Willie Mosconi's pool cue, table on auction lot

The Associated Press, Monday, May 9, 2011, 8:05am (PDT)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The family of billiards great Willie Mosconi (mos-KON'-ee) is selling his beloved pool cue, a personal pool table and other memorabilia at a weekend auction.

A Pennsylvania auction house handling the sale believes Mosconi's famed "Balabushka" cue could bring $100,000 at the auction in Chicago.

Mosconi won an unmatched 15 straight world championships from 1941 to 1957 and made a record 526 straight shots at a two-day exhibition in 1954.

Son Bill Mosconi of Philadelphia says the family no longer has room to store all of his father's keepsakes.

Willie Mosconi picked up the game at his father's poolroom in Philadelphia and was turning heads by age 6.

He became a TV personality in the 1970s and 1980s through televised exhibitions against rival Rudolf "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone Jr. and others.