Irving Crane (November 13, 1913 – November 17, 2001), nicknamed "the Deacon", was an American pool player from Livonia (near Rochester), New York, and ranks among the stellar players in the history of the sport. Considered one of the all-time greats, he is most well known for his mastery in the game of straight pool (14.1 continuous) at which he won numerous championships, including six world billiards titles.

Crane's fascination with billiards started at age 11, sparked by play on a toy pool table his brother received as a Christmas gift. Showing interest and ability, his father Scott Crane, a trial lawyer and sportsman, and his mother, a high school teacher, soon replaced their dining room table with a 4' by 8' pool table. He soon ventured out of the home to practice a couple days each week at Olympic Billiards, a room that was part of a bowling alley in Scottsville, a suburb of Rochester, New York. Crane stated in 1998: "Other kids, you know they'd play for twenty minutes or half an hour and they'd say, 'let's do something else.' I could play all day and never get enough. I couldn't wait to get home from school to play."

Luther Lassiter (November 5, 1918 – October 25, 1988), born Luther Clement Lassiter, Jr. and nicknamed Wimpy, was a world-renowned American pool player from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The winner of six world championships and numerous other titles, Lassiter is most well known for his wizardry in the game of nine-ball at which he is widely considered one of the greatest players in history, if not the greatest. He was inducted into the Billiards Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1983. That same year, he was also inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. He was ranked number 9 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.

In his youth, Lassiter showed signs of uncanny hand-eye coordination, both in the areas of pool and baseball. In sandlot baseball games, Lassiter was an ace pitcher. According to his friends, who affectionately referred to him as "Bud," he was the player everyone wanted on his team. Lassiter's younger brother, Clarence, spoke of his brother's ability to pitch: "Coach was always trying to sign him up. You know, Bud could pitch a ball. But by then, pool had caught him and he didn't care about the athletic end of things. The coach pestered him and pestered him and tried to get him to play, because he had a natural talent for baseball. But he didn't use it; he was trapped by pool."

George Hegerman is a fictional pool hustler, better known by the nickname "Minnesota Fats", and featured as a prominent character in Walter Tevis's novels The Hustler and The Color of Money. Actor Jackie Gleason played this part in the 1961 film version of The Hustler, based upon the novel. Gleason was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, and was honored as Best Supporting Actor by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. The Minnesota Fats character did not appear in the 1986 film version of The Color of Money, which had an entirely different storyline from the novel.

. Wanderone then went on to play himself under the name "Minnesota Fats" in the 1971 movie, The Player.

http://twitter.com/#!/sotafats http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJlF2tRSJPw