Thanks to Rick Owens who provided me this rare video of Jimmy, I have posted on my website and YouTube, about 1hr and 40 minutes of Cowboy Jimmy Moore on his 83rd birthday, giving lessons, shooting trick shots and a 1 hr dynamite interview. It's broken up into 7 segments.
http://bankingwiththebeard.com/?p=1068#CowboyJimmyMooreinstruction
Beard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_Jimmy_Moore
Early years
James William Moore was born on September 14, 1910[2] on a farm located in Troup County, Georgia, just outside the City of Hogansville. He was the son of a Georgia blacksmith, sheriff and streetcar conductor. He began working at a young age, supplementing his family's income variously as a cotton picker earning 35 cents per 100 pounds, managing a fruit stand, and delivering newspapers. His family moved to Detroit when he was 13, where other ways of making money presented themselves. Moore ran card games and pursued other games of chance, even pitching pennies. He was very good at such gambling pursuits and was a naturally gifted athlete, attaining a Triple-A level as a baseball player in the minor leagues, once bowled a perfect game, and was a fine golfer.[3][4][5]
I was shooting in the '70s soon after I took up golf. I thought about trying to become a pro but I figured there wasn't any money in it. That was true, back then. Same thing for baseball. I was a pretty good pitcher—I played in the minors for Belle Isle, out of Detroit—but I didn't think I could make a living at it.[3]
—"Cowboy" Jimmy Moore, Billiards Digest (1999)
In 1928 at 18 years of age, Moore took a job as a pinsetter at Car Barns, a local bowling alley, earning six cents a line. True to form, Moore was a quick study, for a time carrying a 233 bowling average. Moore first picked up a cue stick at Car Barns, playing on the single 4 x 8 foot pool table the bowling alley had available. According to Moore he immediately fell in love with the game; specifically, with the game of straight pool (14.1 continuous), at which he would chiefly compete during his career, though not to the exclusion of all other billiard disciplines—Moore would become national snooker champion,[3][4][5] and would place second at the 1961 First Annual World's One-Pocket Billiards Tournament in Johnston City, Illinois.[6]
Straight pool was the game of championship pocket billiards competition until approximately the 1980s when it was overtaken by "faster" games such as nine-ball. In the game, a shooter may attempt to pocket any object ball on the table. The object is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game—typically 150 in professional competition. One point is scored for each ball pocketed in the pocket called and where no foul has transpired.[7] According to Moore, his high run in the game was 236 ball in a row.[4]
Six months after his first introduction to the game, Moore entered and won the 1929 Michigan State billiard championship. He successfully defended that title in the following three years. During the midst of the Great Depression, however, playing pool for trophies was not a luxury Moore could afford, so he took his game on the road.[3][4]
