Call the pocket, and this pool champ will hit it
Henry Brodt stood before the billiards table in his Laguna Beach garage, rubbed chalk on the end of a cue and shot striped and solid pool balls. In quick order, each fell into the table pocket that he aimed for, no misses.
“It took years to do that,” he said with a grin — 25 years, to be exact.
Brodt, 68, is the oldest player to ever win the U.S. Amateur Pool Championship. He captured the title in 1998, 1999 and this year, defeating a preliminary playing field of nearly 2,000 competitors with his win in the finals Nov. 8 in Tampa, Fla.
The sponsoring organization, the American Poolplayers Assn., held 33 preliminary rounds across the country to seek the most qualified players for the championship rounds. Tournament officials then narrowed the list to 128 competitors.
Brodt went undefeated throughout the three-day tournament, knocking off two former U.S. amateur champions in the process and plowing through a field that included many players half his age.
Competition was stiff. It included 54-year-old David Rowell of Birmingham, Ala. Rowell, nicknamed “The Birmingham Bomber,” became the first player to win the U.S. Amateur Championships in his first year of qualification.
“The old guys were happy that an old guy won, proving that we got more game,” Brodt said with a laugh. “Pool is a very simple game with monumental decisions. Every match is horrendous, but you only learn from missing. I try not to be nervous.”
His win allowed him entry into the 2016 U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship and an opportunity to defend his title.
It’s a special title, Brodt said, since the St. Louis, Mo.-based American Poolplayers Assn. sanctions the world’s largest amateur pool league, with chapters throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan and China. Up to 250,000 members compete in weekly competitions.
“He embodies everything that is great about the U.S. Amateur Championship, from the skill to the sportsmanship to the character,” said Jason Bowman of the APA. “He’s really an outstanding representative to carry that title. You won’t meet a nicer guy.”
The love for the game, Brodt said, started when he was 13 and living in a small town in Illinois.
After dinner, he and his brother would drive down to the pool hall and play.
“There was no training, no instructions,” he said. “No one wanted to show you anything. But I took it very serious.”
After six years, Brodt played very little. He had college to think about, and then he began working and eventually started a business.
At 43, he picked up the game again, this time with an intention of mastering it. He got his first pool table, placed it in his Illinois home’s basement and enrolled in a two-day training course at the Jerry Briesath’s Pool School in Wisconsin.
Since then, Brodt has played over 500 tournaments in the U.S.
He and his wife of 41 years became acquainted with Laguna Beach by visiting her mother for over 35 years, and in 2011 they moved to the city. Two years later, Brodt purchased a Diamond Billiard professional pool table, placing it in his family’s garage, where trophies and awards are showcased in a glass case.
He tries to play at home every day, but to expand his playing field, he joined the Master’s League of the South Orange County American Poolplayers Assn., playing tournaments in Dana Point. He also plays three times a month at Danny K’s Billiards and Sports Bar in Orange.
Winning the championship, he said, proved extra special since he recovered from a car accident in 2003 that left him paralyzed in his right shoulder and arm. Doctors had to remove four discs in the neck area, leaving Brodt without any muscle memory for five years.
He just about gave up the game, noting that each time he’d address the ball, his arm would shake and he would shoot the ball into the air. But with determination to remaster the game, he returned to a pool school and began by practicing the simple strokes of pool aim.
“That helped tune up my game,” Brodt said. “It’s just really fun for a guy in his 60s to enjoy a game.”
