Don Willis: The Greatest Pool Player Ever, As Told By Garten Bierbower

Thanks for the video Max...You coming to the tourney at cuesports end of this month ? bigtruck said you was thinking about it..Hope you make it down..sounds like it will be a bigger one than last one by 2 or 3 times..plus curious if you ever tried some of them games out that I told you me & Gary made money at.:grin:
 
Fun video Max. One thing that is undisputable: Willis had Garten sold. :groucho:
 
huckster said:
It was also great to here Mr. Bierbower talk of a few other players that I grew up around including Fred "Luch" Martin and Jerry Woolf. There was a lot of great pool players in the Canton/Akron to New Philly/Dover area. Amongsnt them were Dave Myers, Jerry Woolf, Chick, Harry Florence, Ed Becker, Garten Bierbower, Glen Knowles, and later on Troy Frank, Chris Szuter, Mario Cilleti and others. Not to mention at times guys like Max Eberle,Coey Duel, Nick Varner, Jack Hynes and others who hung there hat in the area or grew up there.
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Steve McAninch, Gary Spaeth, Mark Maryo the list goes on and on
 
Great video Max!! I would like to know if Willis ever matched up with some of the other greats of his day. I have heard he was a road partner of Lassiter. Did he ever play Eddie Taylor? Others?
 
Thanks, you guys are great.

Tom in cincy thanks for the link to the Willis tribute site, cool stuff. I previously know Willis only through Garten and now all this feedback confirms how good he was.

I'm from Dover, OH., 20 minutes south of Canton... my Grandpa raised a family there and played pool all over the country... and never once ran into Willis that he knew of, remarkable.
 
Max,
I lived in Cincinnati OH from 1987 until 2003 when I moved to Sacramento, CA.

You know me as the TD at Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento..

Indeed a small Pool world.

Another player claimed the moniker of the 'Cincinnati Kid', he was a pretty good bank pool player. His real name was Donnie Anderson.

Donnie was the first player I matched up against when I moved to Cincinnati. He didn't like playing 9 ball, but he liked to gamble.

http://wideworldofbilliards.com/history.html (Donnie's story by Donnie)
 
Dean, Bo, and Mamie

jrhendy said:
Willis was in CA with Dean Chance, the Angels pitcher who had just won the Cy Young award in 65/66. I was going to college at East LA nights and went down to 4th & Main poolroom after class. Dean talked me into playing this old guy who was woofing at everyone. I thought I was hustling him and told them I was a college student studying the three cushion diamond system.

Dean told me he was a rich old guy from Ohio out here to see the Dodgers in the World Series. He beat me 10 games for $10 a game and NEVER ran more than a few balls. Now I could play a little 9 ball then and he did give me the fisheye when I ran a couple racks, but he missed balls & got safe and made lots of combo's on the 9.

I heard them say they were going to Hollywood Billiards next and followed them over there. He barked at whoever was there and no one stepped up. After they left I asked one of the old sweaters who he was. He told me "That guy is the best player the other side of the Mississippi. The only reason he's not the best on this side is he never comes out here. That's Don Willis".
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Dean Chance, Bo Belinsky and Bo's girlfriend, movie star, Mamie Van Doren, all came down to Bensingers in the mid 60s. Bo and Dean were top pitchers for the LA Angels. I think the Angels must have been in Chicago that day. They blew into the poolroom like gangbusters and announced, "Who wants to play some $10 Nine ball?" It was very intimidating to say the least for anyone to treat Bensingers with such disrespect. Finally, the best player in the joint at that time, Pony Rosen no high roller he, said, "I'll try you some for $3." Pony was famous for taking on top players and betting very cheap himself, but having the sideline bet it up when he went to the post.

Pony steered Bo to table 13, a five by ten in front of the lunch counter. Bo paid no attention to the size of the table and racked the balls.

As was to be expected, Pony started pounding on brother Bo. By this time the trio had been identified and the blood rush started in earnest. Mamie got bored early and was the first to leave. Dean was betting with both hands, got broke soon after, and was the second one to desert his post. Bo hung in there doggedly and took his punishment. And punishment it was. Pony of course, never raised the bet past $3, and at the finale ended 24 games up.

Pony pleaded with the side bettors for someone to help him out paying the time. I really cant remember if anybody ever heeded his plea.

Beard

Oh yeah, Don Willis. He had beaten everybody on earth playing 9 ball --including Willie Mosconi. His first serious 9 ball loss came at the hands of a young Harold Worst in Grand Rapids, MI. That is cited as the reason Wimpy refused Weanie Beanie's offer to stake him playing Harold 9 Rock (for 5k) up at Harold's home pool room.
 
threads like this is why i come to AZ

I grew up in Portage Lakes right between Akron and Canton. I can tell you it was pure pool 24/7. I spent a lot of my youth hanging out with the true players of the game. My dad, brother and I spent a lot oftime in Dover at that little pool room. My dad could run a 100 on any givin day. Some of my favorite memories ! Don Willis played better than anyone i had ever seen at the time. Like the story goes, then i seen Harold Worst. I was a very lucky kid.


Tim
 
Bump.

As a newbie to the game that doesn't know much about the legends of the past other than names I've read on here in my short time here, this was a great video and thread.
 
What makes Willis so amazing is how he excelled at everything he did. Ping-pong? Yep, city champion. And he'd spot you in ping-pong by playing with a beer bottle as a paddle. After that, he'd offer to play you with a pencil. And he would win.

Did I mention chess? Football? The guy was an all-round champion.
 
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