Hemicudas

Bill was good friend that was very supportive and kind to everybody he came in contact with. I enjoyed our e-mails, chatting on Facebook, and our phone calls that were filled with a lot of his stories and his thunderous laughter.

Bill's final post on Az generated our final phone conversation. He was in good spirits and we talked about how he planned to waste away the summer months. He ended all of our phone calls by telling me "Blackjack, you hang in there, buddy!"

I'm going to miss finding that unexpected voicemail or PM from Bill. He was very special. RIP.

I'll repeat what I posted in the other thread. I never met him in person but he gave me some great advice about pool once and without a doubt he was one of the more constructive members of this forum.

There are some people who you don't have to meet to know they are good people. He was one of them.

I never met the man and I'm very sad to hear this news, I can only imagine how bad his family and friends feel. My deepest condolences.

Here are some videos from $Bill's Youtube page - I posted these in another thread, but they belong here.

Nurse Shot

$Bill and boo-boo

Here is the link to Bill's Youtube channel, you can watch several memorial videos that $Bill had made for his classmates that had passed on. He was a big guy with a big heart.

I am sorry to hear of his passing.

I hope he was in Heaven for an hour before the devil knew he was gone.


Dave

Bill had great knowledge of the game and freely shared it in a way that wasn't condescending to the newbie that I was back in 2006. He was one of the first persons to give me some green rep back then too.

He was definitely the type of member that this site needs more to be like.

Rest in peace, Bill. Thanks for all you did for me and others like me.

You are missed!!!

Tony "Maniac" Metz

I am very sorry to hear the sad news of his passing. He will really be missed.

$Bill was one of the first AZB members to welcome me to the forum, I told a story about Danny Jones, and Bill asked me if I was related to Country Calvin,
I said I was his younger brother by 10 yrs., then he and I shared a few stories about Buddy Hall and Reed Pierce, Bill sure did know all the ropes, he will be missed!


David Harcrow

I didnt know him well but enjoyed his posts about the St. Louie Louie/Buddy Hall match. I always enjoyed his posts.:frown:

Bill was a super nice guy. He had a wealth of knowledge about the game of pool and many players. He shared many stories on several pool forums and pool history is richer because of it. Thanks Bill, RIP, my friend.

It was 2004 and I was a relative newbie on AZB. Like most, I believed that the jump shot in pool had originated in the early 1980's with Earl Strickland, Sammy Jones, and Pat Fleming leading the way. But Bill had an awareness of the world of cuesports that was, to me, rather remarkable and I'll always remember this post he made in 2004, which made it clear that jumping had been around a full decade before those guys were experimenting with it:

hemicudas said:

Marcus Collier, the greatest Bumper Pool player that ever lived, use to carry a bumper pool cue with him for jumping balls on the pool table back in the early 1970s. This idea stuck in the minds of a few people and one of them decided to put a larger tip on it and sell it as a jump cue. TRIH..............................$Bill

Click to expand...

I believed myself to be very knowledgeable about pool and it history, but I was absolutely shocked to learn that the jump shot traced some of its origin to the game of bumper pool.

The presence of Bill and a few other supergurus of cuesports and its history made me more excited about posting on AZB. Thanks for the memories, Bill. You'll be missed.

fond rememberance