In college (early 1970s), my fraternity house had a 9 ft. pool table. I was a hack, but loved playing and used it as a daily study break in the evenings. One guy in the house, Joe, was a fairly good player, but his older brother Rick Daher who visited occasionally was great. IMO, he remains as one of the best non-professional players I have ever seen play. One Saturday morning, Rick was visiting, but his brother was busy leaving Rick with not much to do. Beginning at about 8:00 AM, Rick started to teach me the only pool lesson I have ever taken. He spent an entire 8 hour day showing me the basics of pool. In essence, he covered just about everything in the books that were later to publish, Banking with the Beard and The 99 Critical Shots in Pool. I absorbed everything he said that day. The skills he taught took me from being a decent shot maker to adding position play in my game. By the next year, I reached the semifinals in the university straight pool tournament. I was hooked from then on. I am still a hack, but the skills I developed that day served as the foundation for 40+ years of playing.
Since pool has been a major pastime for me, I always wanted to thank Rick for the day he spent with me and tell him how much enjoyment I have experienced as a result. I lost track of his younger brother and repeated attempts to find Rick came up dry. Just over a year ago, I tried again and managed to find his phone number. After a few attempts, I reached him and let him know at the outset that this was going to be an unusual call. He gave up pool just after that time and focused on a new business venture that became his livelihood and from which he eventually retired. A phone call out of the blue was clearly not on his initial daily agenda. But he appreciated the thanks for something he did 40 years earlier.
That part of the story was posted previously.
About a year and a half ago, my wife and I were visiting Dayton, OH and passing some time at Airway Billiards. The room was packed. There were two guys I noticed on the table next to us who looked to be pretty good. When one of them left the table briefly, I noticed that the guy who remained stood at the table a lot like Rick. He was tall and had a particular way to get close to his game. I also noticed that guy was playing with a Sampaio cue, which is not common these days and was the type of cue that Rick used. So I started up a conversation and as it turned out, it was Rick. I reintroduced myself. A few minutes later, the other guy returned and said, "How do you know my brother?" It was Joe.
