SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Hours before the results came in on Election Day, Schultzie's owner John Mawyer put up the sign.

"Pres. Obama played here," announces the white board outside the South Charleston pool hall.

Mawyer had a feeling Barack Obama would win, and win big.

But in May, it wasn't looking as good for Obama. That's when the now President-elect stopped at Schultzie's to shoot a game of pool - just a day before he got crushed by Sen. Hillary Clinton in the state's Democratic primary.

The media attention was intense - he had recently embarrassed himself when he bowled a gutterball in Pennsylvania - but his pool playing impressed the crowd.

The senator sank three balls in a row.

"That's a sign of a misspent youth," he said. "Obviously, I wasn't doing wholesome things like bowling."

Now that Obama is president-elect, Mawyer plans to auction off the table and donate part of the proceeds to charity.

"At the end of the day, it's a piece of history," said Mawyer, who opened the pool hall in 1997. "I can see an eccentric person who has a lot of money say, 'I want that table.'"

Mawyer and his wife haven't yet decided on a charity. And he doesn't yet know whether to sell it on eBay or use some other method. He even has written to Oprah Winfrey, an early Obama supporter, to see if she could help.

"I don't want to just do it out on the streets of MacCorkle Avenue in West Virginia," he said. "I want to make it a national event."

Mawyer will auction off the whole package: the table, sticks, balls and lamps. Unlike many pool tables in bars, the table is regulation size, 4.5 feet by 9 feet. It was built by South Charleston's Southland Billiards, a company that has since closed.

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Hours before the results came in on Election Day, Schultzie's owner John Mawyer put up the sign.

"Pres. Obama played here," announces the white board outside the South Charleston pool hall.

Mawyer had a feeling Barack Obama would win, and win big.

But in May, it wasn't looking as good for Obama. That's when the now President-elect stopped at Schultzie's to shoot a game of pool - just a day before he got crushed by Sen. Hillary Clinton in the state's Democratic primary.

The media attention was intense - he had recently embarrassed himself when he bowled a gutterball in Pennsylvania - but his pool playing impressed the crowd.

The senator sank three balls in a row.

"That's a sign of a misspent youth," he said. "Obviously, I wasn't doing wholesome things like bowling."

Now that Obama is president-elect, Mawyer plans to auction off the table and donate part of the proceeds to charity.

"At the end of the day, it's a piece of history," said Mawyer, who opened the pool hall in 1997. "I can see an eccentric person who has a lot of money say, 'I want that table.'"

Mawyer and his wife haven't yet decided on a charity. And he doesn't yet know whether to sell it on eBay or use some other method. He even has written to Oprah Winfrey, an early Obama supporter, to see if she could help.

"I don't want to just do it out on the streets of MacCorkle Avenue in West Virginia," he said. "I want to make it a national event."

Mawyer will auction off the whole package: the table, sticks, balls and lamps. Unlike many pool tables in bars, the table is regulation size, 4.5 feet by 9 feet. It was built by South Charleston's Southland Billiards, a company that has since closed.

Mawyer wasn't even there when Obama visited.

On the Sunday morning before the primary, two campaign workers came to scope out Schultzie's. They said Obama might visit with a group of veterans after his campaign stop in Charleston, but they couldn't confirm whether the candidate would be there, and Mawyer was set to travel to Saint Augustine, Fla.

He was watching TV in Florida when he saw the presidential candidate at Schultzie's, along with all the national media networks.

"It was all the major players," he said. "It was the big enchilada."

Mawyer said he admired Obama's perseverance on the campaign trail.

"The guy never quit," he said. "What were his chances when he started? What were his chances when he was playing pool at Schultzie's?"

He also liked that Obama opted to play pool during his stop in West Virginia. 

"That's why he won," he said. "Because he connected with the common man."

Business spiked for about a month after Obama's visit. Many friends urged Mawyer to auction off the table, but he felt it would be more historically significant after the election.

"He was a very good pool player," Mawyer said. "You can tell he's played a lot."

But not as much as Mawyer. "I don't think he could have beat me," he said.

Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com">alis...@wvgazette.com or 348-1240.