Willie Mosconi was pool’s greatest champion—the winner of fifteen world titles, the holder of records that have remained undisturbed for generations. Minnesota Fats was pool’s most important trickster, a man who built his fame and fortune upon deceit and guile. In 1978, both men came together for what would become the most viewed pocket billiards match in American history. Before a breathless nation, pool’s two most important personalities set out to prove who really was best.
 
Mosconi may have been remembered as one of the most dominant sports figures of all time, a man who had laid low some of the greatest players in history—but no one would pose a greater threat to his legacy than the man-child Minnesota Fats. So when the consummate perfectionist and the unapologetic gambler finally went head to head for what Howard Cosell described as one of the most fascinating televised segments he ever hosted, all of America would ask the same question: Who would win?
 
The Hustler & The Champ tells of both men’s hardscrabble march to greatness, of their bitter decades-long rivalry, and finally of the televised shoot-out that revealed pocket billiards to millions even as it exposed the deep contradictions within all of organized competition. Through the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the resurgent 1960s, R.A. Dyer follows the lives of both men and tells the story of America’s conflicted love affair with the sport of rogues.