Cisero Murphy

Cisero Murphy, who lived from 1935 to 1996, was an American professional pool player and the first African-American professional pocket billiards player to win world and U.S. national titles. He is also one of two players to win the World Straight Pool Championship on his first attempt, the other being Ray Martin in 1971. Murphy could run 200 balls, miss a shot and then run another 200, and he did it with one of the most unusual strokes in billiards history, coming to a dead stop at the back of his stroke, which fans named the hesitation stroke. He grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn as one of eight children, dropped out of high school at fifteen and began playing pool at the Police Athletic League.