ABA Handbook from 1979 online

Bob Jewett

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Gale Johnson, the long-time Secretary of the American Billiard Association and total carom fanatic, prepared a handbook for the members. It came in a small two-ring format, and he would mail out updates that were color-coded to the sections where they belonged. I noticed my old copy on Saturday, and since the scanner was already warmed up, I scanned it in and made a PDF of it. 186 pages and about 16MB. It has both a lot of history and suggestions about tournaments and table care.

See http://www.sfbilliards.com/ABA_Handbook.pdf

I ran OCR on it so you can search for words like "Cochran".

The ABA and the BFUSA combined to form the USBA (about 1980?).
 
Thank Bob. Look like some great info and old photos. "Shorty" Johnson fan should enjoy the vintage photos and status. Rep you way
 
I have been looking at that attachment onn and off for a few days. What a great share there, Bob. Thanks for putting it up.

Amazing production. I can only imagine the passion Gale must have had for the game to put it out.
 
Yeah, me too, I saved it. This is great stuff, pre-internet, only way to communicate on a low budget then, type and photocopy it, we're spoiled. I was a kid when this came out. Wish there more pictures. Harold Giertz has a wicked look going. Kind of like the pictures in the Eddie Robin book, the era when the billiard uniform was black sweater and white collar. I love the one in that book of a young, just-going-doughy Ceulemans in Buenos Aires(I think?) with a bunch of hot young Kent cigarette girls in cowboy hats. Different era.
I always like seeing the old records, too. It makes me feel good that I had a decent shot at the world title up until about WWII. Bob Byrne was maybe a .65 player at best, hmm?
I'm curious - the list of places with tables at the end, really interesting - was that reasonably accurate? I count 53. On the USBA site, I count about 100 halfway thru or so. The only difference is that the 53 places then generally had 2-4 tables apiece or more, where now there's alot of places with maybe one.
 
This is great piece of Billiards past. I enjoyed seeing the George Ashby stats. I attended a clinic that George put on several years ago. Thanks for sharing Bob!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top