Andrew Ponzi

Andrew Ponzi, born Andrew D'Allesandro in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 20, 1903, was an American pool player and world champion who died on April 11, 1950. He injured his right hand in a trolley mishap as a boy and improved it by practicing pool, and by sixteen he was already winning money matches. Friends gave him the nickname Ponzi because the swindler Charles Ponzi was then in the press. He won his first world pool title in 1934 by defeating Erwin Rudolph, won again in 1940 by beating Jimmy Caras, took a third title in 1943 over Willie Mosconi, and won the fourth and final one by defeating Irving Crane the same year. He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1988.