Jacob Schaefer Sr. (February 2, 1855 – March 8, 1910), nicknamed "the Wizard", was a professional

carom billiards Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score or "counts" by ' one's o ...

player, especially of the

straight rail Straight rail, also called straight billiards, three-ball billiards, or the free game, is a discipline of carom billiards that is the most basic form of the game. The game is played on a unmarked billiard table, usually in size, and three billia ...

and

balkline Balkline is the overarching title of a group of carom billiards games generally played with two and a red on a -covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, billiard table. The object of the game is to score points, also called ''counts'', by a play ...

games, and was posthumously 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 1968."Hall of Fame Inductees, 1966-68"
Billiards Congress of America, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA; accessed February 3, 2007 Schaefer was born in 1855 in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

. He was the first US-born son of German emigrants. He was the father of fellow billiards pro

Jacob Schaefer Jr. Jacob Schaefer Jr. (born October 18, 1894 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., died November 10, 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.) was a professional carom billiards player with German grandparentage, a specialist in balkline games, and was inducted into the ...

(1894-1975). He became one of the world's top

players, to such an extent that some of the more challenging versions of balkline were invented to attempt to level the playing field against him. He won matches and titles around the world, including the March 11, 1908 World 18.1 Balkline Championship versus

Willie Hoppe William Frederick Hoppe (October 11, 1887 – February 1, 1959) (surname rhymes with "poppy"), was an internationally renowned American professional carom billiards champion, who was posthumously inducted into the Billiard Congress of America H ...

, 500 points to 423, even though extremely ill at the time. He died of tuberculosis in 1910 in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

References

External links

Jacob Schaefer Sr
American carom billiards players 1855 births 1910 deaths American people of German descent World champions in carom billiards {{billiards-bio-stub