Luther Lassiter
Encyclopedia
Luther Lassiter born Luther Clement Lassiter, Jr. and nicknamed Wimpy, was a world-renowned American
pool
player from Elizabeth City, North Carolina
. The winner of six world championships and numerous other titles, Lassiter is most well known for his wizardry in the game of nine-ball at which he is widely considered one of the greatest players in history, if not the greatest. He was inducted into the Billiards Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1983. That same year, he was also inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
. In sandlot
baseball games, Lassiter was an ace pitcher
. According to his friends, who affectionately referred to him as "Bud," he was the player everyone wanted on his team. Lassiter's younger brother, Clarence, spoke of his brother's ability to pitch: "Coach was always trying to sign him up. You know, Bud could pitch a ball. But by then, pool had caught him and he didn't care about the athletic end of things. The coach pestered him and pestered him and tried to get him to play, because he had a natural talent for baseball. But he didn't use it; he was trapped by pool."
Queried on the subject of his pitching, Lassiter himself said, "Oh, sure, I played some baseball. In fact, it was at some little old ball game that I once ate twelve hot dogs and drank thirteen Cokes
and Orange Crushes, and everybody fell to calling me Wimpy" (after the J. Wellington Wimpy
character of the Popeye
comic strip by the same name who loved to eat hamburgers). So instead of baseball, Lassiter focused on pool, developing his game at City Billiards in Elizabeth City. The owner of the pool room there, a man named Speedy Ives, allowed Lassiter to enter through the back door and to shoot whenever he wanted as long as Lassiter cleaned the floors and swept the pool tables.
As a young man, Lassiter became afflicted with a condition which he termed "the swolls"; it would follow him throughout his life. This was a condition in which Lassiter's lips would puff up and become red and swollen when an attractive member of the opposite sex approached him with affection. This peculiarity first appeared in the early 1940s when Lassiter was in Norfolk, Virginia
.
Minnesota Fats
remembered his friend's condition well: "[Lassiter's] lips would be all puffed up and at first I thought it was from wiping off the lipstick. But there was nothing he could do about it, so he finally gave up on tomatoes across the board by remaining a bachelor. Evelyn told Wimpy he should fall in love and get married, but Wimpy would always say, 'Bless you, Mrs. Wanderone, but I'm already in love - I'm in love with pool.' And he really was."
, Lassiter's main running buddy was Rudolph Walter Wanderone, best known as Minnesota Fats
. Their town of preference was Norfolk, Virginia, which was known at the time as the highest-rolling place for pool hustlers, card players, and gamblers in general. During these years, Lassiter became the "undisputed king" of the pool hustlers, reportedly winning over $300,000 from gambling on pool games between 1942 and 1948 (including $15,000 in a single week). He often accepted "money games" involving extraordinary sums, often around $1,000 a game. It was during this time that he developed his confidence and skill necessary to begin competing on the professional level with the greatest pocket-billiard masters of the day, including Willie Mosconi
and Irving Crane
.
After the sudden decline of the gambling action in Norfolk around 1948, Lassiter was forced to begin competing professionally in pool tournaments held across the country. His first major tournament was the World Straight Pool Championships in 1953 held in San Francisco's Downtown Bowl; the player who knocked him out—and who would go on to win the tournament and then the world title—was Willie Mosconi
.
It was also during this time that Lassiter formed a partnership with Don Willis
, a player who—while never having won any world titles because he never competed in any of the tournaments—had beaten some of pool's greatest players, including Jimmy Moore, Ralph Greenleaf
, and Willie Mosconi
, all in straight pool
. In 1948, Willis beat Lassiter in nine-ball on Lassiter's home turf, Elizabeth City; it was Lassiter's best game. Indeed, Willis' talent for nine-ball was the primary reason for Lassiter forming a partnership with Willis rather than a rivalry. Together they would go on the road and hustle pool rooms, sometimes winning anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 over a period of several days.
, Babe Cranfield, Jimmy Moore, U.J. Puckett
, Irving Crane
, Minnesota Fats
, and Willie Mosconi
. In 1983, the line-up was the same minus Balsis and Cranfield, and with Jimmy Caras added. These were round-robin
tournaments, in which each player would be matched against the others in a single match, with each playing the same number of matches, and receiving a set number of points for each match won. Each match consisted of one seven-ball
set, race to four games, one nine-ball set, race to four games, and in the event of a tie, one eight-ball set, best two out of three games. At the 1983 tournament, which was televised on the then-fledgling ESPN
network, Luther Lassiter pitched a shutout
. He won all six of his matches for 20 points each, amassing a perfect score of 120 points and the first place prize of $10,000. After Lassiter defeated Willie Mosconi
to put the exclamation point on the tournament, current WPA World Nine-ball Champion at the time and commentator for the match, Allen Hopkins, remarked to co-commentator Chris Berman, "This is no surprise to me; Wimpy's a great nine-ball player. I watched him play, and he looked like the young Wimpy, from years back. He played great. The way he played this tournament he could have beat anybody, including [today's players]." After defeating U.J. Puckett earlier in the same tournament, Lassiter said in response to Berman's praise of his playing, "Well, I'm the youngest and I'm still lucky."
Luther Lassiter spent his final days practically broke, living alone in the house of his childhood in Elizabeth City, on a pension provided by oil tycoon Walter Davis, who was a life-long friend of Lassiter's. When they were children during the Great Depression
, Lassiter would give Davis, who came from a poor farming family, a couple of dollars whenever he needed it, which often meant the difference between eating and not eating. Davis never forgot Lassiter's kindness, and repaid him by taking care of his necessities in his last years. To escape his loneliness, Lassiter would often ride his bicycle a couple of blocks away to his younger brother Clarence's and his wife, Barbara's, house, and hang out and play with their two sons.
On October 25, 1988, days before what would have been his 70th birthday, Lassiter died of natural causes in his hometown of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He was found by his nephew next to his pool table where he had apparently been practicing. Lassiter was interred in New Hollywood Cemetery in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Pasquotank County. and was survived by two brothers and three sisters.
Clarence's wife, Barbara, said after his passing, "I knew two or three people in my life who I thought would go to heaven - with no doubt - and [Wimpy] was one of them. He treated everybody like they was supposed to be treated."
"The undershirt
is the most foolish item in a man's wardrobe. I shall never wear one again." – at Johnston City, Illinois
, November 1963
"Man is the strangest of all the Lord's creatures. The trouble with man is he doesn't know how to live ... I'm a pool player, so they ask me, 'Haven't you done anything with your life except shoot pool? Haven't you ever worked?' I always tell them, 'Well, no, sir, I can't say that I've ever worked.' That always gets those rascals, 'cause they always ask, 'But how have you managed to live?' Oh, Lawdie, that's so silly. I tell them, 'Sir, I live like a tree – 3 percent from the soil and 97 percent from the air.' You know, that's true." - to Tom Fox at McAnn's Saloon in New York City
, 1967, during the World 14.1 Continuous Championship, which he won after defeating Jack "Jersey Red" Breit, with a score of 150-73.
"I don't know why so many people love to play pool. Might as well ask why a hen lays eggs or a cow stands still while a farmer burglarizes her."
When another hall of famer, 'Champagne' Edwin Kelly was asked who was the toughest player he ever played against, he responded that it depended on the game but that if it was "9-ball, it would have to be Luther Lassiter...Wimpy was the best...He was the best shot-maker that I ever saw."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pool
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...
player from Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County and Camden County in the State of North Carolina. With a population of 18,683 at the 2010 census, Elizabeth City is the county seat of Pasquotank County....
. The winner of six world championships and numerous other titles, Lassiter is most well known for his wizardry in the game of nine-ball at which he is widely considered one of the greatest players in history, if not the greatest. He was inducted into the Billiards Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1983. That same year, he was also inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
Early life
In his youth, Lassiter showed signs of uncanny hand-eye coordination, both in the areas of pool and baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
. In sandlot
Sandlot
Sandlot may refer to:* The Sandlot, a 1993 film about young baseball players, and its sequels** The Sandlot 2, a 2005 film** The Sandlot: Heading Home, a 2007 film* Sandlot , a Japanese game developer...
baseball games, Lassiter was an ace pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
. According to his friends, who affectionately referred to him as "Bud," he was the player everyone wanted on his team. Lassiter's younger brother, Clarence, spoke of his brother's ability to pitch: "Coach was always trying to sign him up. You know, Bud could pitch a ball. But by then, pool had caught him and he didn't care about the athletic end of things. The coach pestered him and pestered him and tried to get him to play, because he had a natural talent for baseball. But he didn't use it; he was trapped by pool."
Queried on the subject of his pitching, Lassiter himself said, "Oh, sure, I played some baseball. In fact, it was at some little old ball game that I once ate twelve hot dogs and drank thirteen Cokes
Cola
Cola is a carbonated beverage that was typically flavored by the kola nut as well as vanilla and other flavorings, however, some colas are now flavored artificially. It became popular worldwide after druggist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886...
and Orange Crushes, and everybody fell to calling me Wimpy" (after the J. Wellington Wimpy
J. Wellington Wimpy
J. Wellington Wimpy, generally referred to as Wimpy, is one of the characters in the long-running comic strip Popeye, created by E. C. Segar and originally called Thimble Theatre, and in the Popeye cartoons based upon the strip...
character of the Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
comic strip by the same name who loved to eat hamburgers). So instead of baseball, Lassiter focused on pool, developing his game at City Billiards in Elizabeth City. The owner of the pool room there, a man named Speedy Ives, allowed Lassiter to enter through the back door and to shoot whenever he wanted as long as Lassiter cleaned the floors and swept the pool tables.
As a young man, Lassiter became afflicted with a condition which he termed "the swolls"; it would follow him throughout his life. This was a condition in which Lassiter's lips would puff up and become red and swollen when an attractive member of the opposite sex approached him with affection. This peculiarity first appeared in the early 1940s when Lassiter was in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
.
Minnesota Fats
Minnesota Fats
Rudolf Walter Wanderone, Jr. was an American professional pocket billiards player, best known as "Minnesota Fats"...
remembered his friend's condition well: "[Lassiter's] lips would be all puffed up and at first I thought it was from wiping off the lipstick. But there was nothing he could do about it, so he finally gave up on tomatoes across the board by remaining a bachelor. Evelyn told Wimpy he should fall in love and get married, but Wimpy would always say, 'Bless you, Mrs. Wanderone, but I'm already in love - I'm in love with pool.' And he really was."
Hustler Days
During the early 1940s, following his discharge from the Coast GuardCoast guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a national organization responsible for various services at sea. However the term implies widely different responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to being a volunteer organization tasked with...
, Lassiter's main running buddy was Rudolph Walter Wanderone, best known as Minnesota Fats
Minnesota Fats
Rudolf Walter Wanderone, Jr. was an American professional pocket billiards player, best known as "Minnesota Fats"...
. Their town of preference was Norfolk, Virginia, which was known at the time as the highest-rolling place for pool hustlers, card players, and gamblers in general. During these years, Lassiter became the "undisputed king" of the pool hustlers, reportedly winning over $300,000 from gambling on pool games between 1942 and 1948 (including $15,000 in a single week). He often accepted "money games" involving extraordinary sums, often around $1,000 a game. It was during this time that he developed his confidence and skill necessary to begin competing on the professional level with the greatest pocket-billiard masters of the day, including Willie Mosconi
Willie Mosconi
William Joseph Mosconi , best known as Willie Mosconi, was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially...
and Irving Crane
Irving Crane
Irving Crane , nicknamed "the Deacon", was an American pool player from Livonia , New York, and ranks among the stellar players in the history of the sport...
.
After the sudden decline of the gambling action in Norfolk around 1948, Lassiter was forced to begin competing professionally in pool tournaments held across the country. His first major tournament was the World Straight Pool Championships in 1953 held in San Francisco's Downtown Bowl; the player who knocked him out—and who would go on to win the tournament and then the world title—was Willie Mosconi
Willie Mosconi
William Joseph Mosconi , best known as Willie Mosconi, was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially...
.
It was also during this time that Lassiter formed a partnership with Don Willis
Don Willis
Don Willis was a colorful pool hustler and billiards player from Canton, Ohio. At the time, cash prizes for pool tournaments did not pay enough for a full time income, so he traveled the country playing private pool games for money...
, a player who—while never having won any world titles because he never competed in any of the tournaments—had beaten some of pool's greatest players, including Jimmy Moore, Ralph Greenleaf
Ralph Greenleaf
Ralph Greenleaf was an American professional pool and carom billiards player, a twenty-time World Pocket Billiards Champion, whose ability and charisma dominated the sport during his heyday.His obituary in The New York Times said of Greenleaf, in March 1950: "What Babe Ruth did for baseball,...
, and Willie Mosconi
Willie Mosconi
William Joseph Mosconi , best known as Willie Mosconi, was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially...
, all 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...
. In 1948, Willis beat Lassiter in nine-ball on Lassiter's home turf, Elizabeth City; it was Lassiter's best game. Indeed, Willis' talent for nine-ball was the primary reason for Lassiter forming a partnership with Willis rather than a rivalry. Together they would go on the road and hustle pool rooms, sometimes winning anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 over a period of several days.
The last "challenge match"
In the nineteenth century and up through the mid 1950s, a common way for world billiards titles to change hands was by a challenge match, meaning a challenge was issued to a championship titleholder accompanied by stake money held by a third party. Lassiter's successful defense of his title at the World Pocket Billiard Challenge in 1966 against Cisero Murphy was the last title challenge in billiards. At that match Lassiter showed his talent at —that is, performing some act with the intent of distracting the opponent. Reportedly, Murphy was on a great and long of balls. In response, Lassiter pretended to fall asleep. When Murphy noticed Lassiter sleeping he promptly missed. Lassiter, who was wide awake, jumped out of his chair and ran out the match for the win.Later years
After his official retirement from pool in 1975, Lassiter continued to play in some low-profile tournaments, but due to years of hard living while on the road and marathon gambling sessions that would last into the early hours of the morning, he often was not able to play quite as well as he had in his younger days. Even so, many pool players during those years claim he was still one of the greatest players alive, and a force to be reckoned with on the pool table. Lassiter did come out of retirement, along with many other pool greats, to compete twice in "The Legendary Stars of Pocket Billiards Tournament," once in January 1982 at Harrah's Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, and again in 1983, at the Claridge Hotel and Casino, also in Atlantic City. The players who competed in the 1982 tournament were Lassiter, Joe BalsisJoe Balsis
Joseph Balsis , nicknamed "the Meatman", was a professional pool player, and was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1982.-Early life:...
, Babe Cranfield, Jimmy Moore, U.J. Puckett
U.J. Puckett
Utley J. Puckett , best known as U. J. Puckett, was an American professional pocket billiards player.-Biography:...
, Irving Crane
Irving Crane
Irving Crane , nicknamed "the Deacon", was an American pool player from Livonia , New York, and ranks among the stellar players in the history of the sport...
, Minnesota Fats
Minnesota Fats
Rudolf Walter Wanderone, Jr. was an American professional pocket billiards player, best known as "Minnesota Fats"...
, and Willie Mosconi
Willie Mosconi
William Joseph Mosconi , best known as Willie Mosconi, was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially...
. In 1983, the line-up was the same minus Balsis and Cranfield, and with Jimmy Caras added. These were round-robin
Round-robin
The term round-robin was originally used to describe a document signed by multiple parties in a circle to make it more difficult to determine the order in which it was signed, thus preventing a ringleader from being identified...
tournaments, in which each player would be matched against the others in a single match, with each playing the same number of matches, and receiving a set number of points for each match won. Each match consisted of one seven-ball
Seven-ball
Seven-ball is a contemporary pool game with rules similar to nine-ball, though it differs in two key ways: the game uses only seven as implied by its name, and play is restricted to particular pockets of the table. William D. Clayton is credited with the game's invention, ca...
set, race to four games, one nine-ball set, race to four games, and in the event of a tie, one eight-ball set, best two out of three games. At the 1983 tournament, which was televised on the then-fledgling ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
network, Luther Lassiter pitched a shutout
Shutout
In team sports, a shutout refers to a game in which one team prevents the opposing team from scoring. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball....
. He won all six of his matches for 20 points each, amassing a perfect score of 120 points and the first place prize of $10,000. After Lassiter defeated Willie Mosconi
Willie Mosconi
William Joseph Mosconi , best known as Willie Mosconi, was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially...
to put the exclamation point on the tournament, current WPA World Nine-ball Champion at the time and commentator for the match, Allen Hopkins, remarked to co-commentator Chris Berman, "This is no surprise to me; Wimpy's a great nine-ball player. I watched him play, and he looked like the young Wimpy, from years back. He played great. The way he played this tournament he could have beat anybody, including [today's players]." After defeating U.J. Puckett earlier in the same tournament, Lassiter said in response to Berman's praise of his playing, "Well, I'm the youngest and I'm still lucky."
Luther Lassiter spent his final days practically broke, living alone in the house of his childhood in Elizabeth City, on a pension provided by oil tycoon Walter Davis, who was a life-long friend of Lassiter's. When they were children during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Lassiter would give Davis, who came from a poor farming family, a couple of dollars whenever he needed it, which often meant the difference between eating and not eating. Davis never forgot Lassiter's kindness, and repaid him by taking care of his necessities in his last years. To escape his loneliness, Lassiter would often ride his bicycle a couple of blocks away to his younger brother Clarence's and his wife, Barbara's, house, and hang out and play with their two sons.
On October 25, 1988, days before what would have been his 70th birthday, Lassiter died of natural causes in his hometown of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He was found by his nephew next to his pool table where he had apparently been practicing. Lassiter was interred in New Hollywood Cemetery in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Pasquotank County. and was survived by two brothers and three sisters.
Clarence's wife, Barbara, said after his passing, "I knew two or three people in my life who I thought would go to heaven - with no doubt - and [Wimpy] was one of them. He treated everybody like they was supposed to be treated."
Quotes
"I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot I know I can beat him.""The undershirt
Undershirt
A vest, undershirt, tank top, , singlet or a wife beater is an article of underwear worn underneath a dress shirt intended to protect them from body sweat and odors. It can have short sleeves or be sleeveless. The term most commonly refers to upper-body wear worn by males.It also makes dress...
is the most foolish item in a man's wardrobe. I shall never wear one again." – at Johnston City, Illinois
Johnston City, Illinois
Johnston City is a city in Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,557 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Johnston City is located at ....
, November 1963
"Man is the strangest of all the Lord's creatures. The trouble with man is he doesn't know how to live ... I'm a pool player, so they ask me, 'Haven't you done anything with your life except shoot pool? Haven't you ever worked?' I always tell them, 'Well, no, sir, I can't say that I've ever worked.' That always gets those rascals, 'cause they always ask, 'But how have you managed to live?' Oh, Lawdie, that's so silly. I tell them, 'Sir, I live like a tree – 3 percent from the soil and 97 percent from the air.' You know, that's true." - to Tom Fox at McAnn's Saloon in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, 1967, during the World 14.1 Continuous Championship, which he won after defeating Jack "Jersey Red" Breit, with a score of 150-73.
"I don't know why so many people love to play pool. Might as well ask why a hen lays eggs or a cow stands still while a farmer burglarizes her."
When another hall of famer, 'Champagne' Edwin Kelly was asked who was the toughest player he ever played against, he responded that it depended on the game but that if it was "9-ball, it would have to be Luther Lassiter...Wimpy was the best...He was the best shot-maker that I ever saw."
Publications
Lassiter authored a number of books on the sport including:- The Modern Guide to Pocket Billiards. Fleet Pub. Corp. (New York, 1964), ISBN 0-830-30008-2;
- Billiards for Everyone. Grosset & DunlapGrosset & DunlapGrosset & Dunlap is a United States book publisher founded in 1898.The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of the British publishing conglomerate, Pearson PLC through its American subsidiary Penguin Group....
(New York, 1965). ISBN 0-448-01519-6.
Titles
- 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1969, Johnston City Nine-ball Champion
- 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1969, Johnston City World All-Around Champion
- 1962, 1963, 1964, 1970, 1971, Johnston City Straight PoolStraight PoolStraight 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...
Champion - 1969, Johnston City One-Pocket Champion
- 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, World 14.1 Continuous Champion
- 1971, Stardust All-around Champion
- 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, World Nine-ball Champion
- 1969, World One-pocket Champion
- 1969, BCA US Open 14.1 Continuous Champion