My name is Michael Zimmerman, "Zim".  I was born in 1976 in Vandalia, Illinois; grew up in Pocahontas, Illinois and  I am currently living in O'Fallon, Illinois.

Two of my friends, Danny Deiters and Mark Schuchmann, introduced the game of billiards to me when I was 19 years old.  Since then I have studied the game immensly.  I have worked in a few pool halls, participated in numerous leagues and many tournaments and played in various countries over the years.  Aside from being a player, I also organized and operated 8-ball and 9-ball tournaments, operated 8-ball leagues and coached some players over my travels in the United States Air Force.

I entered into the Internet World doing business as Zim's Rack in 2001.  My intentions were to carry production cues such as McDermott, Viking, Joss and Meucci, along with many other brand cues.  Besides having cues in my inventory, I also had cases and various billiard accessories in stock.  After a number of years on the Internet, I plan to open a billiards room.

In July of 2004 I attended the Billiard Sanctuary Academy of the Cueing Arts (BSACA) with Timothy J. White as my instructor.  I spent a week with Timothy to become a Certified Instructor with the BSACA. I also purchased a Mid-Size Cue Smith Lathe in June and offer cue repair and would eventually like to start making cues.

In March of 2005 Zimmerman Custom Cues (ZCC) was inducted into the International Cuemakers Association (ICA) and is recognized as a quality cue repairman. June 15, 2005 is the day I completed my obligation to the United States Air Force and another chapter in my life is in the works.  I attended Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE) to obtain my Bachelors in Businesss.  While attending SIUE I worked on building Zim's Rack into more of a promotional business, rather than just sales and becoming more wide spread around the billiard community.

August of 2005 the Gateway Amateur 9-Ball Tour was created in the St. Louis/Metro East area. I am the Tour Director, Danny Deiters was recruited to be the Tournament Director and ZCC will be offering on the spot cue repair at all events.  Around the same time Zim's Rack 8-Ball League was formed with Danny and myself partnering as League Operators and the first Division is located in Bond County, Illinois. 

In June of 2007, Zim's Rack opened it's doors to the public with a 1,000 sq' pro-shop.  We built Zimmerman Custom Cues, offered custom cue repair, had a retail area for cues, cases, accessories and apparel, had an 8' drop pocket pool table in a partially secluded room for billiard instruction and an in house 14.1 league and 8 ball league. Aside from being a pro-shop, it was also the headquarters for Zim's Rack 8-Ball League and the Zim's Rack Amateur Pool Tour. 

October 2007, the formation of Zim's Rack Amateur Pool Tours (APT) starts off with one tour, the GAT. The new format for all Zim's Rack APT's are 8-Ball instead of 9-Ball. Additional tours will be added in the future.

In February of 2008 Zimmerman Custom Cues was upgraded to a Cuemaker level in the International Cuemakers Association. Also this month, Zim's Rack closed it's retail doors due to military and family commitments. Zim's Rack 8-Ball League and Zim's Rack APT was not affected by this closing.  Zimmerman Custom Cues will finish building the cues on order at an alternate location and no additional cue orders will be taken until further notice.

August of 2009 we were recruited to take control of a local dart league. Since then we've started Zim's Rack Dart League, have been able to bring new teams to the league and are looking at expanding in the St. Louis/Metro East area.

In January 2012 we teamed up with Tom Redmon from Champaign, Illinois to create a web portal and app for ZR8. The portal and app will make it more efficient to track player stats and league finances. Tom brings alot of computer programming experience to the table, combined with our league system- ZR8 League will have the ability to go to a National level. Later in the year we will be hiring League Operators across the U.S. to help expand the league. A large portion of our league territory is in rural areas and players really preferred the paper score sheets. Paper allows everyone access to see what is going on during their matches.This feature is no longer available. Great concept, worked very well, streamlined everything from a League operators aspect.

As of November 2015, we will not be building cues as Zimmerman Custom Cues, due to health, family and career. 

As of April 2016, we will not longer be organizing Dart Leagues. We will continue to offer ZR8 League at this time.

In 2017, we developed the Tournament Point Series (TPS), a series of tournaments that awards players points for competeting and for finishing higher in the bracket. There's a Final TPS with added money to the payout. These events are held in locations that sponsor/host ZR8 teams. Another way ZR8 League shows its appreciation to those that support the league.

Begining in June of 2019, we created the Super Sweet 16 events. This is a series of tournaments over an 8 week period with players from each of the 8 events qualifying for the Sweet 16. Players compete in the Sweet 16 to advance to the Super Sweet 16. A portion of the entry fee money from the 8 week series is added to the Super Sweet 16, which consists of only 16 players that qualified. 

Thank you and I'm looking forward to doing business with you in the future.