William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional billiard player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Group Championship fifteen times. For most of the twentieth century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America, he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards", and was among the first members of the Hall of Fame of the Billiard Congress of America. Mosconi was a pioneer and regularly employed numerous tricks, set many records and helped popularize the pool as a national recreational activity. During the 1940s and 1950s, the pool game that was played most often in the competition was called direct pool, or 14.1 continuous, a form of pool considered by most of the best players as more difficult than today's fast tournament game. Mosconi still has the world record of 526 consecutive balls officially recognized in the group of consecutive races. In 1924, at the age of 11, Mosconi was the youth group champion and regularly performed tricks. In the early 1930s, Mosconi had taken a brief pause in the game, but he returned a few years later in the hope of earning some money.