Toby Sweet?
What Johnston City Players Are Still Living?
- Thread starter Chicagoplayer
- Start date
Dick Weaver was there as I, different years!
Dallas is still with us.
margo and mataya are both dead. margo in '23 and pretty boy floyd in '24.
Yeah I talked to Jeff Carter recently, I think Dallas won their local 3 cushion event recently. Always loved his polyester pants
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Almost forgot, Varner was their, back when Heubert Cokes took him under wing.
Heubert Cokes was also from Indiana.
I could beat Nick up till 1970, then we played even, and I chose I different life path, didn't want to do this Full Time.
Heubert Cokes was also from Indiana.
I could beat Nick up till 1970, then we played even, and I chose I different life path, didn't want to do this Full Time.
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Mataya is no longer with us
Jimmy was Never in Johnston City!
I was only responding that he was already passed. I didn’t think he was either but is there a list of Johnson City winners? Someone on AZ listed Mataya as the 1970 14.1 High-run winner at Johnston City.
Wimpy won the 14.1 in 70 at JC!
I edited my post. The AZBilliards posts says Mataya got the high-run award in 1970.
If he won his first big straight pool tournament in the late 1960’s, and we know he was a gambler among gamblers, it would stand a reason he made it to Johnston city, IL when living in Detroit. Even if he was living in Las Vegas, I can imagine that he would do everything he could to get to that jamboree. But I don’t know. I’m just reading somebody else’s report that he was there and that he actually got a high run award in 1970 at Johnston city
I made a mistake!, Jimmy was there in 72; he played Cole in the backroom and got BBQ'd!
He got back in his car and drove back to Detroit where he won 400K playing Barbooth at the Rack!
OnePocket.org has a nice article from 2011 on the Johnston City tournaments: https://www.onepocket.org/JohnstonCity.htm. The article may provide the names of some attendees (not just the winners) who have not yet been mentioned in this thread. Here is the list of winners from that article:
So... Add Jean Balukas.
a fair amount of guys showed up for the action and didn't play in the tournaments. i remember jansco telling me at the stardust it had made him mad they didn't enter.
but at the stardust since it was vegas it wasn't an issue. but they all came to vegas.
many entered just so they could dump and win the side bets. slim preston made lines on most of the matches for some of the years. he did win money but i dont know how as he faded all the dumps and held all the bets.
he was one of the best hustlers ever. played at least short stop speed. which caught alot of people.
but his major hustle was poker and short cards.
but at the stardust since it was vegas it wasn't an issue. but they all came to vegas.
many entered just so they could dump and win the side bets. slim preston made lines on most of the matches for some of the years. he did win money but i dont know how as he faded all the dumps and held all the bets.
he was one of the best hustlers ever. played at least short stop speed. which caught alot of people.
but his major hustle was poker and short cards.
In 71, Freddy the Beard, Little (The General) Mikey and I left Chicago for that event at the Stardust in Mikey's 67 Olds and $700.00 Total!
Anything that could go wrong with the car did, by the time we hit the Vegas city limits it died completely in front of a gas station at 1am!
He said He'd take a look at it, and gave us a ride to the Stardust, we had $10 rooms already paid for all the way in the back and $21.00 left!
The General drove, He was tired and went to sleep, Freddy and I walked all the way back to the Casino!
I took the $1 bill and put in my back pocket for the 0.99 breakfast, got four $5.00 chips with the Dub!
Went to the crap table and proceeded to win $300.!
It's now about 5am, we can't sleep back to the tables, take a $100 shot and win another $1,100!
Mikey is still sleeping, left him $300 and we're off to breakfast!
We decide to take a $300 shot each, amazingly we win $3,600.00!
The buzz going around was that 'Cornbread & Detroit Whitey' made a Huge Score (90K) before we got there!
The one person that was friends with Freddy & I that heard we were on a small roll was, 'Johnny Ervolino',
Johnny had been working in Vegas for a while and knew how to play Crap at a top-notch level for Money Odds!
To make this story a little shorter, Freddy & I put up $3k and let Johnny shoot the hands!
When we (Seven Out) we had $7,500 out on the board, all the number/hard hits!
We gave Johnny a Nice Jelly after winning $35,000, while starting with just 'four' $5.00 chips!
The General got an end to play Poker/Short Cards!
BTW, We Never played a match in the tournament!
I didn't know she was there, wish I woulda met her.
I do remember LOL, when a hippie chick asked fats for his autograph and he pulled out a signature stamp.
"Quote hippie chick'' If I wanted that stamped I'd go to the bank.
Fats........... was Speechless. A first.
The Hippie chicks Loved Thompson.... with his long tasseled brushed leather jacket, and long hair.
I was there when the treasury dept. put all the players Cash in Manila envelopes and wrote their names on the cover.
And that ended the ABC WW of sports era shooting the matches in the pit.
Got one more to add..... George Michaels is still with us.... San Francisco.
So, very few Johnston City players and winners still alive.