13 Facts About Ruth McGinnis

Ruth McGinnis was an American straight pool player, who is considered one of the greatest female pool players of all time.

Ruth McGinnis was born in 1910 in Honesdale, Pennsylvania to Thomas and Margaret McGinnis.

Ruth McGinnis was one of three sisters, and her father was a former boat captain and barber.

Ruth McGinnis began playing pool at the age of 7, on pool tables in her father's barbershop on South Main Street in Honesdale.

Ruth McGinnis was a prodigious player and began receiving local and national press coverage in the late 1910s.

In 1922, at the age of eleven, McGinnis played seven-year-old Willie Mosconi in a Philadelphia pool hall exhibition match, though the contest was stopped by police as local laws prohibited minors from being in pool halls.

Ruth McGinnis played exhibition matches against Ralph Greenleaf in 1924, and was described in The Tribune as Greenleaf's protege.

Ruth McGinnis was the captain of the varsity high school basketball team that won the Pennsylvania state championship in 1928.

Ruth McGinnis scored 36 points in one game, and 341 across the 15 games in the series.

Ruth McGinnis studied to become a physical education teacher at East Stroudsbourg State Teachers College, where she participated in a number of sports and served as a lifeguard, reportedly saving a man from drowning.

Ruth McGinnis graduated in 1932, though it was difficult to find work due to the Great Depression.

In 1942, Ruth McGinnis participated in the New York State championship, becoming the first woman to compete in a men's tournament.

Ruth McGinnis was posthumously inducted into the Women's Professional Billiards Association Hall of Fame in 1976, and into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1997.