Cochrans in San Franciso, some of their Best Players!

Amazing stories, long before my time. Thx for sharing and please keep them rolling! If any of you guys are around SF & still play, give a shout!
 
Ron Cook said:
Grady
05-13-2006, 03:23 PM

This looks like a post by Grady in 2006 from the One Pocket Forum .... Link below!

Cochran's was anything and everything, simply the greatest pool room ever. 1028 Market St. was the actual address. I worked there in 1963. I got paid two dollars an hour and often I'd pay someone five bucks an hour to work for me so I could be in action. Public transportation was $.15. I didn?t own a car and neither did my friends.
Ronnie Allen won the One Pocket tournament there in 1962. When it was over nobody hustled him to play for money. Ronnie gave Earl Whitehead 8 to 5 and the break and won easily. Denny Searcy played "Cliff Thorburn" to a virtual draw on the 6 X 12 snooker table. That was a 40 hour match.
Here is an incomplete list of the regulars, as I remember them, with some assorted shorts:
"Trees," worked for the post office for a while but liked pool and the race track too much to continue. A warm, honest human being who played decent Banks.
"Legs," Gerald was his name, a good hustler and better than average shortstop.
"Ears," smart and clever, a real good game maker.
"100 Ball Blackie," still played a nice game in his dotage. We used to kid him and call him 10 Ball Blackie but he used to run 100's on the 5 X 10.
"Kansas City Whitey", a real rascal, his parents sent him $2,000 a month to stay away from home.
"Jesse, The Go Away Kid", a flashy young black player with much gamble.
"King of the open table," so called because on the ?open Table? ( a 6 X 12 snooker table) anyone could play for the time. The King would go months without losing a single game but wouldn't play for money.

"One Eyed Hank," a brilliant but troubled player, spent half of every year at sea, killed himself with an overdose of LSD, or so it was said. I loved Hank and I still miss him.
"Mexican Phil," A really good One Pocket player, moved like a ghost, was a terrific gambler, but couldn't leave the bottle alone.
"Okie Sam" Very good all round player and scuffler. He came from the Eddie Taylor school of pool. He died of cancer, broke and lonely.
"Ronnie Allen" displayed his power One Pocket game to everybody. He was aggressive and fearless and really unbeatable.
"Frank Bananas Rodriguez" One of the sharpest gamblers I ever knew. He was a perfect gentleman and a very fine One Pocket player.
"Canadian Dick" The resident philosopher. On the 6x12 table by the counter, there was a daily out hole only game. To give you an idea how good Dick played, one day in that game, 11 times in a row, he one railed his ball into the out hole. He moved to Burlingame and managed a pet store until he passed away.
"San Jose Dick" He liked action so much that he would sometimes rent two tables next to each other and play two opponents at once. For awhile, Dick played about as good a One Pocket as anybody in the world.
"Jack Perkins" A flashy young and sharp gambler who played One Pocket about a ball under Ronnie.
"Harry the Russian" Used to hang around with "Bananas." Harry was a good game maker and took care of himself.
"Hawaiian Paul" Worked at the Palace down the street. Paul played as good a Nine Ball as anybody in the world but only against weak players and for small money. ($3 to $10 a game) Paul also played very good golf.
"Rusty Jones," a high roller and one of the classiest gamblers I ever knew.
"Denny Searcy," the best stroke of any player ever. It's too bad scientists didn?t examine it when he was maybe the best player in the world.
Philipino Gene, a good card player and hustler.
"Oakland Blackie", Bucktooth's uncle and a top shortstop, and let's not forget the "Tooth" himself!
"Earl Phillips," a venerable older player who never said a word but was tough to beat for the dough.
"Sleepy Bob," a very fine player.
"Johnny Vivas," played everything good, too bad he was a heroin addict.
"Tugboat Whaley," grand old-timer who was one of the few willing to share knowledge.
While I was there, notable visitors included: Clem, Boston Shorty, Artie from Chicago,
"Jack Stamper," Eddie Taylor, Richie Florence, Weldon Rogers, Jack Coony, Al the Plumber,
"Portland Don," Cole Dickson, and Joe Salazar (Tracy Joe then.).
Quite a crew, wouldn't you say?

To visit the whole forum & thread click on this link:
http://www.onepocket.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-1086
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Ron Cook said:
"San Jose Dick" He liked action so much that he would sometimes rent two tables next to each other and play two opponents at once. For awhile, Dick played about as good a One Pocket as anybody in the world.
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I really miss SJD. He was a one of kind guy. A ton of gamble even in his twilight years. He could drink like a sailor. Lived many years and smoked the whole time. He was built differently as I feel many people born from his time were. So glad to have called him a friend and been on a couple road trips with him. I never got to see Dick play in his prime. I know he was one of the best in the world at one pocket in his day. What I admire about him most was the devoted family man he was who left the game for many years to be a great father and husband. RIP my friend.

You can see his interviews with me on YouTube linked below including Dick talking about Cochran's and many players on that list.


 

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Fast Lenny said:
I really miss SJD. He was a one of kind guy. A ton of gamble even in his twilight years. He could drink like a sailor. Lived many years and smoked the whole time. He was built differently as I feel many people born from his time were. So glad to have called him a friend and been on a couple road trips with him. I never got to see Dick play in his prime. I know he was one of the best in the world at one pocket in his day. What I admire about him most was the devoted family man he was who left the guy for many years to be a great father and husband. RIP my friend.

You can see his interviews with me on YouTube linked below including Dick talking about Cochran's and many players on that list.


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dick and i got to be friends from onepocket.org.
lenny thanks for posting those interviews
R.I.P. San Jose Dick
 
ShootingArts said:
It was in my nonplaying years I made a couple trips to the left coast, never to stay long. Great to read the stories.

Somehow today's AZB can't seem to come up to the level of a decade or two ago. Sometimes I think I am getting old fogies disease and it ain't really true. Then I start reading old threads written by and about people long gone. Naah, somehow the forum was on a different level. The forum is still here though so there is still hope!

Hu
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There was some amazing threads here long ago. I’m not sure if they are archived or deleted. I hope they are available again. As we have lost the guys who wrote them.

I can’t write about anything before 1985 and even that’s limited to left coast stories as I didn’t get around much to the right coast or the south. I did a couple times, but I’m green as grass compared to the old school guys like Grady, and other guys who were real road men that lived it.

Things get lost in time, I guess that the way of the world.

Best
Fatboy<——-likes history
 
bbb said:
dick and i got to be friends from onepocket.org.
lenny thanks for posting those interviews
R.I.P. San Jose Dick
Click to expand...

I just met Dick on the internet. We talked a good bit back channel for awhile. Seemed like a very good guy and somebody that had walked the walk, had the right to talk the talk! I made a few short road trips myself, a few days to a few weeks, so we had shared experiences that we all got into one time or another. Sometimes you know it is a good time to maybe lose a little money and slide out of a door!

Someone I still miss. I read his old posts every time I see them. RIP my friend!

Hu
 
bbb said:
thats nice to know you mention it now when you joined in 2009 :eek:
maybe share some memories since you resurrected this thread
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Honestly can’t remember much, but….About 66-67 a bunch of us…me, toothy, Cole and about 3–4 other guys….We’d play P Pool at the Golden Cue in Hayward till midnight, then pile in a couple cars and head across the bridge to Cochran’s. I do remember a real marathon with Cole playing Blackie 9 Ball for many hundreds.
 
Tahoedirt said:
Honestly can’t remember much, but….About 66-67 a bunch of us…me, toothy, Cole and about 3–4 other guys….We’d play P Pool at the Golden Cue in Hayward till midnight, then pile in a couple cars and head across the bridge to Cochran’s. I do remember a real marathon with Cole playing Blackie 9 Ball for many hundreds.
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Thanks for the memory
 
Chocrans was way before my time but I did play at that venue. It was Hollywood Billiards when I was in the Bay from 2000-2003.

San Francisco is known for having some of the greatest players in the country!! Well…. When I was there!!

We had Amar Kang, Chohan, Filipino Gene, Dave Piona, Bryce, George Michaels, Jason Williams, Jared Williams, Billy the Kid, Gerda, Tobias, the Rakin family and Billy Palmer. I got to play Billy Palmer once and I won 5-4 in nine ball. I either ran out or played a lock up safe everytime I was at the table and that was barely enough 😳

I remember Kid Delicious came to play Chohan 5 ahead one pocket for $5000!! I left after 3 hours with the match at two ahead Chohan. I heard they played a marathon session and Delicious came out on top.

If you’re a pool player and haven’t been to the Bay I highly suggest you put it on your bucket list. You’re in for a real treat!!
 
RunoutJJ said:
Chocrans was way before my time but I did play at that venue. It was Hollywood Billiards when I was in the Bay from 2000-2003.

San Francisco is known for having some of the greatest players in the country!! Well…. When I was there!!

We had Amar Kang, Chohan, Filipino Gene, Dave Piona, Bryce, George Michaels, Jason Williams, Jared Williams, Billy the Kid, Gerda, Tobias, the Rakin family and Billy Palmer. I got to play Billy Palmer once and I won 5-4 in nine ball. I either ran out or played a lock up safe everytime I was at the table and that was barely enough 😳

I remember Kid Delicious came to play Chohan 5 ahead one pocket for $5000!! I left after 3 hours with the match at two ahead Chohan. I heard they played a marathon session and Delicious came out on top.

If you’re a pool player and haven’t been to the Bay I highly suggest you put it on your bucket list. You’re in for a real treat!!
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If you beat billy palmer
you are no PROFESSIONAL BANGER ..😱😱😱😱😱😱
 
Mcgoorty talks about Cochran's in his book if I remember right. Weren't there separate floors for pool snooker and carom games? Talk about separating the wheat from the chaff. Only gentleman played billiards from the sounds of it
 
jay helfert said:
That's quite a line up there. And they all made the circuit between Cochrans and The Palace down the street. I don't know why, but when I went up there, I just liked The Palace a lot better. It was a big wide open place with lots of room to move around and play undetected, which I liked.

Many of the above named players, branched out from San Francsico, after further developing their talents, and moved all around the country. Most of them (but not all) came down to Los Angeles to work the action rooms in SoCal. Ronnie established his base here, and all the other top guys spent time here as well. Denny and Cliff later teamed up to take off the big Pay Ball game at The Billiard Palace in Bellflower. I remember seeing them drive up and park in front in Denny's new Jag XKE. I didn't know who Cliff was at the time. He was years away from winning his World Snooker title.

They were playing $20 and $40 a ball (double on run outs) in the 60's. In a five handed game, a player could win over a thousand dollars pretty quick. Richie, Ronnie, Cole, Keith, Bob Osborne, Jimmy Reid and Grady were a few of the regulars in that game. They played with the 2,3,4,5,6 & 7 balls on a tight 10' snooker table. You played Rotation, with the 7 ball paying double. Denny was the best I ever saw at that game, and Cliff was second.

Cliff and Denny had to be the two best snooker players in North America at that time. No offense to Snooker Sammy Blumenthal who was also great. I wish there was a film of that match. I can only imagine how great they played. Two young dead eyes going head to head. That's the way it was back then. If you were good, you wanted to play the best player you could find to test yourself. Cliff is now Jimmy Wych's partner in putting on the Canadian Pro Tour.
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I also preferred The Palace and only played at Cochran's a couple of times.

To be truthful, I was a teenager at the time and Cochran's was just too intimidating. I could hang and kind of get lost in the crowd at The Palace.

Lou Figueroa
 
ShootingArts said:
I just met Dick on the internet. We talked a good bit back channel for awhile. Seemed like a very good guy and somebody that had walked the walk, had the right to talk the talk! I made a few short road trips myself, a few days to a few weeks, so we had shared experiences that we all got into one time or another. Sometimes you know it is a good time to maybe lose a little money and slide out of a door!

Someone I still miss. I read his old posts every time I see them. RIP my friend!

Hu
Click to expand...

Dick and I communicated frequently and we met up once in Vegas for drinks.

He was a good guy and fun to hang around and he was one of my biggest behind the scenes supporters when I played JB a few years back. But as has been reported, he like his liquor and I think after his wife passed that's where he found his refuge. I was suppose to meet up with him at a room in AZ one year and while I was hitting them around a call came in for me on the house phone. It was Dick and he apologized for being a no show but that the previous evening had been "a bad one" for him.

Lou Figueroa
 
galipeau said:
Mcgoorty talks about Cochran's in his book if I remember right. Weren't there separate floors for pool snooker and carom games? Talk about separating the wheat from the chaff. Only gentleman played billiards from the sounds of it
Click to expand...

Don't think that was Cochran's.

Lou Figueroa
 
So one more thing: this thread jogged my memory that I have, somewhere, the first eight chapters of SJD's memoir.

Several years ago he had sent it to a friend of mine who didn't know what to do with it, and he in turn had sent it to me. It was an unfinished project which is a loss for all of us. To the best of my knowledge it is previously unpublished material. If I can find it I will post it up in a separate thread.

Lou Figueroa
 
lfigueroa said:
So one more thing: this thread jogged my memory that I have, somewhere, the first eight chapters of SJD's memoir.

Several years ago he had sent it to a friend of mine who didn't know what to do with it, and he in turn had sent it to me. It was an unfinished project which is a loss for all of us. To the best of my knowledge it is previously unpublished material. If I can find it I will post it up in a separate thread.

Lou Figueroa
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I hope you find that! Sorry to hear about Dick and alcohol not that he made any secret about it. Most pool players build their vices young along with their skills. Skills fade, vices usually don't!

One reason or another, I left most of my vices behind. I buried enough friends that I got the message.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
I hope you find that! Sorry to hear about Dick and alcohol not that he made any secret about it. Most pool players build their vices young along with their skills. Skills fade, vices usually don't!

One reason or another, I left most of my vices behind. I buried enough friends that I got the message.

Hu
Click to expand...

McGoorty told a story, in Byrnes' book about him, about how he was losing a money match and took himself off to the restroom and had a few shots of booze. He came out and ended up winning the money. He said it was the worst thing that could have happened, because he convinced himself that he played better loaded.

If you've never read Byrnes' book about McGoorty, do yourself a favor and do so, it is a fascinating look at a bygone era, and not just pool, 3C, and hustling.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&tn=Mcgoorty
 
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