“If you found yourself in Kathmandu or at the MacDowell Colony and saw people playing a certain kind of billiards, you’d say, ‘when were you at the Academy?’”
—Laurie Olin (1974 Fellow)
The William Rutherford Mead billiard table has long been a nexus of socialization at the American Academy in Rome. Gifted by then–Academy President Mead for the opening of the McKim, Mead & White Building in 1914, the table was restored on at least two occasions, funded first by Paul Manship (1912 Fellow) in 1950, and then by Millicent Johnsen in 1994.
Historically, fellows have gathered around the table to play a specific variation of pool known as “cowboy”: a combination of carom and pocket billiards using four balls. The game ends when the winning player scores exactly 101 points while sinking the cue ball. Part of the appeal of cowboy is that it can be played among any number of players of varying skill levels. Though generally obscure, the game is also traditionally played at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire.
“When I think of my life at the Academy from 1974 to 1976, a favorite memory, and an irreplaceable experience, are the hours and hours many of us spent playing cowboy,” recollects Bunny Harvey, a 1976 Rome Prize Fellow in painting, “For years afterwards, I actually dreamt of the huge green expanse of that table, the four colors and unmistakable sounds of those beautifully improbable and impossible shots. I miss playing cowboy.”
The set of rules reproduced below was found at Rudyard Kipling’s home in Vermont by a visiting Academy Trustee.
Cowboy Pool
The following rules for the government of the game are the result of a joint meeting of representatives of the Somerset, Puritan, Union, University, Algonquin, St. Botolph and Tavern Clubs and the Boston Athletic Association:
RULE 1. The game is played by two or more contestants on a pool table, with one cue ball and three colored balls, numbered respectively 1, 3 and 5.
RULE 2. At the commencement of the game the ball numbered 1 shall be placed on the spot at the head of the table, the ball numbered 5 shall be placed on the centre spot, and the ball numbered 3 shall be placed on the lower spot; and whenever any object ball is pocketed or forced off the table, it shall be replaced on the original spot except as provided for in rule No. 12.
RULE 3. The opening player may play from any point within the string line he may choose, but must play upon the No. 3 ball before striking any other, or forfeit his hand.
RULE 4. The winner is the player who first accomplishes the main object of the game, which is to score 101 points by the “cowboy method’ which is that the first 90 points may be scored by either caroms or pocketing of one or more of the numbered balls, which shall count that number for the player; the scoring of a single carom shall count one, and a double two.
RULE 5. On arriving at the exact number of 90 points, the contestant must next obtain 10 more points by caroms only, and having arrived at the score of 100, the last point must be obtained by playing the cue ball onto the No. 1 ball, and thence into any pocket he may designate without touching either of the other balls, or pocketing any object ball. He must designate the pocket, however, and should the cue ball enter any other pocket the hand is out, and the run, if any, lost.
RULE 6. Any points made by a player and scored for him, by either the marker or himself, at the completion of any hand can never be lost: but should a player at any time make a scratch, miss or foul, any points previously made by him in that hand shall be lost and the hand shall pass.
RULE 7. At the completion of the first 90 points all the balls must come to a rest on the table before the player makes his next stroke; otherwise, the following stroke shall be a foul.
RULE 8. At the completion of 100 points the balls must all come to rest before the player makes his next stroke; otherwise the stroke is a foul.
RULE 9. Should a player pocket a cue ball twice in succession without striking any object ball he shall forfeit the game.
RULE 10. Should a player while upon his caroms pocket any ball the hand is out, and he loses any points he may have made on that run.
RULE 11. Whenever, except on the final stroke, the cue ball is pocketed or forced off the table, the hand is out, the points scored on that run are lost, and the cue ball is in hand for the following player, who must play on a ball outside the string line or else on some point of the cushion outside the line.
RULE 12. Should the spot on which any pocketed ball belongs be occupied, said ball shall be left off the table until the spot is free and the balls are at rest, with this exception: - that should the 1 ball be pocketed, and its spot occupied, any player who is exactly 100, and whose turn it is to play, may demand that all the object balls be spotted, and he shall play with ball in hand.
RULE 13. It is foul if the player touch any ball with his person or clothing. It is a foul if he strike the cue ball twice or with anything except the point of his cue. It is a miss if he shoot without causing the cue ball to strike any object ball. It is a scratch if he causes the cue ball to enter a pocket except on the 101st point or leave the table.
RULE 14. Caroms obtained by pushing during the first 90 points are legitimate, but not during the following 10 points; and the 101st shot must be a clean stroke, and push shot shall not be allowed.
RULE 15. When a player is 100, should he fail to strike the 1 ball his hand is out, and his run, if any forfeited.
RULE 16. During the first 90 points, should the cue ball be frozen to an object ball, and if, by a push, causes the object ball to move, any resulting carom shall be valid. If however, the frozen object ball fails to move, it shall be considered as not having been touched, except that should the cue ball strike a cushion it shall not be a scratch.
RULE 17. Any cases not covered by these rules shall be governed as far as possible by the accepted rules of pool or four ball billiards.
The following cases and decisions may assist in explaining the intention of the rules:
CASE A. A player is 85 and plays, pocketing the 5 ball and his cue ball, then caroms on another ball. Decision: His hand is out and the run forfeited because the balls did not come to a rest at 90.
CASE B. A player is 99 and caroms from the 3 ball to the 1 ball, and his cue ball then goes into a pocket, Decision: His hand is out and the run lost as above.
CASE C. A player is 99 and makes a carom, but leaves the balls lined up, and, in endeavoring to strike the 1 ball, hits the 3 only. Decision: Hand out and run lost under Rule 15.
Excerpted from the rules published by the J. E. Came Company presumably supplied at the time (c. 1892) of the purchase and installation of the pool table located in the playroom on the third floor of Naulakha, Rudyard Kipling’s home in Dummerston, Vermont.
J. E. Came Company, 114 Sudbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts
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