wow, i haven't heard that name since early or mid 70s when he came though michigan. he played pretty sporty at the time. robbed a few in lansing.ibuycues said:I remember Jimmy Marino and Emil Glocar matching up with some regularity in Pittsburgh and in Akron at Starchers. Great games. Emil got weight, the 8 if I remember correctly.
Will
DogsPlayingPool said:This is a great, great thread.
Jay, as I remember, there were actually two "Ye Billiard Dens", one in West Hollywood (on S. Monica near Crescent Heights) and I'm having a brain fart on the location of the other one. Do you recall or was there only the one?
sjm said:Just occurred to me that I omitted a great straight pooler of that period named Frank McGown in my posts. Frank was tough as nails at 14.1. Anyone remember him?
jay helfert said:Of course, he was a champion 14.1 player in the 60's and early 70's. But he may have been the all time slowest Straight Pool player, much slower than Dick Lane. Frank played in Fred Whalen's events in the early 70's and than he moved to Montana to work for George Franks and Corner Pockets of America. They had about 17 poolrooms at one time in the hinterlands of the USA. Frank was George's right hand man. He may still be living up there somewhere. Would be in his 70's now.
I think there are still a few of the original Corner Pockets left. Some just changed their name with new ownership.
Terry Ardeno said:Frank won the 1968 14.1 World Championship. There were two "World Championship" 14.1 tournaments that year, Crane won the other one.
I corresponded with Frank McGown several times over the years. He is very easy to talk with and knows a lot about the older players. He doesn't follow pool close anymore. He'll be 76 his next birthday. Still lives in Billings, Montana. He impressed me as a gracious gentleman.
The all time slowest 14.1 Champion, in my opinion, is still Frank Tabeski.
sjm said:Though I saw im play a few times, I met Frank just once and liked him immediately.
He was, indeed, ridiculously slow, although, on reputation, Frank Taberski rates as the slowest player of the twentieth century. Still, it seems most unlikely to me that Taberski played slower than 1990's PBT nineballer Greg Fix.
Though I can't confirm that it is true, I have heard that McGown was among those who influenced the game of Jean Balukas when she was just a child.