Don Willis

medallio

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I saw a video where beirbower(?) tells Max Eberle some stories about Willis. Does anybody else have some?
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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Silver Member
I was about 20 years old and working at a used car lot in Dayton selling Suzuki motorbikes (really!). About a block down the street on the other side was a little downstairs poolroom, name long since forgotten. They had a ring game there every day, $1 on the five and $2 on the nine. If you make either ball out of turn it spots back up and you keep on shooting. So one day an acquaintance of mine wanders in and tells me some old man is robbing the ring game. I took a break from my job and went over to see for myself what was going on.

Lo and behold, sure enough it's a chubby Don Willis playing with a crooked house cue, leaning against the wall, looking like a salesman taking a break from work. Pretty soon it's his turn and he fires away at the balls and lucks in the five. It re-spots and he fires again, lucking in the nine. On and on this continues until the rack is over with Willis making four or five money balls and getting paid off by the other four players. One guy turns to me and says that it's the darnedest thing he's ever seen, how lucky this old guy is. I just smile and shake my head in understanding.

Pretty soon I had to return to work and by then the game was winding down, with players dropping out. The next day I went back and everyone was talking about the lucky old man who won over $100 in their ring game. Some of them were actually hoping he would come back. Now that's a damn good hustler in my book!
 
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J SCHWARZ

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think it might have been Larry Schwartz who told me about this prop bet while we were sweating a match but anyways...

Don Willis would befriend the owner of an establishment and gain access to the the building while it was closed. He would then start mapping out the floor by rolling a cue ball around. He would find the low spots, speed of floor, and the "rolls". Now the trap was set. He would bet the suckerers that he could jump cue ball off the table and hit said ball laying way off in the distance. People would bite because the shot would look ludicrous, not having a clear path to the ball. Sometimes the cue ball would jump off the table, roll 30 or 40 feet under some other tablles catch a low spot and start to bend while it rolled another twenty or 30 feet and lay snug up against the object ball you couldon't even see from the spot you started the shot from. One shot he jumped off the table, rolled all the way through the building, down a story of stairs, out the front door and hit a ball on the sidewalk.
 
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KMRUNOUT

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've looked way into this guy. Very interesting stories. Sounds like an all time great. Just search on google, there's ton's of stuff on him. "The Cincinnati Kid"

KMRUNOUT
 

KMRUNOUT

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was about 20 years old and working at a used car lot in Dayton selling Suzuki motorbikes (really!). About a block down the street on the other side was a little downstairs poolroom, name long since forgotten. They had a ring game there every day, $1 on the five and $2 on the nine. If you make either ball out of turn it spots back up and you keep on shooting. So one day an acquaintance of mine wanders in and tells me some old man is robbing the ring game. I took a break from my job and went over to see for myself what was going on.

Lo and behold, sure enough it's a chubby Don Willis playing with a crooked house cue, leaning against the wall, looking like a salesman taking a break from work. Pretty soon it's his turn and he fires away at the balls and lucks in the five. It re-spots and he fires again, lucking in the nine. On and on this continues until the rack is over with Willis making four or five money balls and getting paid off by the other four players. One guy turns to me and says that it's the darnedest thing he's ever seen, how lucky this old guy is. I just smile and shake my head in understanding.

Pretty soon I had to return to work and by then the game was winding down, with players dropping out. The next day I went back and everyone was talking about the lucky old man who won over $100 in their ring game. Some of them were actually hoping he would come back. Now that's a damn good hustler in my book!

I've heard a story of him making *29* 9 balls in one game this way! Check out some more info here:

http://www.gcaba.org/willis/willis.html

KMRUNOUT
 

JB Cases

www.jbcases.com
Silver Member
I have always loved the one where he played in a tournament and the promoter insisted he fill out a bio for the announcements and he didn't want to. The promoter said no bio no playing. So Don says give me the stack of bios and picks out one with a well-known champion's name that has a long list of tournament wins and scrawls across the top, "I beat him."
 

JB Cases

www.jbcases.com
Silver Member
There is NO WAY that Don ran 45 racks of 9 ball without ball in hand after the break. I will give anyone that game on any 9 or 10 foot table like they had back then if they give up ten to one on the money like the story goes. In order for me to stay even the balls have to get funny one out of 19 racks. (correction by Bob Jewett, it's 1 out of 11 that the balls have to get funny and prevent a run out to stay even)

Any pro reading this who wants to try you can beat me out of $20,000 if you freeze up at least $20,000. I love the old time stories but this one is a real whopper imo.
 
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lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I saw a video where beirbower(?) tells Max Eberle some stories about Willis. Does anybody else have some?


I believe it was Luther Lassiter who said something like: If I had to have someone play for my life, win or lose, live or die, it'd be Don Willis.

Lou Figueroa
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
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There is NO WAY that Don ran 45 racks of 9 ball without ball in hand after the break. I will give anyone that game on any 9 or 10 foot table like they had back then if they give up ten to one on the money like the story goes. In order for me to stay even the balls have to get funny one out of 19 racks.

Any pro reading this who wants to try you can beat me out of $20,000 if you freeze up at least $20,000. I love the old time stories but this one is a real whopper imo.

Actually, it's one in 11. 10 runs and one miss to get back to even.

But the story might not have been re-remembered quite correctly. Willis might have been up 45 when the guy quit. And runouts were not required. And maybe Willis didn't have to make a ball on the break.
 

book collector

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think it might have been Larry Schwartz who told me about this prop bet while we were sweating a match but anyways...

Don Willis would befriend the owner of an establishment and gain access to the the building while it was closed. He would then start mapping out the floor by rolling a cue ball around. He would find the low spots, speed of floor, and the "rolls". Now the trap was set. He would bet the suckerers that he could jump cue ball off the table and hit said ball laying way off in the distance. People would bite because the shot would look ludicrous, not having a clear path to the ball. Sometimes the cue ball would jump off the table, roll 30 or 40 feet under some other tablles catch a low spot and start to bend while it rolled another twenty or 30 feet and lay snug up against the object ball you couldon't even see from the spot you started the shot from. One shot he jumped off the table, rolled all the way through the building, down a story of stairs, out the front door and hit a ball on the sidewalk.

The ball going down a flight of steps and out into the street to make a billiard was credited to one of the Navarra brothers in something I read, maybe Bob Byrnes book.
 

Neil

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Actually, it's one in 11. 10 runs and one miss to get back to even.

But the story might not have been re-remembered quite correctly. Willis might have been up 45 when the guy quit. And runouts were not required. And maybe Willis didn't have to make a ball on the break.

The way I heard it is that for a little over 40 racks, every time he got to the table he ran out. He didn't make a ball on the break every time though.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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The way I heard it is that for a little over 40 racks, every time he got to the table he ran out. He didn't make a ball on the break every time though.

That's far more likely, improbable but definitely possible. I've seen many instances of players not missing a ball for hours on end. It happens!

Lassiter used to say that he would watch someone play for an hour and if they missed more than one ball he knew he could beat them.
 

Low500

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think it might have been Larry Schwartz who told me about this prop bet while we were sweating a match but anyways...
Don Willis would befriend the owner of an establishment and gain access to the the building while it was closed. He would then start mapping out the floor by rolling a cue ball around. He would find the low spots, speed of floor, and the "rolls". Now the trap was set. He would bet the suckerers that he could jump cue ball off the table and hit said ball laying way off in the distance. People would bite because the shot would look ludicrous, not having a clear path to the ball. Sometimes the cue ball would jump off the table, roll 30 or 40 feet under some other tablles catch a low spot and start to bend while it rolled another twenty or 30 feet and lay snug up against the object ball you couldon't even see from the spot you started the shot from. One shot he jumped off the table, rolled all the way through the building, down a story of stairs, out the front door and hit a ball on the sidewalk.



BULL....!!!

It didn't happen and it will never happen. (unless someone who's in on it is out on the street and does something)
Were any of the opposing bettors out there on the street WATCHING that so-called object ball....?
You pool room suckers will believe any of that old timey garbage because "so and so" said so..........
I watched Don Willis play Joe Cosgrove for some heavy money. Cosgrove busted him and sent him out begging for a walking stick. Lassiter was in with Willis and gave Willis hell for making the game in the first place.
How can you people BELIEVE in such nonsense....
:shakehead:
 
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SmoothStroke

Swim for the win.
Silver Member
True Story, I saw it on the internet back in 1973.
A hooker in a truck stop was told the story from a truckers cousin who is once removed 6 times.

Don just finished running 80 racks of 9 ball, 1 handed and blindfolded. He then ran 60 racks of one pocket, no hands, in 60 minutes, with a coffee break.

Here is where it almost gets unbelievable, but true.
This takes place in either Valley Billiards or Airway Billiards, she was not sure, the cousin was high on tranny fluid.
He says he will bet he can shoot an Ivory Billiard Ball to Florida and end up with an alligator; on film.
Of course the birds stack the cash on the light.

Don, with an 85 inch cue, jacks up and lets it fly. It goes right through the front door and rolls up route 70 to Players Billiards in Columbus, obeying the speed limit of course.
The ball lands in the toilet bowl where Willie Mosconi just flushed, and down it goes.Willie says, if I had that cue ball I could run a 1000.

Five minutes later it comes out of a sewer pipe in Lake Okeechobee and hits an alligator on the head and kills it dead.

This part is a little sketchy but true.
Ray Martin was bass fishing and caught it all on camera. Ray said he was going to put it in his book, 99 Critical Shots but that would have been 100 and had to leave it out.

Two weeks later Don was sporting a new Alligator wrapped Bushka, with matching shoes, jacket and underwear.
 

De420MadHatter

SicBiNature
Silver Member
True Story, I saw it on the internet back in 1973.
A hooker in a truck stop was told the story from a truckers cousin who is once removed 6 times.

Don just finished running 80 racks of 9 ball, 1 handed and blindfolded. He then ran 60 racks of one pocket, no hands, in 60 minutes, with a coffee break.

Here is where it almost gets unbelievable, but true.
This takes place in either Valley Billiards or Airway Billiards, she was not sure, the cousin was high on tranny fluid.
He says he will bet he can shoot an Ivory Billiard Ball to Florida and end up with an alligator; on film.
Of course the birds stack the cash on the light.

Don, with an 85 inch cue, jacks up and lets it fly. It goes right through the front door and rolls up route 70 to Players Billiards in Columbus, obeying the speed limit of course.
The ball lands in the toilet bowl where Willie Mosconi just flushed, and down it goes.Willie says, if I had that cue ball I could run a 1000.

Five minutes later it comes out of a sewer pipe in Lake Okeechobee and hits an alligator on the head and kills it dead.

This part is a little sketchy but true.
Ray Martin was bass fishing and caught it all on camera. Ray said he was going to put it in his book, 99 Critical Shots but that would have been 100 and had to leave it out.

Two weeks later Don was sporting a new Alligator wrapped Bushka, with matching shoes, jacket and underwear.

Whatever fool :rolleyes:. Even at the speed of water, you can't get from Columbus to Florida in 5 min. Your full of shit!!
 

SmoothStroke

Swim for the win.
Silver Member
Whatever fool :rolleyes:. Even at the speed of water, you can't get from Columbus to Florida in 5 min. Your full of shit!!

I thought that was a little quick myself, 8 minutes would be more realistic. Stories grow and timelines become confusing, but everything else is true.
 

jrhendy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Don Willis and Dean Chance

In 1965 I had a couple night classes at East Los Angeles College. Class was over at 10pm and by 10:30 I was in a pool room somewhere. I happened to be at Romy's at fourth & main in downtown Los Angeles when Dean Chance came in with a stocky older man.

Dean introduced himself to me and we talked a little baseball. He won the Cy Young award in 1964 pitching for the Angel's. While we are talking the older guy was very loud and barking about gambling and being kind of a jerk. Dean apologized and told me he was a good friend from Wooster, Ohio that Dean had brought out to see the Dodgers in the World Series. Dean told me the guy had a big farm in Ohio, had plenty of $$ and why didn't I beat him out of some of his $$ playing a little nine ball.

I told Dean I was a college student and went to the pool room to learn three cushion billiards and learn the Diamond System. I played decent nine ball in those days and thought I was hustling them. We started playing some nine ball and he busted me for around $100. He did give me the fish eye when I ran a rack or two but he never showed much. Mostly making combos or missing balls and getting safe and the running the last few balls to win.

There was no other action at Romy's so I heard them say they were heading to Hollywood Billiards next. This was a room I also went to from time to time and I went there to see if anything went down. I still did not know who the old guy was.

They were already there when I showed up and nobody there wanted to play him or even call anyone up to play. After they left I asked one of the railbirds I knew who the guy was. He said 'That guy is the best player the other side of the Mississippi and the only reason he is not the best player on this side is he never comes here. That is Don Willis'.
 
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