Gene Nagy, legendary straight-pool player and longtime coach and mentor to many players including Jeanette Lee, passed away yesterday, July 13, at age 59.

Visitation will be held this Sunday, July 16, from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at:

Kearns Funeral Home
61-40 Woodhaven Blvd.
Rego Park, N.Y.
(718) 441-3300

Nagy died of emphysema and cancer of the lungs. He is survived by his aunt, Jean O’Brien, and many close friends and students.

Nagy was born Oct. 6, 1946 in New York. Before he became a highly respected pool player he was an accomplished musician. He started playing the trumpet at age 12 and attended the Juilliard School of Music at age 17.

Nagy didn’t start playing pool until he was 18 years old, and by the time he was 23, he was invited to his first professional tournament. His lifetime personal high run of 430 is topped officially only by Thomas Engert, Min-Wai Chin, and Willie Mosconi. He is also known for running 150 and out in the 1973 World Straight Pool Open against Allen Hopkins.

Luther Lassiter was quoted as saying of Nagy, “That man was born to play this game.”

Willie Mosconi commented on Nagy’s style, saying, “It was the finest I had ever seen balls taken from the table.”

By the late 1970s, Nagy had retired from competition, but continued to teach and mentor young players. Jeanette Lee, famous the world over as “The Black Widow” was one of his best students, and considered him a father.

Lee said of Nagy:

“Everything I know, I learned from him. He was my coach, my mentor, my friend, my father, my everything. Particularly for the first five years or so, when I first started playing pool.”

Lee met Nagy when she was 19, through her then boyfriend, at a New York poolhall.

“From really that day on, he played me everyday of my life until I moved away. The poolroom opened at 11 a.m., we got there at 10, had coffee, and played until they closed at 11 at night. He never kept score. He really taught me the love of the game to always stay a student.”

Lee credits all of her ability to Gene, as well as her character. She says that he taught humility by example. When she hit her first high run of 122, the very next inning, he ran 238.

“He’s the one who really gave me compassion and gave me humility. People probably wouldn’t call me that, but as a student of the game I am. What it came down to was, he just taught me to love pool for the love of the game, above and beyond any kind of competitiveness or materialism or glory you could take from it. That’s where my willingness to want to give back to this sport and do things for the growth of the game itself, comes from.”

Lee also dedicated her 2001 book, “The Black Widow’s Guide to Killer Pool” to Nagy.