| dbo:abstract |
LoreeJon Hasson (formerly LoreeJon Jones born November 6, 1965) is a professional pocket billiard player. A child prodigy who began playing at the age of 4 at her home in Garwood, New Jersey, LoreeJon picked up the game from her father, John Ogonowski. Recognizing her talent, her father built wooden boxes around the table so she would be the correct height for him to teach her the sport. Her father was her instructor, and her mother became her daily practice partner. She ran her first rack of balls at age 5. LoreeJon performed her first three trick shots at age 6 in Chicago at a men's World Straight Pool tournament. After making them, she knew at that moment she would be playing for the rest of her life. At age 11, she became a pro player with the Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) and came to be known as "Queen of the Hill." Aged 15, she won the World Straight Pool Championship, becoming the youngest player, male or female, ever to win a world title, a feat noted by the Guinness Book of World Records. From 1979 to 1993, she won many tournaments, including her third , U.S. Open Championship and All Japan Championship. When she won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship, she had held every title possible in women's professional pool. Her greatest victories are eight World Championships, three , and three titles. At the time of her 2002 induction into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame, and 2008 Women's Professional Billiard Association Hall of Fame, she held over 50 major titles, and over the course of her career was recognized five times as "Player of the Year" by Pool & Billiards Magazine and Billiards Digest. Coming out of retirement and making a comeback, Hasson recently won the 2017 . She was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in June 2022. (en) |
