Irving Crane - Later Life

Later Life

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Crane's wife of 64 years, Althea, stated "A lot of people, if it was a hot day and there was no air conditioning, they'd take off their coat to play. But not Irving Crane." Rudolph Wanderone, a/k/a Minnesota Fats, once opined, "Irv Crane would have been the only guy to notice the horse under Lady Godiva," while professional rival Willie Mosconi who had criticized Crane for his cautious style, stated in his 1993 autobiography, Willie's Game, that "Crane wouldn't take a shot unless his grandmother could make it."

Crane was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's hall of fame in 1978. In 1999 Crane was ranked as number eight on Billiard Digest's fifty greatest players of the century. In his entry there he is lauded as having been, along with Mosconi, the "best in the world, flat out" between 1941 and 1956. In 1980 Crane retired from professional play. He stopped playing entirely in about 1996. On November 17, 2001 at age 88, four days after entering a nursing home, Crane died of natural causes. He was survived by his wife Althea, son Irving, daughter Sandra, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.