Ever heard of a pool player so good, they become a legend in their own lifetime? Mark O’Brien certainly did. He grew up hearing whispers of “Saint Louis Louis” in the pool halls of Saint Louis, Missouri, a name spoken with awe and respect. When Mark finally met Louis Roberts at just fifteen years old, he quickly understood why this magnetic figure, known for his incredible skill and captivating presence, would become his lifelong hero.
Louis Roberts wasn’t just any pool player; he was a phenomenon. His reputation as an unbeatable nine-ball artist spread far and wide, drawing crowds and challenging even the toughest road hustlers. But beyond his legendary ability to cut a pool ball like no other and his sensational trick shots, Louis possessed an unmatched charisma that drew everyone in. He was a natural magnet, a two-time U.S. Open nine-ball champion who not only dominated the game for decades but also left an indelible mark on everyone he met.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: This is Our American Stories. Up next, a story from Mark O’Brien, who listens to us on KMOX AM in Saint Louis, and this story is about one of his personal heroes. Mark is the author of Havepool, Q, We’ll Travel, which outlines this true character. Here’s our own Monty Montgomery with the story.
00:00:37
Speaker 2: Whol is a sport with a rich history to it, and today it’s one of the most popular participation sports in America. And there are countless names that have gone down as the best players of the game, including Saint Louis Louis. Here’s Mark O’Brien with Moore on this interesting character.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: I met Louis when I was fifteen, and that was in nineteen. It was at a small pool room in Saint Louis. I had heard some stories about someone named Saint Louis Louis.
00:01:08
Speaker 4: I heard him over and over again. I never met him.
00:01:11
Speaker 3: I thought he would be a guy about fifty or sixty years old. And one day I’m in the pool room practicing, and a guy about twenty-one walked in, and you would have thought a celebrity walked in. All the old-timers in the pool room, right about the same time, they said, “It’s Louie! It’s Louis!” Then everybody shook his hand, hugged him, blah, blah, blah, and from that day on, he became my hero. Louis was one of the most charismatic people I’ve ever met.
00:01:47
Speaker 4: I didn’t have anything to do with pool.
00:01:49
Speaker 3: When Louis was around, anybody, anywhere, at any time, all the eyes were on Louis. He just had a way of making you feel good, smile, and laugh. He was like a magnet. His skills were incredible, and he has been called by hundreds of people maybe the greatest shop maker in pool history. Louis Roberts could cut a pool ball like nobody else could.
00:02:20
Speaker 4: My gosh.
00:02:20
Speaker 3: His favorite game was nine ball, and that’s a rotation game, one through nine. You have to hit the lowest-numbered ball first, and if you make that, you go on to the next ball, and then when you finally get to the nine and you make it, you win the game. And Louis, if he had an open shot, he would just run out. I mean, he was a stone-cold run-out artist. He was amazing, an amazing pool player. He was born Lewis Francis Roberts in 1950 here in Saint Louis, Missouri. A future two-time U.S. Opened nine ball champion, Louis would actually dominate the sport for over two decades. Louis’s dad purchased a brand new A. E. Schmidt pool table so the six children could have fun while they were at home. Louis had five siblings, two sisters and three brothers, but they had difficulty getting Louis away from the table. As an early teen, Louis became infatuated with pool and practiced for several hours every day. By the time he was fifteen or sixteen, no one in Saint Louis could beat him playing a ball or nine ball, and Louis made his first road-partner, Paul Bulis, at Cleveland High School when they were sophomores, and Paul, luckily he owned a car, and he and Louis would travel to dozens of area hotspots on the weekends, and they won aisles of money. As Paul tells it, Louis was a young phenom and rarely, if ever, missed a shot, and Louis always had a ton of energy and was also an accomplished athlete. In high school, he was a star gymnast and a cross-country runner, and Louis had only two things on his mind as a young team: sport activities and pool. By the time he was seventeen, Louis had a reputation of being unbeatable on a pool table.
00:04:32
Speaker 4: Out of town.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: Hustlers started showing up in Saint Louis, and when they departed, their bank robe had shrunk. One thing that separated Louis from other pool players, gamblers, and hustlers: Louis would often refund a portion of his winnings because he hated to see.
00:04:49
Speaker 4: Anyone go broke.
00:04:51
Speaker 3: One other thing, Louis was becoming a dead ringer for Elvis Presley in the Luks department, and he loved the attention. On occasion, Louis would walk on his hands around the pool tables at the Sports Center in Saint Louis while reciting verbatim lines from his favorite movie, Scarface.
00:05:15
Speaker 4: Louis’s impression of Al Pacino was spot on.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: I witnessed feats like those dozens of times as I was the co-owner of the Sports Center along with my partner, Larry LaBarbara. Larry hired Louis as our house pro in 1988. Louis left us with dozens and dozens of great classic memories that will never be forgotten.
00:05:38
Speaker 4: Now.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: Louis did several trick shot exhibitions at the Sports Center, and he scared us on more than one occasion. Louis would set up a series of five difficult shots and guarantee he would make them in six shots or less. He then promised everyone in attendance a five-dollar bill if he was unsuccessful. Sometimes fifty people or more were in the building, and we were on the hook for the payoff, me and my partner. Of course, it made us very nervous, but we never paid out a dime. Louis was a sensational trick-shot artist. One of his best shots, it was called the Chattanooga Chuchu. He would lay three queues on the pool table, and it would make like a train track, and he would pocket four balls, and then the cueball would go around the table, and it would hop up in the air and come down on this track, and then it would roll right toward another pocket. The cueball would pocket another ball. That usually got the biggest rise out of the audience. Whenever he did an exhibition, Louis started winning or placing very high in major U.S. tournaments at age twenty-two, when he won the 1974 Orlando, Florida Open nine Ball tournament. And that was versus a large group of other seasoned professionals and road-tested hustlers.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: And it wasn’t just his skill that won him tournament after tournament; it was also his wit.
00:07:22
Speaker 3: When your opponent approaches the table and gets down to take a shot, you shouldn’t say anything. And Louie never did say anything. But while Louis was shooting, man, he was so talkative. He just might do things to make you nervous without you realizing it. One time, some guy came in. Louis did not know him.
00:07:44
Speaker 4: The guy asks for a large handicap, and the guy ran the first two racks, and Louis knew he was in a little bit of trouble, so he asked the guy. He goes, “Hey, do you inhale or exhale?” And the guys, “What do you mean?”
00:08:01
Speaker 3: He goes, “Well, you play real good. I was just wondering, before you pull the trigger, do you inhale or exhale?” Well, the guy got so confused. He was struggling to breathe the rest of the match, and he went on tilt and couldn’t make a ball.
00:08:19
Speaker 4: After that, Louis beat.
00:08:20
Speaker 2: Him. And then there was Louie’s debut into the film industry.
00:08:28
Speaker 4: Well.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: A blockbuster movie hit the theaters in 1986, starring Tom Cruise and Paul Newman.
00:08:36
Speaker 4: The film was titled The Color of Money.
00:08:39
Speaker 3: When the producers and the directors were gathering a cast of pool-playing teachers, Louis was a no-brainer to be chosen. Louis was a great teacher of the game, and he used to give private lessons for a hefty fee, so Louis lasted a few weeks on the payroll. Louis and a few other great players gave hands-on instruction to Paul Newman and Tom Cruise. Louis claimed he would have been chosen for one of the speaking parts in the movie, but they told him he looked too much like Elvis. So he can be seen in the movie three or four times, and his name is actually announced at the big tournament, and…
00:09:24
Speaker 4: Louis was very proud of that mention.
00:09:27
Speaker 3: Louis also mentioned that while Newman had average pool skills, Tom Cruise had never played pool and was more difficult to teach. So, naturally, Louis became friends with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, and Louis had a personal contact phone number for both of them, which he kept in his little black book. On December 22nd, 1991, apparently took his own life. His untimely death sent shockwaves throughout the billiard industry. Back at our pool room, dozens of farmer and current players stopped by to pay homage and view the many pictures of Louis that were displayed on the wall right next to his favorite table, Pit Table Number One, Louie’s table. Godspeed, Louis, and rest in peace until we meet again in pool heaven.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: And great job on that piece, Monty Montgomery doing the work. Mark O’Brien, a listener, bringing us the story of Saint Louis Louis here on Our American Stories.
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