Ray Martin

Ray Martin is an American professional pool player, born on February 26, 1935, nicknamed Cool Cat because he calmly won a world title in California in 1971 while an earthquake was in progress. He held the world straight pool championship in 1971, 1974 and 1978, and was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1994. He also won several nine-ball tournaments, including the 1980 Lake Tahoe Invitational, the 1981 King of the Hill Pool Championship and the 1983 Music City Open, and finished fourth and fifth in the 1992 and 1993 BCA U.S. Opens. From 1989 to 1991 he wrote the Nine-Ball Safeties column for The Snap Magazine, and he co-authored The 99 Critical Shots in Pool in 1977.