For a Short Time, Worst Was Best

Worst first made his name in three-cushion billiards. At 21, he was the youngest player in history to qualify for world championship play.

Worst was born on Sept. 29, 1929, in Grand Rapids, Mich. He was the son of Harry J. and Lavina Worst, both devout Reform Christians. His father did not play pool competitively, although the Worsts had pool and ping-pong tables in the basement of their Grand Rapids home. Young Harold (also known as Hal or even "Boola," a nickname given to him by a childhood chum) attended Grand Rapids Creston High School, was a regular at Alger Park Christian Reform Church, and enjoyed the eating of T-bone steaks. He held two jobs early in life: He sold advertising space for the local newspaper, and shoes for his dad. At about age 17, while at Big White Fish Lake with his family, Worst made the acquaintance of Tena Huisman. Both the Worst and Huisman families owned summer cottages at the lake, and when young Harold wasn't fishing for pike, perch and blue gill, he would gather with Tena and other youngsters at a big pavilion in the middle of town. Tena and Harold would also stroll arm-in-arm at the carnivals held every summer in nearby Sand Lake or go to the movies in Cedar Springs. Tena, who then would have been about 15, recalls that she and Harold began as platonic friends. But they would see each other at the lake every summer (especially during the weekends), and Harold was such an odd duck that before long, she couldn't help but go steady with him.

For one thing, Harold insisted on wearing a suit.

"He came to the door and he was all dressed up, and I was a young girl, and it just didn't look normal to me,'' recalls Tena, now a spritely 74. "I thought he looked older. And then, as we talked and everything, I could see that he was a lot of fun. He had a terrific laugh on him.''

Just as Harold was taking up with Tena, he was also embarking on the serious study of straight pool and rotation. These studies he began on his table at home, although in no time young Harold had switched to a room just across the street from his father's East End Shoe Store, and then later he became a regular at the Peninsular Club, also in Grand Rapids. Eventually Harold graduated to the locally famous Chinnick's, a poolroom that was really much more than a poolroom. With its restaurant on the first floor, pool tables on the second and bowling on the third, Chinnick's became a favorite haunt of world-class sports stars and visiting celebrities. There, Worst likely rubbed elbows with heavyweight boxing champions Jack Dempsey and Gene Turney. Middleweight champ Mickey Walker also frequented Chinnick's.

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