Steve Mizerak

Who was Steve Mizerak?

Steve Mizerak, nicknamed "the Miz", was a world champion pool player dominant during the 1970s and early 1980s in the game of 14.1 continuous.

Mizerak began playing pool under the guidance of his father, who for many years had been the New Jersey State Champion. At the age of 13, he won the Perth Amboy City Championship and turned professional. The next year, he was refused entry into that event; they said he was too good. The 1960s saw a downturn for the so-called "world pool tournaments", and as they diminished, the era of the Johnston City Hustlers tournaments were growing. By this point in his life, Mizerak decided it would not be possible to earn a living playing and went on to attend Athens College in Athens, Alabama.

He earned a teaching degree, from Athens College, and taught school for thirteen years before he became famous outside of pool after appearing in a humorous commercial for Miller Lite beer in which he executed a complicated shot, then proclaimed that you can "really work up a thirst, even when you're just showing off," and later as an actor in the 1986 film The Color of Money.