Hoppe, Willie (William Frederick Hoppe), 1887-1959, American billiards champion, b. Cornwall, N.Y. He practiced billiards from a very early age and gave exhibitions before he won (1906) his first world championship in Paris. Hoppe subsequently won many championships in three-cushion and the intricate balkline forms of the game, and when he retired in 1952 after winning his 12th world three-cushion championship (the last 6 in a row), he had won 51 world billiards titles in 46 years of tournament competition. He wrote Thirty Years of Billiards (1925) and Billiards as It Should Be Played (1941).