The Rise of Ralph Greenleaf
Ralph Greenleaf 1906 started as a good year for six-year old Ralph Greenleaf. Ralph’s father, Ed, owned the popular Main Street Diner in Monmouth, Illinois, which was a hangout for local students from Monmouth college. His face, hands, wrists, and legs were covered with wounds. His eyes were spared destruction by only “a small fraction of an inch.” Doctors worked through the night to save Ralph and close his wounds. Ralph would fight off infection and eventually recover.
E
d also manufactured County Seat Cigars, “perfectly made” with “fine Sumatra wrappers”, that were a hit throughout Illinois. Ralph’s mom was the daughter of a prominent local physician and loving mother to Ralph and his sisters. Then disaster struck. Ralph, his sister Nettie, and another friend were playing in the backyard of the Greenleaf home when one of the children found a dynamite cap. Naturally, the children lit the fuse at the first opportunity. Nettie and the friend quickly ran. Ralph, ever fearless, stood his ground. The shell exploded directly into Ralph, embedding thirty-four pieces of copper shrapnel in his body.
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Ralph’s father continued to expand his business offerings and, in 1909, opened a billiard hall not far from his cafe on Monmouth’s Main Street. Greenleaf’s billiard hall was outfitted with four pool tables and two billiard tables—the largest venue in town. Ralph, from the start, gravitated towards pool. Called a “savant” by many of his later contemporaries, Ralph was naturally skilled as a nine-year old with little training or practice. At the age of twelve, Ralph was already dubbed the “Boy Wonder” by the local newspaper after winning the Monmouth city pool championship. The format, like all professional pool tournaments of this time, was straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous. In straight pool, the player is awarded a point for each object ball pocketed until one object ball remains on the table, at which time the other fourteen balls are re-racked
and play resumes. The winner is the first player to score a designated number of points, commonly 125 points in tournament play. Ralph, competing against seventeen grown men, ran away with the city championship and faced no serious challenges. Within months, Ralph expanded his range and defeated all noteworthy players in the towns surrounding Monmouth. Seeking better competition after reaching the age of thirteen, Ralph played the nine-time Iowa state champion and nearly won.
