Harold Worst might have been the best. He lived the short 37 years of his life in Grand Rapids but became a billiard legend considered by some as the best all-around player in history.
Worst, just 19 and two years after first picking up a cue, was encouraged to take his game seriously after an impressive 1947 exhibition in Detroit with Willie Hoppe, a winner of 51 major billiard championships.
In 1954 Worst won the World Three-Cushion title in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and successfully defended his title 11 times before he died in 1966 of brain cancer at Blodgett Hospital.
During his short career, Worst also won major All-Around titles, including the 1965 Stardust Open Championships. In his era, he was rare among billiard players for performing at the world championship level in three-cushion billiards, straight pool, one-pocket, nine-ball, and snooker disciplines. When he was inducted into the Billiard Congress Hall of Fame in 1970 he was one of five players, and the only one in what was called the modern era, to have held world titles in three-cushion and pocket billiards and he remains the youngest to have ever won the world title in three-cushion billiards.
He was known first as the “boy wonder” and later as the “gentleman player” who would take on all comers and bets at Chinnick’s Pool Room in Grand Rapids, including the older legends of the game. He was also known as a cut-shot artist who didn’t often need to use bank shots and an amazing shot artist especially when a bet was on the table. He also always wore a suit and tie when he played in competition, even as a teenager.
Billiard legend Minnesota Fats nominated Worst as the best pool player of his generation. Ronnie "Fast Eddie" Allen concurred, saying in a recording available online that Harold Worst was the greatest pool player he ever saw, even better overall than Willie Mosconi.
In the early 1960s Worst started a chain of pool rooms, including the first over a Meijer store on Plainfield Ave. called the Golden Eight Ball. He also hired in 1962 a local furniture manufacturer to make affordable house cues to sell at reasonable prices to try and grow the game’s popularity and his business. The color of the handle denoted the weight of light, medium or heavy. He called the company Cues Inc., reportedly saying “we could hardly call in Worst Cues Company, now could we.” His name was also lent to an inexpensive line of pool tables.
Jack Olsen wrote a story in Sports Illustrated story in 1957 about Worst with the obvious title: Worst Is Best. The October 26, 1954, edition of The Grand Rapids Press bears the headline: "Worst Brings City Second World Title." The first world title was won by bowler Marion Ladewig.
In 1963 at the Michigan State Fairgrounds, Worst won the one-pocket title, beating Cornbread Red, and the straight pool title by beating Babyface Whitlow. He also took the nine-ball title and finished second to Cornbread Red in snooker. In 1964, legend has it that he beat legendary big-money hustler Don Willis at his best game, nine-ball. Worst also served in the U.S. Navy and he reportedly dominated pool halls winning hundreds of dollars a week while stationed in Korea.