Pocket billiards champion Mike Sigel was the game's most dominant player in the 1980s, winning 10 World Championships and six U.S. Open championships. Sigel amassed thirty-eight 14.1 (straight pool) and 9-Ball titles during the decade.
A winner of 105 "majors" during his professional career, he was elected to the BCA (Billiard Congress of America) Hall of Fame in 1989, the youngest male ever elected. The International Pool Tour describes him as "the greatest living player of the 20th century".
Sigel won the World 8-Ball championship in 1976 and World 9-Ball title in 1977. In 1979, he won the PPPA World Open championship with a tournament high run of 133 balls, and captured the event again in 1981. In 1985 and 1988, his runs of 150 shots-and-out earned him a pair of World Straight Pool titles. Somewhat less flamboyantly, he also won the 1989 World Straight Pool Championship.
Sigel won the last of his victories in 1992 with a run of 150-and-out. When he wrapped his 21-year professional career in 1994, Sigel was ranked number 2 in the world.
Sigel was technical advisor to Paul Newman and Tom Cruise for the film, "The Color of Money", and appeared as himself in the motion picture "Baltimore Bullet".
