This article has been translated by Micaela Rivera Porras. Here is the original article in Spanish.
Although many buildings at Northwestern have pool tables, there are several students whose passion for the game goes beyond a few matches a week.
Billiards Club meets every Thursday in the Norris Game Room, and is a gathering space for more than 90 club members, who range from first-years to postdoctoral scholars.
Raphael Tinio (Weinberg ’25) co-founded Billiards Club in 2022 when he noticed there were other students like him who spent a lot of time playing pool in their dorms.
“First, it was hard,” Tinio said. “It was a kind of uphill battle, because I was like, ‘Alright, how do I organize people? How do I organize the club? How do I get people to stay and get entertained?’”
Initially, the club was a smaller community, and hosted one billiards tournament per quarter. McCormick junior Moises Muñoz, who joined the club in 2023, and has served as its president since 2024, set the goal of amplifying the club’s presence. Some of his initiatives include creating a ranking system based on the number of tournaments each member plays and their results, organizing at least four tournaments per quarter, live streaming games, foraying into social media and expanding the club’s executive board.
Muñoz said the club has become “a beautiful community that is much more like a family” after establishing specific dates and times to meet weekly.
“I have a community that tells me what they want and I give them the tournaments they like,” Muñoz said. “I love the people who come here.”
As his graduation approaches, Muñoz still has high ambitions for the club. He said one of his main goals is to organize Northwestern’s first inter-collegiate billiards tournament, and establish a competitive billiards team to represent NU in higher-level tournaments throughout the Chicago area.
However, he acknowledged the obstacles posed by the lack of funding the club has, the small number of billiards tables and the long hours of training necessary to achieve those goals.
“Lots of members here have a lot of academic commitments, too. So, it’s hard to go to another state to compete,” Muñoz said.
This spring, the Billiards Club will host five tournaments. Two will be higher-level invitationals — a privilege it can now afford thanks to its ranking system and its large number of players.
In keeping with the club’s communal spirit, Weinberg senior Rhys Halaby and Subhajyoti Chaudhuri, a postdoctoral fellow in the chemistry department, met while playing billiards at the club’s Thursday meetings. Both agree their friendship was born thanks to the club, and they are now so close that they even play doubles tournaments together.
When asked about his favorite part of Billiards Club, Chaudhuri said he appreciated the people he plays with.
“Just seeing that you play against them with intensity, but still as friends — that’s super cool,” Chaudhuri said. “It’s a very lighthearted but competitive environment that I really enjoy.”
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
– Alianza celebrates spring, creates community at Noches de Comunidad
– International students share how community supports immigrants’ mental health
– Northwestern Model United Nations hosts 23rd annual conference
