This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2024)
Robert Leo Byrne, son of Tom and Clara (néeLoes) Byrne, was born on May 22, 1930, and raised in Dubuque, Iowa.[2] He attended St. Columbkille's elementary, Loras Academy, and Loras College.[2]
He left Dubuque to attend Iowa State University, where his first sign of talent as a writer emerged as he edited a humor column in the school's newspaper. He transferred to University of Colorado, where he edited Flatiron, the school's humor publication, and he graduated in 1954 with a degree in civil engineering.[2]
Byrne began his career in 1954 as a Junior Civil Engineer for the City and County of San Francisco, Department of Engineering, Bureau of Public Works, Division of Highways.[2]
In 1955, a year later, he found a way to combine his engineering and writing talents by joining Western Construction magazine as a reporter for the heavy construction industry.[2] In 1961, he was named editor of the magazine, a position he held for over ten years.[2]
Byrne became a full-time writer in 1977, after the publication of his third book. He authored seven novels, five collections of humorous quotations, seven books on billiards, two anthologies, and an exposé of frauds in the literary world. One of his novels, Thrill, was made into NBC’s Monday Night Movie, which aired for the first time on May 20, 1996. Four of his novels were selections of Reader's Digest Condensed Books and published in over a dozen languages.
Byrne's unusual mix of talents as a writer, engineer and billiard player formed the right skill set to create what would become one of the definitive instructional works on cue sports. Byrne’s Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, published in 1978 and expanded in 1998, has sold over 500,000 copies. It is one of the very few such works that includes diagrams that are mathematically and physically accurate, with lines plotting the path of the center of the balls; the lines, therefore, do not touch the cushions of the table.[3][clarification needed] Byrne coined the pool jargon term "squirt" in this book, defining the deflection effect that sends the cue ball toward the right when struck with left sidespin, and vice versa.[4]
Byrne's books, hundreds of instructional magazine articles, and seven instructional videos (shot on sound stages in Burbank and Hollywood, California), established him as the pre-eminent teacher and commentator in the world of pool and billiards.[5] He was a columnist and Contributing Editor for Billiard Digest magazine from its first issue in 1978,[5] and a columnist for Dubuque's Telegraph Herald beginning in 2000.[6] His most recent publication is Behold My Shorts, the collection of a decade of his monthly newspaper columns.[7]
As of May 2011, he had nearly finished a new collection of humorous quotations.[8]
Byrne's first success as a pool hustler came at the age of 12 when he beat the gas-meter reader out of 85¢, playing 8-ball on his family's basement pool table.[9]
As a player, he had success at U.S. national-class tournaments in multiple disciplines:[6]
Champion, National Senior Billiard Tournament, 1999
Champion, National Amateur Athletic Club Billiards Tournament, 1999
Third place, National Professional Three-Cushion Championship, 1977
Fourth place, National Professional Three-Cushion Championship, 1968
On May 12, 1958, Byrne married Josefa Heifetz, concert pianist and daughter of legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz.[10] Byrne and Heifetz were divorced in 1976.[citation needed]
McGoorty, The Story of a Billiard Bum, 1972, Lyle Stuart (hardcover, ISBN978-0-8184-0056-8); republished 1984, as McGoorty, A Billiard Hustler's Life, Citadel Press, (hardcover, ISBN978-0-8065-0925-9); republished again 2004, as McGoorty, A Pool Room Hustler, Broadway Books (paperback, ISBN978-0-7679-1631-8)
Byrne's Wonderful World of Pool and Billiards, 1996, Harcourt Brace (ISBN978-0-15-600222-6)
Byrne's New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, 1998, Harcourt Brace (ISBN978-0-15-600554-8)
Byrne's Complete Book of Pool Shots: 350 Moves Every Player Should Know, 2003, Harcourt/Harvest Books (ISBN978-0-15-602721-2)
Instructional videos
Byrne's Standard Video of Pool, Volume I, 1987, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Standard Video of Pool, Volume II, 1988, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Standard Video of Trick Shots, Volume III, 1993, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Standard Video of More Trick Shots, Volume IV, 1993, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Power Pool Workout, Volume V, 1996, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Rack 'Em Up!, 1996, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Gamebreakers, 2002, Accu-Stats Video Productions
Billiard tournament commentary videos
The Best of Three Cushion Billiards, Volume I, 1995, Accu-Stats Video Productions
The Best of Three Cushion Billiards, Volume II, 1997, Accu-Stats Video Productions
Novels
Memories of a Non-Jewish Childhood, 1970, Lyle Stuart (hardcover, ISBN978-0-8184-0112-1); 1972, New American Library (paperback, ISBN978-0-8184-0112-1) Staged as a musical by Dubuque's Grand Opera House in 2005.
Heifetz-Byrne, Josefa. Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, Gathered from Many and Diverse Authoritative Sources, 1974, University Press (ISBN978-0-586-20600-3)
Kruse, Len. My Old Dubuque: Collected Writings on Dubuque Area History, 2000, Loras College Center for Dubuque History (ISBN978-0-936875-07-1)
[Clarification: Geometrical explanations in billiards often simplify bounces off the rails ("banks") as occurring where the ball touches the rail (the "cushion") and use this point as a focus during aiming the shot. More accurately, Byrne made the distinction that aiming lines use the centers of balls rather than their edges. If a bank was to be planned better, it was necessary to visualize that the bounce line ends a half-ball away from the rail when the ball's center recoils to the new direction. (Even then, this isn't perfectly accurate because the rail deforms as a ball bounces against it, and Byrne always noted that other factors -- such as ball speed and spin -- were equally at play in predicting the angle of a bank.)] As described by Byrne in an interview with Shelley Till on the local public-access television program On the Edge with Shelley Till.
Shamos, Mike (June 2000). "Happy Birthday, Bob: A Thank-You to Robert Byrne for His Contributions to Billiard Literature". Billiards Digest. Vol.22, no.7. Chicago: Luby Publishing. ISSN0164-761X.
Shamos, Mike (May 2010). "The Byrne Legacy: A Review of Robert Byrne's Gifts to Billiards on His 80th Year". Billiards Digest. Vol.32, no.6. Chicago: Luby Publishing. ISSN0164-761X.