Well im not an old scuff, but Keith Thompson is my dad, so i know all about his pool playing days! I wish he wouldn't have quit as well. I asked him one day why he gave it up while he was at the top of his game? He replied "Well I will tell you why son. After I won the world championship in Johnson City, me and my buddy Bobby Taylor were headed back home to Houston and Bobby asked me if I wanted to make a stop at couple of popular pool halls in Atlanta and see if we can make off with a couple hundred bucks. So we stopped at a pool hall (i cant remember the name of it) and i played a few racks and the bartender saw me playing and called up the 3rd best player in town. I played the guy and beat him out of about $200 at $10/game. After that in walks the 2nd best player in town, so i played the guy and beat him out of about $460 at $10/game. Then after that in walks the #1 player in town and sure enough i beat him out off about $740 at $20/game! It couldn't have worked out any better cause once you beat the best player in town nobody wants to play you. So we called it a night and the next day Bobby talked me in to going back up there and seeing if we could make a few bucks more playing the locales before heading back home. We got there and couldn't get any action so we sat at the bar and drank a coke. In walks the mailman and he lays down the new issue of billiards magazine and on the cover is the picture of me holding the trophy and in big print saying KEITH SQUIRREL THOMPSON WINS CHAMPIONSHIP KNOCKING OFF HEAVILY FAVORED LASSITER! I looked at Bobby and said lets get out of here now! We get up and walkout and not a minute later the bartender and a few guys walkout holding that magazine and Bobby looks at them, points at me and says YA THATS HIM and the look on there face was priceless!" Haha I had to tell yall that story but anyways after he won in Johnson City everyone knew who he was so he couldn't find anyone who wanted to play him and thats how he made his money was hustling so he quit playing. He's retired now from his job so he picked his cue back up and started playing again, but mostly just with me at home or occasionally at a pool hall.
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I was just sitting around watching The Color of Money on TV, and an old memory came back to me. I did a Google search and found this thread.
In the fall of 1970 I was a freshman at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, LA. Not being much of a student at the time, I decided to cut my English class because my teacher was late, and make the 30 mile drive to my hometown, Monroe, LA.
When I got on I-20 I saw 2 young long-haired guys hitch-hiking and stopped to give them a ride. One of them had a case with him that I didn't suspect at first was a cue because they just didn't look like pool players to me. I did a little bar playing, and usually watched the Johnston City tournament on Wild World of Sports. At least I knew what it was. Well one of the guys proceeds to ask me if I've ever heard of Johnston City. I said yes, and he said, "Well I just won the 9 ball division." Yeah, right, I'm thinking. Well it was Keith Thompson and his friend Bobby Taylor.
I took them to O'Banion's in Monroe and Keith got some 9 ball games. He was probably only playing for $20 or so a game. He didn't try to hustle anybody, he just beat everyone he played. Eventually people were just playing him for the experience. People were telling him which pocket to make the 9 ball in, and he did it. After a few games, the manager asked us to come outside and he asked Keith if he was Keith Thompson. Keith laughed and said, "No, but if you find him I'll play him." Been in town about an hour and they made him. I think he had a copy of Billiard News, or whatever it was called, with Keith's picture on it. We left there and went to O'banion's in West Monroe, but of course they had already heard he was in town.
I then took Keith and Bobby to my sister's apartment where she lived with her boyfriend. They gave them a place to stay that night and they left the next day, I guess headed home. I never forgot that night. That was the closest I ever came to pool greatness, and man was it great! I had never seen anything like it. I wrote their names down so I could remember them, and eventually just committed them to memory.
I hope Ross Thompson sees this. Maybe he can ask his dad if he remembers that time.
Thanks for letting me share this memory.
