Cisero Murphy videos?

Sealegs50

Sealegs50

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Are there any videos of Cisero Murphy playing pool other than the 10 shots in the Lassiter match on YouTube?
 
I've been looking for footage of Cisero for the last decade & have come up with nothing more than the Lassiter match.

One last lead I hadn't explored was David Sapolis. He seems to have great knowledge of Cisero, so maybe he'll chime in.

Please post anything you find.

Check out the ebony & jet magazine articles if you haven't seen them.


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Cool articles. Thanks for posting them. My claim to fame was beating Murphy in a bucket of blood black bar in Amityville, Long Island in the early 1980's. It was a Bar Box and we were both drinking heavy. I don't remember exactly how much I won, but we were playing $20 a game 8 ball and he quit. He said something like, "F this, I'm here to have a good time". From what I remember he was a pretty cool guy. I believe he had relatives in Amityville. Johnnyt
 
I noticed he had a daughter Terry that was 5 yr. old in the pic, anyone know where she might be? She can't be much more than 60 yr old.
 
Wow!!!!!

Thanks for posting that article Mosconiac!! You are the man..., I idealized Cisero as a kid and my Dad always spoke highly of him. I watched him play a few times when I was a kid, Great guy and a Great player!
 
That one picture with Murphy shaking his opponents hand at the first US Open Championship is the same tourney/table the famous Crane vs Balsis match took place. If we could only scrummage through the archives of ABC and ESPN we could find some golden matches I am sure...
 
What I remember most of Cisero was his hesitation stroke. You had to see it. Before his last stroke he would pause a bit before letting go.
I played in a straight pool tournament in Los Angeles in the seventies. When my match started he was on a table next to me and he was on a run of sixty something and I got to eighty before he did. I don't know if I played fast or if he played slow. I think it was more that he played slow.
 
dabarbr said:
What I remember most of Cisero was his hesitation stroke. You had to see it. Before his last stroke he would pause a bit before letting go.
I played in a straight pool tournament in Los Angeles in the seventies. When my match started he was on a table next to me and he was on a run of sixty something and I got to eighty before he did. I don't know if I played fast or if he played slow. I think it was more that he played slow.
Click to expand...

Might be a bit of both. You have played pretty fast whenever I have seen you in the past.
 
Ive been going though and watching some of my older straight pool matches lately. Now Im gonna have to dig as I'm sure I have at least one with Cicero playing.

Woody
 
I'm happy to see another thread about Cisero growing legs. He deserves every bit of recognition he receives. He is our sport's Jackie Robinson. Like Jackie, others came before them, but they were the first to make huge impacts & begin the process of changing perceptions.

It's already immensely difficult to win at the professional level, but imagine competing in an event where you knew many of your competitors & members of the audience wanted to see you lose based solely of the color of your skin. Add the layer of knowing you were the first of your race to be allowed to compete in some of these events. He could have just as easily of crumbled under that weight. But not Cisero...he won straight out of the gate!

Cisero displayed a level of fortitude & will to win that is rarely seen, no matter the color of your skin. It's a pity that he didn't get the national recognition that other trail blazers of racial acceptance received.
 
dabarbr said:
What I remember most of Cisero was his hesitation stroke. You had to see it. Before his last stroke he would pause a bit before letting go.
I played in a straight pool tournament in Los Angeles in the seventies. When my match started he was on a table next to me and he was on a run of sixty something and I got to eighty before he did. I don't know if I played fast or if he played slow. I think it was more that he played slow.
Click to expand...

I agree, NO player on their back stroke hesitated as LONG as Ciscero did. Just like NO other player that I've ever seen has the play mechanics of Allen Hopkins. Frank....having watched em play quite a bit at Johnson City, I think Ciscero took at Least 2 second hesitation on Every shot, before pulling the trigger. I always thought that Ciscero musta grew up in the beginning playing in colored pool rooms, why? because sharking was the NORM, usually came on your backswing, and with his hesitation soooooooooo long, the sharkers stopped talking, and That's when he pulled the trigger :). But I heard he grew up watching and learning from the Genie, a great humble player from the depression era, no player during his era had to like it and few came looking, was from and article in the BD.
 
More responses?

Thanks for the great responses. I am also one of the lucky people who saw him play. Do other AZBers have additional information about Mr. Murphy?
 
dabarbr said:
What I remember most of Cisero was his hesitation stroke. You had to see it. Before his last stroke he would pause a bit before letting go.
I played in a straight pool tournament in Los Angeles in the seventies. When my match started he was on a table next to me and he was on a run of sixty something and I got to eighty before he did. I don't know if I played fast or if he played slow. I think it was more that he played slow.
Click to expand...

Do you still play that fast?
 
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