The Best Ever List of Pool Nicknames

Rico

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hou about Swanee,Jay Swanson,Touppe Jay,Jay Helfert,Shoes,MIKE Gamboni,The South Dakota kid,FlyBoy,and the MIZZ.
 

MissQ8

New member
I alsways got a kick out of Cornbread Red!!

Tennesee Tarzan was catchy and wppropriate, but I also knew the Mike never liked this one.

We had one in Denver. A kid named Joe and we dubbed him Road Joe one nnight, but he insisted on Gravel Road Joe.

An old road player out of Mississippi was Lou Berry. He ate so many pills that his tounge was constantly darting in and out of his mouth. We called him Lizard Lou. He really enjoyed that.
Yikes,, didn't know Mike Masse didn't like his knick name. But, probably more irritated with me for dragging everyone I know over to the Meucci booth to make him do his trick of Finger pool, (throwing the cue ball with a finger snap, to have it hook 90 degrees and pocket a ball !!!) He said it is hard for him these days, but everyone should see the videos online. I never get tired of watching that
 

MissQ8

New member
My favorites were "Superstitious Alouyisus" Al Miller, "Babyface" Alton Whitlow, "The Velvet Foghorn" Johnny Ervolino, "Kid Delicious" Danny Basavich, "Peter Rabbit" Pete Linhard, "Captain Hook" Mike Sigel, "The Left Duke" Cecil Tugwell, "Rush Out Red" Real name unknown (of course I've only known him 40 years), "Shake 'n Bake" Edgar White, "Detroit Whitey" Ed Beauchene, "Gabby" Larry -- from Texas (he never said a word), "Popcorn" Johnny Miller, "Boston Shorty" Larry Johnson, "Rocketman" Rich Slupik, "Waterdog" Don Edwards. But my favorite also was Cornbread Red!
Cornbread Red, I think was Billy Burge. I was happy to start playing when I did and get to meet so many of these players. Mosconi was my idol, and I was lucky Dolly Eckstad would come to events and invite Willie and the Balukas family and others to lunch,, oh and me? Jean was a big idol of mine too. It was surreal that Dolly would invite me.
Willie never seemed to get a nickname other than just "Mosconi". Now days the knick names seem more forced. The lists should include their real names so they are not lost to who they were. Jay do they have a good master list which shows the real names??
 

MissQ8

New member
The last time I saw the Waterdog was in Denver many years ago. It was in the middle of the summer, 95 degrees plus and he was wearing that long black leather coat. Long stringy hair that looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in months.

He was playing a guy some cheap 8 ball in a bar and went to the mens room. After several minutes someone went to check on him and he was passed out on a comode with a needle in his arm.

He was quite a sight.
I knew Waterdog from Milwaukee WI. He was always so nice to me, and I worried about him. I lived 2 hours north so got there a couple times a month. He seemed to be in his best health then. Heard stories of him collapsing a vein in his leg after he had left the area. Have a nice pic with him when his team an my women's team won some Natl event. If I was techie I could try to post it. Hope this shows, Waterdog in the pink shirt, me in the royal blue.
 

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MissQ8

New member
Best
Two nicknames I've always liked a lot are Shannon "the cannon" Daulton and Larry "Boston Shorty" Johnson.


Worst
Joe "the meatman" Balsis would have to be on anyone's worst nicknames list. Yes, his family was in the meat business, but it's still a terrible nickname. Another BCA Hall of Famer whose nickname I was never too keen on is Ray "cool cat" Martin.
I agree, cool cat wasn't a good fit. But speaking of fit, I believe he told me he made his clothes. So "the tailor" might have made more sense.
 
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Kickin' Chicken

Kick Shot Aficionado
Silver Member
I knew Waterdog from Milwaukee WI. He was always so nice to me, and I worried about him. I lived 2 hours north so got there a couple times a month. He seemed to be in his best health then. Heard stories of him collapsing a vein in his leg after he had left the area. Have a nice pic with him when his team an my women's team won some Natl event. If I was techie I could try to post it. Hope this shows, Waterdog in the pink shirt, me in the royal blue.
Donnie, aka Waterdog was orig out of Waterbury, CT. He started his life as a crack baby and, unfortunately, followed down that same path of drug abuse. According to a very well done story on his life, Donnie ended up being taken in by an owner of one of Chicago's well known rooms. Overall, a sad story about a mega talented guy.

Thanks for posting the picture.
 

MissQ8

New member
nicknames

Figgured I would toss in a few to this old post,... from an old fart! :D Some were locals from Omaha & Dallas, others were more widely traveled.
"Omaha John" John Shuput, "The Hippie" Jimmy Reid, "Cash" Cronnin, "Cocaine Jack" aka "Snaggletooth" Jack Carrrey, "Surfer Rod" Rod Curry, "Bish" Dave Bishop, "Stew" Stewart Bishop, "Buffalo" Stan Wilson, "Slick"-don't remember his real name worked for my fathers roofing co. always had 2 beautiful black women with him everywhere he went., "Bushwhacker" - don't know his real name either, The 1st. time I ever heard of Keith McCready he was introduced as "L.A. Keith", "The Girraffe" Dave Yeager, "The Disco Plowboy" Ritchie Seager, "Mexican Joe", "Tracy Joe", Johnny Walker "Red" - no b.s. , "Fat David' - money ball banger only played 6 ball & u had to spot him 1/2the rack but he had a wad of cash falling out of every pocket of his overhauls he was willing to go off!!! , Junior "Slipstroke". Last & most certainly least of this list is "Stroke" , "South Omaha Stroke", "Rooster" were all predecesors to the time worn monicker I posses today...... yours truly,.....
"Billy Bones" Have a great day folks ! :cool:
Bushwhacker was Gary Nolan. Funny story:
Gary was playing JR at tourney in Chicago, and bets were flying, but people got wind that the fix was in, JR was about to take a dump. Gary's folks get clued in and jump on the bets on JR, and Gary left the 9's in the jaws where JR would be ridiculous to miss. He shot the game winning shot, and without unscrewing his cue, grabbed his case and jacket and flew out of the room.
 

MissQ8

New member
Does anybody remember Crazy Rudy fron Phoenix? Black Bart aka Bob Ogburn. 14 Street George = George Mikula was not gambler but a great player.
I remember the name Bob Ogborn,, was he a big guy, and did he sell cues? Or just have a really big cue case?? My memory sucks
 

Nostroke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Don Edwards
He hung out at Executive Billiards in White Plains NY in the mid/late 90's?- In fact he slept in the Basement. i Gave him a ten 6 times iirc- He disappeared one day and next thing you know, the owner of EB's runs into him in VA where Dog had just won 17K. He calls me to tell me and i said well get my 60 from him and dont you know WD gave it to him and i got it a week later.

WD came back for a second residency at EB and he got free tens from me from then on out. He then went to Gil BlACK's' place in Danbury and then to NYC hanging at Chelsea and sleeping in doorways. One day while in the doorway he sees a guy come out of a bank with an envelope-Wearing a suit he went to put the envelope in his inside pocket but he missed and it dropped to the ground. The envelope had 3K in it which funded WD's final trip to Chicago, hanging at Chris's Billiards and sleeping in an abandoned car. It was probably the owner of Chris's that got him in a nursing home where he died peacefully shortly thereafter. All in all he was probably in Chicago 3-4 years.
 
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MissQ8

New member
What is the name of your book?
AND,,,, was there ever any print on the 7/10/90 Coors Natl tourney in Vegas?
I was working on a pool scrapbook, and could not find anything on that. I played so much I don't remember a ton of stuff, like who I lost to even. Was trying to save my daughter dealing with hundreds of pool mags, and so clipping out my stuff to scrapbook. Just had nothing on what was one of the biggest pay outs for bar table pool.
I even wrote to Coors and they said they got nothing saved about that. weird.
 

MissQ8

New member
Well thanks. Not sure where I saw him, but enough to remember the name, which is saying something at my age.
 

skogstokig

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
funniest contemporary pro nicknames i've heard are:

rita chou - "big eyes"
duong quoc hoang - "the martian"

they don't hold back in asia. "the martian" isn't as literal i guess but if you see the guy it's fairly obvious
 
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