Willie was a class act..........
GREAT Clip! I never get tired watching him pocket balls!And just in my opnion it really looks great when he is dressed in a sport coat and tie (although I don't think he was wearing one in the clip). It just adds a real touch of professionalism and class.Just my opnion
Alot of players today can't even imagine how the pool world was when Willie was in his prime.
The poolhalls were pretty repulsive back then. Lots of smoke, drinking and drugs.
Even back in the 70's when I first started traveling the country you had to really watch your back. If you wanted to gamble you went to the worst rat hole in the big city. That's where the money was but that's where all the trouble was also.
I was lucky because I still got my ID checked everywhere I went until I was about 28. This was pretty sweet because I looked like I was 17 or 18 for a long time. But this also led to trouble because alot of people thought I was not so street smart and would try to get me here or there and I had to always watch out. Sometimes it was so obvious what their real motive was. To get my cash the easy way.
A couple of times I got into games almost knowing that the people I was playing thought they could just take the money back from me somewhere else after I won it.
Once at a tournament I won about $3,000. i got a call from someone telling me not to walk out the door. It was 4:00 in the morning. They told me who planned on robbing me. I played a little game and would put my coat on only to see the person involved put on his and go out the front door first. I never left and soon he would be back. Later I found out this guy was a known crook. I did this again with the same result.
Finally I called the police and said I was afraid I was going to get robbed. Told them the story and they sent a squad car over to my car. As I went out the same thing happened. The guy put on his coat and went out first. I was never in my life so happy to see the police.
The officer stopped me after we got about 2 miles from the poolhall and I thought I was in trouble. It turned out all he wanted to know is how much I had won and what the game was. Kind of kool.
When i told him there was a big smile on his face. He told me he played alot of pool and loved the game.
One time in Benton,Ill there was a guy wanted to take me to Louisiana to play some guy he knew would go off. I didn;t really trust this guy. I checked it out and this person in Louisiana was for real and bet real big but the guy that wanted to take me there had bad plans. After we win the money he was going to knock me in the head and dump me in the swamp for the gators.
He made the mistake in fonfiding the story to a friend of his that made sure it got back to me. Davey Ore was the young man that told me. Fine young man. I had already made the decision not to go with this guy but just the same. People back then were always trying to steal your money. One thing was to win it but the next thing was to keep it.
It tuns out this guy had only been out of prison for about a month. He raped and robbed a 60 year old lady about 2 weeks later and ended up in prison again.
One real bad move and your history. You never know who your dealing with. That's scarey.......
After being on the road for about 2 months it would take me a month or 2 to be able to sleep real good. Had a bunch of close calls.
I'm sure it was just as bad if not worse back when Willie was up and coming. And I'm sure he went to these same rat holes that still kind of formed the image of pool today.
Today compared to way back when is so much nicer. The players and people are eduacated as to how to play and are so much nicer overall about the matching up.
It's amazing that Willie and so many of the other great pool players from way back were such gentleman when I know first hand that it was almost like being in the trenches sometimes running around the country playing pool.
Without the internet I wonder how many pool players actually got killed on the road. Because back then you never knew what happened unless it was almost right in your back yard.
I wonder................
I'll bet all the road players that traveled around from Willies time up to the early to late 80's would have a whole bunch of scary pool stories. In fact that could be the start of a great thread. But i'm sure it's been done before.
Anyway my hats off to Willie and all these other great pool players and how the survived these times and still kept their gentlemaness about them.
And Willie was one of the finest..........
