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Korean Billiards Champ Named to U.S. Hall of Fame  | |
The late Lee Sang-chun, a former president of the Korean Billiard Federation, will be the first Korean to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America? Hall of Fame. The BCA said it will hold a Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Lee, a South Korean expatriate who won numerous championship titles in Korea and America, on May 16 at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Lee was called the "legend of three-cushion billiards." Fascinated by billiards during his university days at Seoul National University, Lee won 10 consecutive Korean national titles in three-cushion billiards from 1978 to 1987. After leaving for New York in 1987, he won 12 consecutive U.S. Billiard Association National Championship titles between 1990 and 2001, and was known as the world's number one in three-cushion after becoming the world champion in 1992-1993. From 1990 to 1994 he won 41 straight games in the finals at U.S. national competitions, eclipsing the previous record of 36 consecutive victories. He attended the 1993 Billiards World Cup in Belgium as the American representative and snagged a U.S. victory for the first time in 40 years. Lee also set the world record for the most average hits in a game (a total of 50 points, or 12.5 per inning). A New York Times journalist called him "the Michael Jordan of three-cushion billiards". Lee attended the Busan Asian Games in 2002 wearing the Korean flag and won a silver medal. He operated two poolrooms in New York and in hopes of popularizing billiards in Korea, he took office as the president of the Korean Billiard Federation in June 2004. Before he could start work, he died of stomach cancer the following October. In his memory, the Billiard Congress of America held the first annual Sang Lee International Open last year at Carom Caf?Billiards in Flushing, N.Y., a venue Lee owned before he died.
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