Denny Searcy

G

Grady

Pro Player
You want to know about Denny? Well, I guess I'll start in San Francisco about 1962. Cochrun's at 1028 Market St. was home to the best players in the world, men like Ronnie Allen, Eddie Taylor, Jack Perkins, "Okie Sam" Harry the Russian, "Legs", "One Eyed Hank", Rodriguez, Mexican Phil and on and on.
Young players were in abundance, Jack Coony, Cole Dickson, Ronnie Barber, Rich Marquez, Junior Garcia, Joe Smiley, Jimmy the Chinaman,Philipino Gene, Grady Mathews, Joe Salizar and Denny Searcy. Denny was the best of the young lot.
He could always do things that nobody else could, like "kill" the cue ball where it looked impossible or draw the cue ball two table lengths on the 6' X 12' snooker table or force a ball into a tight snooker pocket at warp speed.
To this day I never saw anyone with a stroke as good as his and he could use it for big money, too. A tournament came up in the early 70's in Dayton at Joe Burn's place. I knew there was going to be big action, especially at pay ball, a specialty of Denny's. I had planned on going but something came up. I helped Denny obtain appropiate backing and off he went to Dayton.
Experts who were there, including Greg Sullivan, state to a person that it the finest pool they had ever witnessed. Denny won 40 or 50 thousand dollars; tortured the whole field.
Unfortunately for Denny he was never able to leave the bottle alone. But when he was at the apex of his game (only 10 to 15 years)I never saw anyone beat him playing even 9 Ball or snooker. Cliff Thorburn and Denny did break even after a 50 hour match.
Searcy also won the preponderance of the cash in the ring 10 Ball game in that little town in Illinois, the one where guys were losing cars and other merchandise.
Anyway, now Denny is in a bad way, on dialysis and maybe fixing to lose a leg, day to day with most health matters. It's quite an honor for us in the billird community to recognize one of our greatest champions and I'm sorry to say, a man who'll never make the BCA HOF.
I'll keep you all posted as to how this is going to be done.
 
Grady,
Many thanks for the update. Many of us have heard the name; but knew few of the details. Best wishes and prayers to Denny and family.

I suspect there were a lot of monster players from this era that are relatively unknown. My hope is that with enough prize money the IPT may bring some of this type of player "out of hiding" and onto center stage where we might appreciate their skills.
 
Grady said:
You want to know about Denny? Well, I guess I'll start in San Francisco about 1962. Cochrun's at 1028 Market St. was home to the best players in the world, men like Ronnie Allen, Eddie Taylor, Jack Perkins, "Okie Sam" Harry the Russian, "Legs", "One Eyed Hank", Rodriguez, Mexican Phil and on and on.
Young players were in abundance, Jack Coony, Cole Dickson, Ronnie Barber, Rich Marquez, Junior Garcia, Joe Smiley, Jimmy the Chinaman,Philipino Gene, Grady Mathews, Joe Salizar and Denny Searcy. Denny was the best of the young lot.
He could always do things that nobody else could, like "kill" the cue ball where it looked impossible or draw the cue ball two table lengths on the 6' X 12' snooker table or force a ball into a tight snooker pocket at warp speed.
To this day I never saw anyone with a stroke as good as his and he could use it for big money, too. A tournament came up in the early 70's in Dayton at Joe Burn's place. I knew there was going to be big action, especially at pay ball, a specialty of Denny's. I had planned on going but something came up. I helped Denny obtain appropiate backing and off he went to Dayton.
Experts who were there, including Greg Sullivan, state to a person that it the finest pool they had ever witnessed. Denny won 40 or 50 thousand dollars; tortured the whole field.
Unfortunately for Denny he was never able to leave the bottle alone. But when he was at the apex of his game (only 10 to 15 years)I never saw anyone beat him playing even 9 Ball or snooker. Cliff Thorburn and Denny did break even after a 50 hour match.
Searcy also won the preponderance of the cash in the ring 10 Ball game in that little town in Illinois, the one where guys were losing cars and other merchandise.
Anyway, now Denny is in a bad way, on dialysis and maybe fixing to lose a leg, day to day with most health matters. It's quite an honor for us in the billird community to recognize one of our greatest champions and I'm sorry to say, a man who'll never make the BCA HOF.
I'll keep you all posted as to how this is going to be done.
Click to expand...


There needs to be a peoples champions "Hall of Fame" for players like him to preserve that part of the history of the game, tell it all and tell it right. I was at that tournament at Joe Burns place I think it was 1973. You are dead accurate he won about 40 to 50 thousand and played unbelievable. That was a long tournament like two or three weeks and the payball game went non stop. Denny played in stretches of 40 hours or more in that game, an amazing performance against the best player in the world. I don't throw that around loosely either, if you dropped a bomb on the place there would be no pool players left, everybody who could play was there. It was like the stars aligned to produced the best tournament ever played.
 
I dont know what is a bigger shame...that great action players do not get the recognization they deserve (esp since action was about the only way for them to make enough money to support their families) or the fact that so many of the great players of yesterday barely have a pot to piss in nowadays. The toll that these players had on their bodies playing days on end, and there is no IRA, no 401k, no medical insurance. It's just sad.

Thanks for the post Grady.
 
Dayton pay ball game

Jack Cooney dropped about 17k in that pay ball game. He was pilled up and Barbara couldnt pull him out of the game with a trailer hoist.
the Beard
 
Check my post on Denny on the Ronnie Allen thread. Someone there asked who he was.
 
Grady said:
I never saw anyone beat him playing even 9 Ball or snooker. Cliff Thorburn and Denny did break even after a 50 hour match.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the superb post Grady, a youngster like me just loves hearing old stories about the action that used to take place. Did Denny ever consider taking a shot at professional snooker? If he could hang with Cliff Thorburn (who went on to win a world snooker championship) when the two of them were in their prime Denny would almost surely make the pro tour back then, there was a handsome amount of cash to be won in snooker even in the old days, especially compared to the cash being an action player.

It's too bad to hear about him having health problems, I hope he gets better.
 
Road Player Archive?

Is there a place for recording for posterity all of the road stories of guys like this?
Seems to me that most of the great pool is not played by names that everyone will recognize and without people like Grady passing these tales on, they will be lost.
 
I'm sorry for leaving Jay Helfert out of my post about Denny. I think it was his and Greg's idea to honor him. All of us of a certain age who knew Denny were awe inspired with his game and his character. Jay's post is excellent.
Denny has had a nearly lifelong friend in Charlotte named Harry, who has taken good care of Denny for a long time but Searcy never had a good financial or career advisor. What I'm leading up to here is, I think he would have done great playing Snooker in England but I don't think he ever gave it a thought. By the way, I'm proud of the way Denny and I played Snooker. He spotted me one point.
Thank you everybody for your interest in a great human being who has not had an easy life and might have been our greatest player.
 
Thanks for the update, Grady. Sorry to hear about Denny's health problems. I knew him a little and he always treated me pretty well (except for beating my brains in on the 6X12). The thing I always remember about Denny was when he gave Al the Plumber the wild 8 in a joint in Chinatown; I side bet on Al (who really thought he had the nuts) cuz I hadn't really seen Denny play all that much 9-ball, he was always playing pay-ball. Well, the only thing Denny missed in the next 5 hours was dinner, and Al and I lost our shirts. I'm not sure I've ever seen anybody play 9-ball any better than Denny did that night. I agree with Grady 100% that he may have been as talented a pool and snooker player as ever chalked a cue, and it's nice to see him get the public recognition he never got when he was playing. We're prayin' for ya, Denny.
 
I love hearing about the hustlers of the past....I have a question for those in the know grady or Jay or anyone else....I keep hearing all these names but one name does'nt seem to be mentioned much as a road player and gambler...East Coast player Larry Liscotti.RIP. I have heard some stories that in the late 60's and 70's he was out there doing his thing as well...Where did he stack up to the players mentioned in this type of thread???
 
I'd like to respond to the inquiry about Larry Liscotti. I won't talk about bad habits that he may have had.
I loved Larry like he was my own family. We played each other, gambled against other people together and, in general, were great friends for forty years.
When I'm asked about great Straight Pool players, I state that Larry, in my opinion, was the best 14.1 money player who ever lived. I never saw him play a game for large stakes where he didn't run more than 100 balls. In fact, he ran 138 and out on me for $6,000 in 1978 and 150 and out on me in 1994. Sometimes I would win against Larry at Straight Pool but I always thought he was the better player.
His patterns were perfect, vintage New England style. He knew the stack and dead balls like nobody's business. He won the World Championship in, I think it was, 1977.
Larry was a mighty warrior who was unafraid and a big bettor. It wouldn't be unusual to see him at a tournament up three or four days straight, alternating between the card room and the tournament. Given his circumstances, he was honorable to a fault. His sense of humor sent my wife into stitches every time she saw him.
Jimmy Fusco and Larry were also very close. Larry and I, at different times, would stay with Jimmy and Marcy.
Larry would have loved the IPT with the huge prize money. Jimmy and I miss him mightily.
 
Grady said:
You want to know about Denny? Well, I guess I'll start in San Francisco about 1962. Cochrun's at 1028 Market St. was home to the best players in the world, men like Ronnie Allen, Eddie Taylor, Jack Perkins, "Okie Sam" Harry the Russian, "Legs", "One Eyed Hank", Rodriguez, Mexican Phil and on and on.
Young players were in abundance, Jack Coony, Cole Dickson, Ronnie Barber, Rich Marquez, Junior Garcia, Joe Smiley, Jimmy the Chinaman,Philipino Gene, Grady Mathews, Joe Salizar and Denny Searcy. Denny was the best of the young lot.
He could always do things that nobody else could, like "kill" the cue ball where it looked impossible or draw the cue ball two table lengths on the 6' X 12' snooker table or force a ball into a tight snooker pocket at warp speed.
To this day I never saw anyone with a stroke as good as his and he could use it for big money, too. A tournament came up in the early 70's in Dayton at Joe Burn's place. I knew there was going to be big action, especially at pay ball, a specialty of Denny's. I had planned on going but something came up. I helped Denny obtain appropiate backing and off he went to Dayton.
Experts who were there, including Greg Sullivan, state to a person that it the finest pool they had ever witnessed. Denny won 40 or 50 thousand dollars; tortured the whole field.
Unfortunately for Denny he was never able to leave the bottle alone. But when he was at the apex of his game (only 10 to 15 years)I never saw anyone beat him playing even 9 Ball or snooker. Cliff Thorburn and Denny did break even after a 50 hour match.
Searcy also won the preponderance of the cash in the ring 10 Ball game in that little town in Illinois, the one where guys were losing cars and other merchandise.
Anyway, now Denny is in a bad way, on dialysis and maybe fixing to lose a leg, day to day with most health matters. It's quite an honor for us in the billird community to recognize one of our greatest champions and I'm sorry to say, a man who'll never make the BCA HOF.
I'll keep you all posted as to how this is going to be done.
Click to expand...
I was there and it was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen. This was six ball on a snooker table with regular balls, it paid double for a run out. Ronnie Allen went broke once without shooting. Corn bread flew in and went broke. The game went on for 2days with players getting in and out. I saw Denny run several racks, I did not know you could shoot that hard up the rail on a snooker table.
 
Thanks for sharing the story Grady. This kind of input from you is as entertaining as it is priceless.

I am watching some old videos of Mosconi, Fats, and Crane and can't believe the accuracy of those guys (especially Crane). Ol' Irving was mechanically flawless and just amazing.
 
Larry Lisciotti

The Kiss said:
I love hearing about the hustlers of the past....I have a question for those in the know grady or Jay or anyone else....I keep hearing all these names but one name does'nt seem to be mentioned much as a road player and gambler...East Coast player Larry Liscotti.RIP. I have heard some stories that in the late 60's and 70's he was out there doing his thing as well...Where did he stack up to the players mentioned in this type of thread???
Click to expand...

Once again, you're getting the straight scoop from Grady. Larry was a great gambler and a top speed player, in the same class with Shorty, Red, Ervolino, Richie Ambrose (9-Ball), and even Kelly.
The only East Coast player who matched up well with Larry in 14.1 was Ervolino, another killer for the cash. They played a few times around New York and both guys told me they beat the other one (that means they both won games).

Larry traveled the whole country, East to West and North to South, looking for games. Usually in the company of his girlfriend or wife. He came thru my room in Bakersfield in the 70's and beat me pretty good playing 9-Ball.
He then went up North looking for action and eventually ran into Cole, who dropped him down a notch. On the way back through, he told me about playing Cole, who beat Larry at 9-Ball and One Pocket. Larry said he was the first guy to beat him in many months on the road.

He did encounter substance problems later on and it really deteriorated his game for a long time. He finally got straightened out and ran a successful poolroom in CT. for many years. In his later years he was one of the top players on Mike Zuglan's Northeast Tour. At his best he was a match for anyone. When he was on the bottle, he couldn't beat Tom Thumb.

I remember hanging out with Larry in Atlantic City in the 80's. He was playing Blackjack for hundreds of dollars a hand and drinking with the other hand. One night he would win five or ten grand and the next night lose it back. That was Larry, full bore all the way. Of course, the casino comped him. They loved his action and kept the drinks coming. I would sit with him and he would tell pool stories while gambling. He was barely coherent somtimes (Grady knows what I mean). I mean you could barely understand his babbling, but he was funny.

Larry L. was a lovable lush and degenerate gambler. He could make many good pool players quiver when they asked him to play. If they wanted to play for $500, Larry would say put up $2,000, and he meant it to. Slightly drunk, he was nearly unbeatable. A little too drunk and he was a go off.

Oh, one other thing. Larry told me once the best player he ever gambled with was Mike Carella from Florida, Danny D's protege.
 
older-players

Hello Grady; I know you dont remember me or wife, but we have saw you shoot a lot. athens, b.j. lounge in tucker ga years ago. you we playing allen hopkins in finals, and buddy hall and {snowball]stovall on the other table, when this fireman walks in the middle of the tables. HA HA now that was funny i dont care you who you are.oh well my queston is do you remember HORACE HARPER, from eagaton ga??? i say him and you shoot about all night once, by the way you had to borrow my wife cigarett lighter in b,j, remember???we both have quit now hope you have also Your friend STICK stick8@alltel.net:D :D :D :D
 
The Kiss said:
East Coast player Larry Liscotti.RIP. I have heard some stories that in the late 60's and 70's he was out there doing his thing as well...Where did he stack up to the players mentioned in this type of thread???
Click to expand...

He was a great player especially in Straight Pool.
I have one small anecdote.Larry and I do not know each other personally.It was in 1994 during a Mens professional billiard tour event in worcester.I was sitting next to him in the cocktail lounge of the hotel sipping some brew.Larry was naratting to his friend about his earlier match.He said that he was breaking the rack very well and every time he came to the table to break he was seeing his wife`s face on one ball and hence he started hitting that one ball hard with all the force.Actually he loved his wife to death and they were loving couple.I thought that it was funny and hence never forgot about it.
 
Grady said:
I loved Larry like he was my own family. We played each other, gambled against other people together and, in general, were great friends for forty years.
Click to expand...
Grady,
I find this post one of the most interesting you have ever had. Seems like the players of today won't gamble with their friends. They all have their lil clicks & I personally think that is why the players of today will never match up with those of 30 or 40 years ago in level of play, let alone level of gamble.
 
watchez said:
Grady,
I find this post one of the most interesting you have ever had. Seems like the players of today won't gamble with their friends. They all have their lil clicks & I personally think that is why the players of today will never match up with those of 30 or 40 years ago in level of play, let alone level of gamble.
Click to expand...
We seldom, if ever, gambled with our true friends, friends were few, especially in the gambling world. "Friends" will break you quicker than a $3.00 hooker. I expect at some point Grady decided he would rather have a real friend than his money. Small bets between friends is not what I mean. I mean when you take the persons rent money or bust him and his backer and have to front them a stake to leave town. People aren't ever friends on those terms. You don't gamble with friends you consider your "family". Everyone else is fair game.

Can't even find a decent "friendly" ring 9 ball game these days. Too many video games I guess.

One of the earlier posts mentioned Cole playing Liscotti. From the time he was 16, him and Denny sent alot of guys from the East Coast back home. Those were interesting times, long gone now.
 
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