Ben Laurie 'Racks Up' His Twentieth Year in Union Billiard Room

"Freshman classes at Harvard never seem to change much," asserted Benjamin Laurie, familiar to Union billiard sharks as plain Ben, on his twentieth anniversary at the Union. "And I wish to say that they're the finest bunch of fellows a man can work with," he added.

For twenty years Ben has guided the Yardlings in the art of pool and billiards, and although he says that their game is none too good, they all seem to really enjoy it. "In fact, billiards has had more success at Harvard than at any other college," Ben declared.

Scarcely able to realize that he has been here so long, Laurie, who has been a billiard professional for twenty years, began to reminisce. He remembers the good old days when Willie Hoppe, world's champion billiard player for 16 years, played at the Union. In former days he used to play with all the great pros of his time--Hoppe, Schaefer, and the rest. Ben judged that the greatest Harvard player was Bert Knout '28, who averaged a run of about 50.

"Ninety per cent of the players prefer billiards," Ben claimed, "but they all start out wrong, in fact, everyone starts wrong. It is this early misunderstanding of the game that accounts for the fact that there are only 12 good billiard players in the country."