Jean Balukas was born in 1959 in Brooklyn, New York. Jean was introduced to play when she was 4 years of age. Her parents had strategically bought a 9-foot pool table for their home in hopes that it would keep her four brothers out of local pool rooms.
Jean’s father Albert and his business partner Frank McGown owned a forty-eight-table pool hall called The Ovington Lounge in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.
At 5 and 6 years of age, she would practice pool after family dinners. A common misconception is that her dad taught her how to play pool but the truth is he didn’t play. Frank, her dad’s partner was a professional player but he didn’t teach her how to play either. According to her, she was self-taught, she learned how to play at home since she didn’t feel comfortable playing at pool halls especially since it was still uncommon to see women players. Balukas was known as “trailblazer, a child prodigy, a loner who rebelled against dress codes for women—the pool equivalent of Billie Jean King”.
At just 9 years Jean placed 5th in the 1969 U.S. Open straight pool championship and placed 4th and 3rd respectively in the following two U.S. Opens. From that early start, Jean completely dominated women’s professional pool during the 1970s and 1980s.
Balukas won the U.S. Open seven years in a row from 1972 through 1978, accumulating six world championship titles, had well over 100 professional competition first-place finishes with 38 majors to her name, had a streak of 16 first-place finishes in women’s professional tournaments, and was the only woman to compete on equal footing with men in professional play in her era.
She quit the sport amidst controversy in 1988 while at the height of her ability, due to a dispute over her conduct in a match at the World Open Nine-ball Championship of that year.
Jean Balukas was introduced into the BCA Hall of Fame in 1985. Making Jean the second woman in the BCA Hall of Fame. If you read our previous blog titled Meet the Hall of Fame Dorothy Wise you’ve probably made the connection when Jean was 13-year-old she took her first championship win against Dorothy, bringing Dorothy’s 5-year-winning streak come to a close.
