Frank Taberski (1889–1941) was a professional

pocket billiards Pool is a classification of cue sports played on a table with six pockets along the , into which balls are deposited. "Pool billiards" is sometimes hyphenated and/or spelled with a singular "billiard". The WPA itself uses "pool-billiard" in it ...

player from

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

. Nicknamed "The Gray Fox," he won 14 world titles.

Biography

Taberski was born in 1889, and first made a living by selling milk door to door. He began practicing pool at 13 years of age, playing 30 minutes a day when his working hours were over. In 1915, at age 26, he turned pro after attending the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

pocket billiards championship. In 1916 he became world champion by defeating Johnny Layton. Also in 1916 he retained his title by defeating

Ralph Greenleaf Ralph Greenleaf (November 3, 1899 in Monmouth, Illinois – March 15, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American professional pool and carom billiards player. He was a 19 time World Pocket Billiards Champion, who dominated the sport duri ...

. In 1917 he retained his title again by defeating

James Maturo James Maturo was a 5 time World Straight Pool Championship finalist. Biography He was born in 1878. In 1912 he defeated Alfredo de Oro by a score of 150 to 136 in Philadelphia, to play Edward Ralph in the world final match. In 1917 he was matched ...

. By 1918 he had won 10 consecutive challenge matches. Following those victories, Taberski temporarily retired that same year. He returned to pocket billiards in 1925 and regained the world title from Greenleaf who held it over 10 challenge matches in a row. His highest straight pool run is 238. Taberski died in 1941. He was 52. His son Harold Taberski was also a pool player. Taberski was inducted into the

Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame This is the list of people inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's hall of fame to honour outstanding people who, through their competitive skills and dedication, have enriched the sport and industry. Two categories have been established in ...

in 1975.

References

American pool players World champions in pool 1889 births 1941 deaths Sportspeople from Schenectady, New York American people of Polish descent {{US-pool-bio-stub