Anybody ever hear of Rick Phipps?

jbravo2984

jbravo2984

~{BULL DURHAM CUES}~
Silver Member
I have a cousin who Dallas West recalls playing decades ago by the name of Rick (ricky) Phipps. I've talked to him only once on the phone, and from what family has told me, he bought a brand new mustang convertible back in the 60's with just tournament earnings of two months!
Dallas had a REAL funny story to share with me about rick, just curious if anyone else on here knew him as well. I believe he lived in the Northern Illinois region for some time (70's?-80's?), and he actually played Jimmy Caras in a straight pool exhibition at Northern Illinois University and beat jimmy so bad that Jimmy raked the balls off the table in the middle of the game (after rick put a real nasty safety on him or something) and packed his stuff and boogied... I guess the score had gotten a little out of hand and Jimmy didn't like what was happenning...lol. Thanks in advance if anyone could share any info...
 
Jbravo2984...Remember, a Mustang only cost $2-$3K back then. People were gambling and winning that much or more in a day...let alone a couple of months. For tournament winnings that was pretty good though!

About Caras...you'd have to have some other proof (like more witnesses) to get me to believe Caras would act that way (no offense to Dallas West). He was a class act his entire life, and I've never heard of even one incident where he "went off" emotionally. He came from an era where the top tournament players were 'gentlemen', who kept in their seat while their opponent was at the table, and lost graciously (which happened only rarely to Caras). BTW, I played Dallas several times, in the weekly 14.1 tournaments at Marie's Golden Cue in Chicago back in the 70's (I actually beat him a couple of times...but it was handicapped). What a great player!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

jbravo2984 said:
I have a cousin who Dallas West recalls playing decades ago by the name of Rick (ricky) Phipps. I've talked to him only once on the phone, and from what family has told me, he bought a brand new mustang convertible back in the 60's with just tournament earnings of two months!
Dallas had a REAL funny story to share with me about rick, just curious if anyone else on here knew him as well. I believe he lived in the Northern Illinois region for some time (70's?-80's?), and he actually played Jimmy Caras in a straight pool exhibition at Northern Illinois University and beat jimmy so bad that Jimmy raked the balls off the table in the middle of the game (after rick put a real nasty safety on him or something) and packed his stuff and boogied... I guess the score had gotten a little out of hand and Jimmy didn't like what was happenning...lol. Thanks in advance if anyone could share any info...
Click to expand...
 
ugh......

Scott Lee said:
Jbravo2984...Remember, a Mustang only cost $2-$3K back then. People were gambling and winning that much or more in a day...let alone a couple of months. For tournament winnings that was pretty good though!

About Caras...you'd have to have some other proof (like more witnesses) to get me to believe Caras would act that way (no offense to Dallas West). He was a class act his entire life, and I've never heard of even one incident where he "went off" emotionally. He came from an era where the top tournament players were 'gentlemen', who kept in their seat while their opponent was at the table, and lost graciously (which happened only rarely to Caras). BTW, I played Dallas several times, in the weekly 14.1 tournaments at Marie's Golden Cue in Chicago back in the 70's (I actually beat him a couple of times...but it was handicapped). What a great player!


Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...


Hey scott, please re-read my post. I never said that dallas told me about the exhibition with jimmy...
 
I think he and his brothers sang backup for Gladys Knight...

IMO,


Fred <~~~ leaving...on a Midnight Train to Georgia...
 
Nothing against your relative, but I don't believe that Caras story. I saw him in exhibition around 1964 in a small new room at 104th and Western in Chicago. He ran 125 and out against his opponent and then did the trick shots.

But how good he did in that exhibition isn't my point. Anybody can be beat in one game. But, unlike Mosconi, Caras seemed like a really nice guy - a bit on the geeky side, actually - and very unlikely to go off like that. Also, he was getting paid by Brunswick to do exhibitions and that kind of behavior wouldn't be good for his pocketbook.

Losing his temper and raking balls seems so out of character with the guy I saw that I think it's fiction. Mosconi could lose his temper and I could probably believe it about him, though I never heard that he lost it in an exhibition. Wouldn't have been good for his pocketbook either.
 
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