Hayden W. Lingo (1907–1973), often cited as "the man who invented the billiards game of One Pocket",Onepocket.org Hall of Fame, Hayden Lingo, https://www.onepocket.org/HaydenLingoHOF.htm, accessed September 19, 2015. was a prominent early proponent of the game, and a top player in the United States in the 1940s through the 1960s.Fred Walther: Wanderon, Xlibris Corporation, September 12, 2008, 244 pp.; p. 202; https://books.google.com/books?id=vJrq2oS1fvAC&q=Wanderon+%22Hayden+Lingo%22%2C&pg=PA202 accessed September 19, 2015. His rules are said to be those adopted as the basis for the rules used in the first Jansco brothers' Johnston City One Pocket Tournament in 1961, and the first published rules for the modern game.
A resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Lingo travelled widely in pursuit of competition, as far afield as Boston, Massachusetts. Described as well-dressed and soft-spoken, he was said to be an unusually smart player, approaching One Pocket like a studious chess master approaches the game of chess,Steve Booth: Rack 'em up with Eddie Taylor, part 1, OnePocket.org, 2004, https://www.onepocket.org/EddieTaylorInterview.htm, accessed September 19, 2015. and a master of ball control, with a superior knowledge of the game.
In 1963, Lingo authored a pamphlet about the game of One Pocket that has been preserved in the Library of Congress.Hayden W. Lingo, How to Play One Pocket in Pocket Billiards. 13 leaves; April 3, 1963; pamphlet A620112, Library of Congress, Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series: 1963: January–June, p. 498. URL: https://books.google.com/books?id=RhwhAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Hayden+W.+Lingo%22&pg=PA498 He was inducted into the One Pocket Hall of Fame in 2006.
Personal Born on March 28, 1907, in Texas, Lingo was brought by his parents to Oklahoma, where he married Marguerite Crowder on April 9, 1935, in Oklahoma City. He served in the US Army in World War II from April 1942 through October 1945.U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File, Washington, D.C. He died on January 28, 1973, in Oklahoma City, aged 65.
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External links
Hayden Lingo's entry in the One Pocket Hall of Fame, with photo