Jacob Schaefer Jr. (born October 18, 1894, in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

; died November 10, 1975, in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

) was an American professional

carom billiards Carom billiards, also called French billiards and sometimes 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 ...

player with German grandparentage, a specialist in

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 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 honor 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"
Billiard Congress of America, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA; accessed February 3, 2007 His nickname was "the Prodigy".Legendary Players
Retrieved May 24, 2014.

Professional career

Schaefer is widely considered by historians of the sport to have been

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

's all-time greatest balkline player.

Titles and tournament wins

* World 18.1 Balkline Champion (1921, 1923-1927, 1929, 1930) * World 18.2 Balkline Champion (1927, 1928) * World 28.2 Balkline Champion (1937, 1938)

Records

In 18.2 balkline, Schaefer held four records never broken by another American (some have since been beaten by non-Americans):"In Memory of Jake Schaefer", ''The National Billiard News'', November 1975 *A 400-point game average (from the ) 400-0. The 1925 World Championship 18.2 Balkline Tournament was held in the Congress Hotel, Chicago. The sixth game of the tournament on Thursday evening, February 26, featured Jake Schaefer II against Erich Hagenlocher of Germany. Schaefer won the lag and shot first. He made 400 consecutive billiards and won the game. Hagenlocher was quoted later as saying that toward the end of the run he was hoping that Schaefer wouldn't miss. Hagenlocher was afraid that after sitting and watching for more than an hour, he wouldn't be able to stand up and hit the end rail. *A 57.14 tournament grand average *A 93.25 match grand average *A high run of 432 in a match

Personal life

He was the son of fellow billiards pro Jacob Schaefer Sr. (1855–1910), who was known as "the Wizard" by reason of his exploits with the cue.''National Tavern News'', January 1984. Both Jacob Jr. and Hoppe were tutored by the elder Schaefer, whose last match before his death was a successful defense of his title against Hoppe. Jacob Schaefer III (b. 1938) and Jacob Schaefer IV (b. 1970) are both academics in science. Jacob Schaefer V (b. 2007) has not yet made a career decision.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaefer, Jacob Jr. American carom billiards players 1894 births 1975 deaths American people of German descent World champions in carom billiards