Welker Cochran

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Welker Cochran
Billard Picto 2-white-l.svg
Welker Cochran sitting on billiards table.jpg
Personal details
birthday October 7, 1897
place of birth Des Moines , Iowa
date of death 26th July 1960 (age 62)
Place of death Belmont
nationality United StatesUnited States United States
Active time approx. 1920-1946
Achievements
Unless otherwise stated,
the information relates to the “three cushion” discipline.
Best GD: 1.315
(1944 - professional three-cushion WM, New York)
Maximum series (HS): 16
(1945 - Bensinger's Billiard Academy, Chicago)
World Championships:
6 × (1927–1944)

Welker Cochran (born October 7, 1897 in Des Moines , † July 26, 1960 in Belmont ) was an American carambola player and multiple world champion.

Career

Born in Des Moines , Iowa, the family soon moved to Manson, where Welker Cochran's career began at the age of 13. Frank Gotch also frequented his father's restaurant, where there were also billiard tables. This discovered the talent and made sure that the boy went to Chicago and started studying billiards with Lanson W. Perkins.

During this time Cochran won several amateur tournaments in cadre and three-cushion play . Even at the age of seventeen it was difficult to find equal opponents for him. At a tournament in the New York Theater, he finally met an opponent he did not defeat: Willie Hoppe . This duel was followed by a rivalry between the two that flared up again and again, which only came to an end in 1959 when Hoppe died.

One of his great adversaries in the cadre in the twenties was the German Erich Hagenlocher , who twice managed to rob him of the controversial cadre title of professional player. Cochran won his first major cadre title in 1925. Two years later he set a world record with a cadre series of 407 points. He looked forward to his appearance with Hoppe in three cushion with excitement. In 1933 Cochran won the world title in three cushion and defended it in 1935 and 1936.

Then came a time when not very much was heard from him. He gave himself completely to the work for his now founded billiards academy. So he lost the title to Hoppe in 1941 and 1942. "I wasn't in training," he said.

Scoreboard in Bensinger's billiard room with Cochran's 1945 world record with an individual average (ED) of 3,000 (60 points in 20 shots)

In 1944 there was a comeback and Hoppe had to surrender the crown again in a mammoth tournament that spanned 13 cities. Cochran played excellent averages. He always used to do a few laps on the bike before going to play. That seemed to have got around as a good recipe, because one day, when he had to face W. Hoppe again, the opponent came kicking his bike towards him on his laps through New York's Central Park . Cochran also quit smoking six months before he had a big match to play.

In 1945, Cochran set a new world record of 3,000 individual average (ED) in a three-cushion game against Hoppe . He played 60 points in 20 shots.

In 1946 he retired from the professional pool business because of his arthritis , but had another small comeback in 1954 .

Quotes

  • “Everyone has nerves; but we billiards players have to learn to keep them under control. "

successes

Publications

  • Scientific Billiards , Welker Cochran, paperback (English) 108 pages, publisher: Kent Pr (October 15, 2000), ISBN 1-4465-0072-1

Web links

Commons : Welker Cochran  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Biography with photo on ENCYCLPÆDIA Britannica. Retrieved July 8, 2012.
  2. ↑ Cue Expert Cochran, Shooter Gilbert Join 'Hall'
  3. ^ Billiard Congress of America. Retrieved July 8, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Cochran, Welker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pool player
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Des Moines , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1960
Place of death Belmont California