Are there any black pro pool players?
- Thread starter Renegade
- Start date
There are several great black pool players.
What incentive is there for anybody to play pro events?
It's hard to win a big tournament and when you finally do you win
a measily 20,000 or so.
There are alot of players who would rather keep a low profile.
To answer your question, Cliff Joyner is black.
He does not play many events, but he is capable of beating any
of the regulars on the pro circuit.
Efren Reyes mentions Cliff in an interview on this site for his one hole game.
He also went and swept this years U.S. Bar table championships.
Not only did he win the 8-ball and the 9-ball tournaments but also
the mini tournament. How strong is that?
What incentive is there for anybody to play pro events?
It's hard to win a big tournament and when you finally do you win
a measily 20,000 or so.
There are alot of players who would rather keep a low profile.
To answer your question, Cliff Joyner is black.
He does not play many events, but he is capable of beating any
of the regulars on the pro circuit.
Efren Reyes mentions Cliff in an interview on this site for his one hole game.
He also went and swept this years U.S. Bar table championships.
Not only did he win the 8-ball and the 9-ball tournaments but also
the mini tournament. How strong is that?
Renegade said:
Last edited:
hoggfromPATEXAS
Pool Shark
I was told that there was a black guy in houston that was one of the best if not the best in the world, but he got into some trouble with stealing old ladies purses and rings and such.I cant think of his name but ill find out and post it.
drivermaker
Banned
Piggy Banks and Okinawa Slim come to mind.
Renegade said:
Like you, I've always found the absence of more African Americans on the major pool tournament scene hard to explain.
African American Cisero Murphy won a world championship (1969?) and you would have thought that it would have gotten more African Amercians taking up serious pool. It didn't happen. I also thought that Cisero Murphy's election to the BCA hall of fame might help, as it put him in a position to be the greatest ever ambassador for pool among African Amercians. Sadly, just months after his induction to the hall of fame eight or nine years ago, Cisero died in a car accident, a clear setback for the growth in pool among African Americans.
Though I know where you're coming from, calling pool a game that African Americans aren't good at isn't really fair. It's just that relatively few of them seem inclined to put in the kind of effort it takes to reach the game's upper echelons.
I think it's a cultural thing. African Americans seem to choose other sports, and that's their every right. As for the second part of your question, another sport in which African Americans have only a minimal presence in would be ice hockey.
Perhaps all that it will take will be one highly-visible African American role model in pool. When Tiger Woods took the golf world by storm, the result was that far more African Amercians took up golf. We shall see.......
Last edited:
drivermaker
Banned
sjm said:
When I've attended the following tournaments, I haven't seen a black presence there either: croquet; bocci ball; badminton; curling; jacks; and pic-up-stix.
Another terrific black player is Willie Munson from Milwaukee, who is also one of the nicest people I've ever met. He used to play on the PBT years ago.
Id like to mention one guy who basically plays out on the west coast. He is a many time Pechauer and Hardtimes Jamboree tournament winner. You can see him on the 2004 one pocket Derby tapes and is the only man to beat the great Efren Reyes at the Derby in one hole. (this tape is a must for one hole lovers). That man is Billy Palmer.
Also must mention Tony Chohan. Another quality cueman on the west coast circuit.
Also must mention Tony Chohan. Another quality cueman on the west coast circuit.
Like TEX said, a lot of the time it's a money thing. There are a a lot of players that would be in the top 5 on the tournament circuit but they make more cash on the road that any of the tournament players do - and I do mean CASH - green money, coin of the realm, currency, the kind you don't tell Uncle about 
. Because of this they do not want the notarity that tournament play would bring.
Later, Pel
. Because of this they do not want the notarity that tournament play would bring. Later, Pel
Cynion said:
Good point, Cynion, I saw Bugs Rucker play in the late 70's and he was just plain incredible. He'd be a logical choice for induction into the new Hall of Fame being proposed by our good buddy Blud.
Also, if players long gone are considered, then James Evans is worthy of mention here. Evans was generally considered a better player than Cisero Murphy by those lucky enough to have seen both.
Last edited:
I just read about this new movie called up against the 8-ball. The website address is http://www.upagainstthe8ball.com. This is a movie about two black women in their senior of college who are strapped for cash. So they start hustling to pay for their tuition. The fact that they are playing 8ball instead of 9ball kind of tells me the people who made this movie don't know anything about pool. I watched the trailer and it looks like garbage. Even worse than PHJ. Maybe it will promote some kind of interest in the black community. But it seems like small budget type movie that most will not ever see.
azbicyclis85376
Banned
Yuo Are Correct
Well movie makers make movies for entertainment, and many time do not hire technical advisor who know diddy squat about the subject of the Movies, T.V. Series, or Made for T.V. Movies. It is expensive to hire EXPERTS in any field.
But in all fairness to many movie makers they do a good job in the technical advice area. The famous T.V. Producer, and Actor “JACK WEBB” did an excellent job of portraying real police work ala L.A.P.D., and also the real side of being a L.A. County Paramedic. In series like Dragnet, Adam 12, and Emergency (or what the series was called).
But because I grew up in Burbank Californian (not part of the City of L.A), I use to laugh when Martin Milner, and Kent McCord were dispatched in Adam 12 for call that were supposedly in L.A. City, and they were actually in Beautiful Downtown Burbank. City of /Burbank was close to the studios, and very friendly for T.V. & Movie Production.
Shoot em up movies are also funny when characters seems never to run out of ammunition, and never have to reload their shooter, as they seem sometime to forget that reloading is part of shooting.
Movies, T.V. Series, or Made for T.V. Movies are made for the masses, and made to produce a profit, sometimes producers forget to get the advice of good technical advisors, or are not budgeted for that expense.
DeadPoked said:
Well movie makers make movies for entertainment, and many time do not hire technical advisor who know diddy squat about the subject of the Movies, T.V. Series, or Made for T.V. Movies. It is expensive to hire EXPERTS in any field.
But in all fairness to many movie makers they do a good job in the technical advice area. The famous T.V. Producer, and Actor “JACK WEBB” did an excellent job of portraying real police work ala L.A.P.D., and also the real side of being a L.A. County Paramedic. In series like Dragnet, Adam 12, and Emergency (or what the series was called).
But because I grew up in Burbank Californian (not part of the City of L.A), I use to laugh when Martin Milner, and Kent McCord were dispatched in Adam 12 for call that were supposedly in L.A. City, and they were actually in Beautiful Downtown Burbank. City of /Burbank was close to the studios, and very friendly for T.V. & Movie Production.
Shoot em up movies are also funny when characters seems never to run out of ammunition, and never have to reload their shooter, as they seem sometime to forget that reloading is part of shooting.
Movies, T.V. Series, or Made for T.V. Movies are made for the masses, and made to produce a profit, sometimes producers forget to get the advice of good technical advisors, or are not budgeted for that expense.