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Billiards’ origins can be found in a croquet-like 15th century lawn game in which players pushed a ball through wicket to hit a peg. A stick with a large rounded end called a “Mace” was used to push the ball across the field. When the ball was up against a rail, however, it became impossible to hit the ball with the thick end of the mace, so the thinner end was used. This end was called a “queue,” meaning tail, and it is from this that the modern word “cue” was born. This game was very popular amongst royalty for hundreds of years. In fact, it is believed that Marie Antoinette’s most prized and cherished possession was a gold-tipped, intricately engraved ivory mace.

One of the first innovators of Billiards was a Frenchman known as Captain Mingaud. He first discovered his love of the game in the early 1800’s while a political prisoner in Paris during the French Revolution. He was so enamored with billiards that he refused to be released when his sentence was over, so his captors granted him more time to study the sport. He eventually went on to discover that rounding the cue tip increased accuracy, and introduced the leather tip. After finally leaving prison, he took it upon himself to travel around France spreading the gospel of billiards and his new innovations for the game.

The first person to introduce chalk to the game to prevent miscues was English billiards instructor Jack Carr, who is also noteworthy for being the first person to achieve fame for being a talented billiards player. Equipped with this development, he also discovered the advantages of intentionally striking off center to create spin, or “English.” Carr also traveled around his country to display his contributions to the game, but his motivation was primarily to sell his new “spinning chalk,” rather than simple passion for the sport.

The earliest Billiard tables were constructed by cabinet makers and were never uniform in size. Different games required different kinds of tables, and therefore the table’s specifications were usually dictated by the table’s purchaser based upon which game he preferred. Today, Billiard tables have a more consistent construction and are available in seven, eight, or nine foot models. Tournaments are often played on either nine or eight foot tables, though seven and eight foot models are preferred by most homeowners.

Truly a sport of great men and women, billiards has been the object of obsession for artists, kings, and presidents. Mary, Queen of Scots loved the sport so much that her final wish before her execution was that her body be wrapped in the cloth of her favorite billiards table. Mozart would often spend his breaks from composing by combing the seedy parts of town looking for a rowdy pool room. George Washington regularly gambled at billiards and kept detailed records of his winnings and losses.

The game even famously helped cost American President John Quincy Adams reelection. Followers of Andrew Jackson, embittered that Jackson lost to Adams despite winning the popular vote, began decrying Adams’ love of the “immoral” game of billiards. Once he installed a billiard table in the white house using public funds, it was enough for them to successfully turn it into a national scandal. The “billiard table scandal” allowed for Jackson to win the following election, and one of his first of orders of business after inauguration was, of course, to have the table removed.