era of straight pool
Straight Pool
Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game, and was the common sport of championship competition until overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball...
played with clay or mud balls on 5-by-10 tables was replaced by the 4½-by-9's and the plastic balls that are commonly used today.
Over the next 35 years, Mathews captured several major titles in the four forms of the game, although he is best known for his successes in one-pocket.
Professional career
At the 1984 Busch Open Nine-Ball at Miller Time Billiards in MolineMoline
- Places :In the United States:* Moline, Illinois the largest city of that name in the U.S.* Moline Township, Rock Island County, Illinois* Moline, Kansas* Moline, Michigan* Moline, Ohio- Other uses :* Moline-Knight, an early American automobile...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Mathews captured the first-place prize monies as well as a Brunswick
Brunswick Corporation
The Brunswick Corporation , formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is a United States-based corporation that has been involved in manufacturing a wide variety of products since 1845. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois...
Gold Crown pool table, defeating Howard Vickery in the finals.
In December 2005, Grady Mathews competed in the International Pool Tour King of the Hill Shootout in Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
, an invitational event consisting of 43 pool players with accomplishments in the discipline of pocket billiards
Pocket billiards
Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...
, and is a member of the International Pool Tour.
Mathews, considered a veteran in the pocket billiards
Pocket billiards
Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...
industry, promoted and produced the following pool tournaments:
- 1983 All Around Pocket Billiards Open, (Tampa, FloridaTampa, FloridaTampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
) - 1985 Motor City Open, (Detroit, MichiganDetroit, MichiganDetroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
) - 1990 and 1991, Legends of One-Pocket Championship, (Columbia, South CarolinaColumbia, South CarolinaColumbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
) - 1991 Legends of One-Pocket Championship, (Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
) - 1993 Legends of One-Pocket Championship, (Reno, NevadaReno, NevadaReno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
) - 1994 Legends of One-Pocket Championship, (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- 1995 The Maine Event 14.1 Championship, (Portland, MainePortland, MainePortland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
) - 1995 Legends of One-Pocket Championship, (Olathe, KansasOlathe, KansasOlathe is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas, United States. Located in northeastern Kansas, it is also the fifth most populous city in the state, with a population of 125,872 at the 2010 census. As a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, Olathe is the fourth-largest city in the...
) - 1995 Back Pocket Nine-Ball Open, (Hampton, VirginiaHampton, VirginiaHampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
) - 1998 Legends of One-Pocket Championship, (Baton Rouge, LouisianaBaton Rouge, LouisianaBaton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
) - 1999 World One-pocket Championship, (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
- 1999 Seniors Nine-ball Championship, (Portland, Maine)
- 2000 World One-Pocket Championship, (Portland, Maine)
- 2003 Seniors Nine-ball Championship, (Naples, FloridaNaples, FloridaNaples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of July 1, 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 21,653. Naples is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated total population of 315,839 on July 1, 2007...
) - 2004 Gulf Coast Classic, (Gulfport, MississippiGulfport, MississippiGulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...
)
Filmography
In 1986, Mathews played the character "Dud" with Paul NewmanPaul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
and Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
in Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's Academy Award-winning film The Color of Money, loosely based on the novel by Walter Tevis
Walter Tevis
Walter Stone Tevis was an American novelist and short story writer. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth...
(the sequel to The Hustler).
Titles
- 1983 Red's Open One-pocket (Houston, TexasHouston, TexasHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
) - 1984 World One-pocket
- 1984 River City Open One-pocket (Austin, TexasAustin, TexasAustin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
) - 1984 Busch World Nine-ball (Moline, IllinoisMoline, IllinoisMoline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
) - 1985 Red's Open One-pocket (Houston, Texas)
- 1995 Legends of One-pocket (Olathe, Kansas)