Don Willis (May 1, 1909 – March 2, 1984) was a colorful
pool hustler
Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling (or gambling for higher than current stakes) with the hustler, as a form of both a confidence tr ...
(known as the "Cincinnati Kid")
from
Canton, Ohio
Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...
who was considered one of the greatest money players of all time. In the late 1940s and 1950s, when pool was in decline and cash prizes for pool tournaments did not pay enough for a full-time income, Willis chose to travel America playing private pool games for money alongside world champion
Luther Lassiter Luther Clement Lassiter, Jr. (November 5, 1918 – October 25, 1988),MyFamily.com Inc. (1998-2006)U.S. Social Security Death Index Search Retrieved December 5, 2006 nicknamed Wimpy, was an American pool player from Elizabeth City, North Carolin ...
.
According to R.A. Dyer, Willis befriended Luther Lassiter in 1948 after beating Lassiter at
9-ball
Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...
. Lassiter, who went on to become 7 time
world champion
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
, was perhaps America’s best 9-ball player; together, the two men formed “arguably the most formidable road team in American history.”
As Willis told the ''Evansville Courier & Press'' in 1977, “I broke Lassiter one night playing 9-ball in
Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and largest city of Pasquotank County. It ...
. He suggested that we become road partners…We split everything we made—sometimes as much as $5000 or $10,000 over a period of several days.” When hustling with Lassiter, Willis often went first, playing the
lemon
The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China.
The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...
to set up a victim for Lassiter, who would then finish the opponent.
In addition to pool, Willis played the game of
ping pong
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
so well he could win games playing with a bottle as a paddle. He also mastered a variety of other unusual skills on which he was known to gamble: for example, he could make as many as 42
wing shots in a row, beat anyone in a race running backwards, and
juggle
Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the object manipulation, manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipula ...
3 pool balls along with the chalk. Willis boasted that he had even won bets “on the proposition that I can’t name in order the hundred and thirty largest cities in the U.S.” He threw 48 of 50 ringers against the Horse Shoe Champion. He was also a basketball free throw hustler and a card player.
Although Willis “never won a major tournament…most of the greats acknowledged gambling losses to the Ohio-born hustler.” Willis very likely could have won tournaments had he chosen to compete, but like many hustlers, he knew he could make more money hustling if he remained unknown. To quote R. A. Dyer, “he feared not defeat…but rather exposure. He wanted no pictures in the paper.” Because Willis did not play in tournaments, his talent was never widely recognized beyond a close circle of friends and family. The little documentation available on Willis tends to mention him chiefly in connection with Luther Lassiter, who said of him, "If I ever had to have someone else shoot pool for my life, win or lose, live or die, the man that I'd have shooting for me is Don Willis."
References
* R.A. Dyer, ''Hustler Days: Minnesota Fats, Wimpy Lassiter, Jersey Red, and America's Great Age of Pool'' (2003), Appendix II, pp. 235–239, ,
* Dick Moecia, "Lunch with Don 'the Cincinnati Kid' Willis
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Don
1909 births
1984 deaths
Sportspeople from Canton, Ohio