Billiard news 1970
- Thread starter Keith thompson
- Start date
Very cool to have that article saved.
You have much to be proud of, thanks for sharing Keith!
Keith thompson
Well-known member
Myself and Bobby Taylor were sitting at the bar of the LeCue club in Downtown Houston about 3 weeks after I won the All Around in Johnston City!
The place was dead, no action at all, so Bobby turns to me and says Let’s go on the road Squirrrel before everyone knows who you are! So I packed a bag and off we went for the adventure of the Road to make millions and to become rich lol.
Well after about ten days of hustling pool rooms in the south we had made about 150$, not much winnings so far. We pulled into Charleston South Carolina and found the main poolroom in town I believe.
The best thing to happen when hustling a poolroom is not to play the best player right off the bat! This was one of those times that everything fell into place lol.
We entered the poolroom and took a seat at the square bar. Had a couple of barstools on each side of the oak bar.
We ordered cokes and flashed some twenties and asked the young houseman if there was any 5$ nine ball players. He pointed to the back where about 8-10 locals were gathered at the last table and said one of those guys will play!
We went to the back where they all were and sure enough I kicked off at ten a game immediately with a decent player that could run a rack or two! I stalled with him to get his speed of play and then slowly took him off for a 100$ plus picked up another 50-60 on side bets.
Soon as we finished a slightly better player jumped on me for ten a game and I relieved him of 150 plus side action! Now I’ve got the whole pool room stuck and they’re on the phone immediately calling for help lol.
About 5 minutes later a young man walks straight to the back custom cue case by his side and well dressed with nice overcoat, wants to kick it off for 30 a game! I convinced him to play for 15$ a game! Didn’t want to bust him quick, wanted the side action and did we get it! 70 a game on the side! Good action.
Well we rocked back and forth for a half hour or so and I was up 3 games maybe or two games and the guy ran three racks. Bobby calls me over and says “this guy ran 3 racks squirrel and we’re betting 85 a game can you beat him”! I told Bobby calm down I got this!
The guy was a good player but not elite but good. I put my game in overdrive and my next three shots I hit him with two four packs and one five pack and it was ball game over! Devestated the pool room. Took them for about 1300. Pretty good score for back in the day!
We left the pool room and got a motel room. Next day we checked out and Bobby ask me if I wanted to drop by that pool room again so I said sure. We walked thru the two giant hardwood doors and took a seat at the bar and ordered cokes.
Two of the guys that we won side bets with the night before were sitting on the other side of the bar and the houseman standing in front of the cash register in between us and those guys!
I took a swig of that ice cold coke and man was it tasty lol and then looked in the back of the pool room for action. Now Bobby is nudging me and says let’s go Squirrel!
While we were sitting there the mail man comes in about 1:00pm and drops off a stack of mail about 4-5 inches thick. So Bobby nudges me again and stands up and says let’s go Squirrel I’ll buy you another coke and I said no lol! I’ll finish this one.
I noticed he was chuckling when he told me that and he said look at the freaking mail. Well I stood up out of curiosity and the freaking billiard news was sitting on top of that stack of mail! Scared the sh— out of me lol.
Man I moved toward those two big doors quick before anyone seen my picture on the front of the billiard news saying Thompson wins world pool crown. Billiard news came out about every 6-8 weeks back in the day it it showed up that Saturday at 1:00 pm.
Bobby said something to the houseman as we were high tailing it out of there and I believe he said check the mail to the houseman! Well we were 50 feet down the side walk when those two big doors busted open and the houseman was holding the billiard news in one hand and the two other guys at the bar across from us came out also!
Bobby turned to the three and pointed to me and said That’s Him and laughed as he said that! They looked stunned and we just kept on walking.
We laughed about it all the way back to Houston! If we would have been one day later we wouldn’t have made a dollar in that pool room!
Here is the whole issue. Nearly every issue of the National Billiard News is available in the "Goldmine" that you can find on the AZB homepage.
www.azbilliards.com
Pretty strong field
National Billiard News – November 1970 - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM
National Billiard News – November 1970
Pretty strong field
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Keith thompson
Well-known member
I am so ashamed of that shirt! I was goofing around with Cole Dickson in Atlanta Georgia for five days and decided to fly back to Johnston City and Play Ronnie and Lassiter in the All Around and wore that rag on the flight. The airline sent my suitcase to Chicago instead of Carbondale and my nice clothes were in my suitcase!
I didn’t get my suitcase back till the next day. I wore it for 3 freaking days, slept in it and showed up for the All Around in it and Pauline Jansco says what the hell? But I told him what happened and he says sh— let’s play lol!
Freddy the Beard really talked some sorry Sh— about me on another site! Said I was a hippy and all I had was that shirt and wore sandals! Said he gave me 8-7 and 9-8 and beat me daily and he’s a liar! Wish he was alive today so I could tell him that.
Makes me look bad and most people probably believed him. I dressed very well while playing in the 9 ball division but sh— happens and I’ve had to live with that all my freaking life!
Keith thompson
Well-known member
You’re welcome!
Thought I'd try a quick clean-up. I'd need a higher resolution image to start with to do a decent job.
Maybe I'll check those archives Bob mentioned.
Yeah, Bob's link was much higher resolution. My last effort at clean up.
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Keith thompson
Well-known member
Very Kool, I like the sweetie at the top left lol
Here is the whole issue. Nearly every issue of the National Billiard News is available in the "Goldmine" that you can find on the AZB homepage.
National Billiard News – November 1970 - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM
National Billiard News – November 1970
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Pretty strong field
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I noticed a mispelling for Freddy the Beard. At 11th place anyone knew Peter Murrak, or was that also a mispelling too? A friend of mine told me his father was a pool player; Peter Murnak of NY/PA.
Is second place Joey Spaeth?
I am betting it is.
There is so many misspelled names on that player list.
Keith thompson
Well-known member
It is and he had a tough rd in the 9 ball division! I knocked him to the losers bracket with a 11-9 victory. Myself and Irving Crane were the only two unbeatens left. I won our match 11-7! Joey had to play Lassiter then Irving in a race to eleven and he beat them both! We then played for the nine ball title race to eleven, he had to beat me twice! I won again 11-9! He did everything I did in both matches. I won the lag for first break both matches and that was the difference maker!
What a great all around player Mr Spieth was! Played all games at world class and not everybody knew it! He was one of the best players of my time!
I was just about to post the same! It's a great resource.
Little Al Romero always told me when players don’t remember what really happened and broadcast false stories it was alway money in the bank for him… dividends paid down the road alway.
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I love National Billiard News. I paid about $350 for issues from 1980 to 1990. It's fun to read some of the stories, but to read about it from the horse's mouth on this thread by Keith the Texas Kid, that's solid gold. This era of American pool, just reading the names on that list, there were a lot more great players then compared to today's lot of American pros.