have keith and archer ever matched up?

macneilb

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
hey guys, i was just wondering if anyone here knew if johnny archer and keith mccready ever matched up tournament/gambling wise. i'd love to hear some stories if they ever did. thanks, Brett.
 
Yea, almost

macneilb said:
hey guys, i was just wondering if anyone here knew if johnny archer and keith mccready ever matched up tournament/gambling wise. i'd love to hear some stories if they ever did. thanks, Brett.

I was at a tourney in Lexington Ky. once, and I believe it was a guy who was staking Keith that was making some comments to Johnny. Keith was trying to get matched up with him, not sure what the game was. I believe Johnny had an early match the next day, and said no. I do remember this guy making a comment to Johnny saying something like, " we can see up your skirt now,"... Anyway, Shannon Daulton spoke up and got into woofing. He ended up getting a game with Keith playing one pocket. Not sure how it turned out, as I had to go get some sleep.
 
Their primes are off about 20 years or more. Keith played his best pool when he was in his early 20s, and this would have been the late 70s, early 80s. Johnny really started playing well in the 90s.
 
Watched Keith play Johnny at the Turning Stone a few years back. I think it was the year that Keith got runner up. It was funny to watch the two of them going at each other. Keith being his normal self and Johnny getting very frustrated, it was like a comedy act.
 
i know they both played their prospective bests in different decades, but i'd love to hear about the details of them crossing eachother. they're both so different demeanor wise, not to mention style at the table, that it'd probably make for an interesting match. if keith gets around to reading this it'd be great to get some good ol' war stories out of em. and as for jay... a couple details from that 'encyclopedia of pool' brain of yours wouldn't hurt either lol.
 
macneilb said:
no one else has got anything?:embarrassed2:

I will show this thread to Keith later today. I am quite sure he has some Johnny Archer stories.

I know of one match-up that occurred on a golf course, and it is a story about Johnny's good timing. :wink:

I have seen them play a couple times in a tournament setting, but never in an action game.

On the offs, Johnny has always been the ultimate gentleman to me every single time I have seen him on the tournament trail. :)

JAM
 

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I have seen them play for many thousands of dollars a few times. That was in the late 80's and early 90's at the Wagon Wheel in Atlanta. At first they played even and by the 90's Keith usually got the 8-Ball from Johnny and the matches went both ways. I think Keith beat Johnny out of $10,000 there once, with that spot, only to lose it back the next night. Keith was hillarious to watch there. Very loud and mouthy, and very funny. I think if any one could have been promoted to take fats place it would have been Keith with his Color of Money fame and his never ending line of banter. Too bad some promoters didn't get behind him at the time. It could have made Keith and pool millions.
 
cueman said:
I have seen them play for many thousands of dollars a few times. That was in the late 80's and early 90's at the Wagon Wheel in Atlanta. At first they played even and by the 90's Keith usually got the 8-Ball from Johnny and the matches went both ways. I think Keith beat Johnny out of $10,000 there once, with that spot, only to lose it back the next night. Keith was hillarious to watch there. Very loud and mouthy, and very funny. I think if any one could have been promoted to take fats place it would have been Keith with his Color of Money fame and his never ending line of banter. Too bad some promoters didn't get behind him at the time. It could have made Keith and pool millions.


I didn't want to post about this until I talked to both guys and got an okay. I think Johnny is ahead overall from their games back then.

My recollection is that Keith beat Johnny the first time they played even, and then Johnny beat Keith a couple of times. Keith beat Johnny getting the eight and then Johnny won that back plus some. Keith told me about playing Johnny when he got back to California at Hard Times. He told me Johnny was the best player in the world at 9-Ball. That much I remember.
 
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Johnny and I have had a few battles. He's definitely ahead of me on money. When it's all said and done, between the golf course and the pool hall, he's probably got me about 60,000 loser.

As far as me and Johnny matching up today, it would just never happen. I have sort of taken Johnny Archer off my hit list, if you know what I mean. LOL. It was fun while it lasted, and it had its moments sometimes. I don't want to get into all the preliminaries and express how I really feel about it, so I'll just let it go at that.

The time we ran into each other in Lexington was sort of funny. I loved that Lexington tournament. I always had a good time there. There was one time in Lexington when I had Burle G. with me, and Big Sue. And it was Burle doing all the whoofing at Johnny, but I had my feet in there too.

I tried to leave Johnny alone because I knew I could play Tony Ellin. Tony was a little softer action than Johnny. They're both tough, but I preferred Tony. Johnny was trying real hard to get me in the box, but I wasn't going for it.

I had my eyes on playing Tony Ellin, and we did end up playing, even, a race to 21 for about 7 or 8 dimes. Burle bet 7,000 in the middle. Johnny Archer had a piece of Tony. I think he had half, and I loved that. It gave me a little more incentive to knock him in the tub.

Burle ended up betting the rail as well. I was down 8 to 7 at one point, with Tony shooting. It didn't look good for me, but Burle never gave up and bet another 7,000. The score got tied up, 8-8, and then Burle got down for another 6,000. Next time Tony looked up, it was 13 to 8, me. And that was the end of Tony. The final score was 21 to 17. It was a hard-fought match.

I'd have to say it was funny watching Johnny Archer and Tony Ellin walk around the tournament room, and they couldn't swallow a beebee. I can't remember if this was the same tournament, but I ended up winning the Lexington tournament one year, defeating Moro Paez in the finals. Moro had me 11 to 3. The final score was 15 to 11, me.
 
Keith McCready said:
Johnny and I have had a few battles. He's definitely ahead of me on money. When it's all said and done, between the golf course and the pool hall, he's probably got me about 60,000 loser.

As far as me and Johnny matching up today, it would just never happen. I have sort of taken Johnny Archer off my hit list, if you know what I mean. LOL. It was fun while it lasted, and it had its moments sometimes. I don't want to get into all the preliminaries and express how I really feel about it, so I'll just let it go at that.

The time we ran into each other in Lexington was sort of funny. I loved that Lexington tournament. I always had a good time there. There was one time in Lexington when I had Burle G. with me, and Big Sue. And it was Burle doing all the whoofing at Johnny, but I had my feet in there too.

I tried to leave Johnny alone because I knew I could play Tony Ellin. Tony was a little softer action than Johnny. They're both tough, but I preferred Tony. Johnny was trying real hard to get me in the box, but I wasn't going for it.

I had my eyes on playing Tony Ellin, and we did end up playing, even, a race to 21 for about 7 or 8 dimes. Burle bet 7,000 in the middle. Johnny Archer had a piece of Tony. I think he had half, and I loved that. It gave me a little more incentive to knock him in the tub.

Burle ended up betting the rail as well. I was down 8 to 7 at one point, with Tony shooting. It didn't look good for me, but Burle never gave up and bet another 7,000. The score got tied up, 8-8, and then Burle got down for another 6,000. Next time Tony looked up, it was 13 to 8, me. And that was the end of Tony. The final score was 21 to 17. It was a hard-fought match.

I'd have to say it was funny watching Johnny Archer and Tony Ellin walk around the tournament room, and they couldn't swallow a beebee. I can't remember if this was the same tournament, but I ended up winning the Lexington tournament one year, defeating Moro Paez in the finals. Moro had me 11 to 3. The final score was 15 to 11, me.

Thanks for the story.:thumbup:
 
Keith McCready said:
The time we ran into each other in Lexington was sort of funny. I loved that Lexington tournament. I always had a good time there. There was one time in Lexington when I had Burle G. with me, and Big Sue. And it was Burle doing all the whoofing at Johnny, but I had my feet in there too.

I had forgotten about Burle. He always had on a black leather jacket, and his wife always had that big purse, luggin around a ton. I went in with Peru Paul and a couple of guys trying to get Paul and Burle matched up at one of those tourneys. First time I saw Burle play was at the Maverick Club, Clyde Childress Memorial. He was playing Shannon Daulton, {Shannon had just turned 13 the day before, I think} with SD getting the 8 and betting $50 a game. Then it went to $100 and I believe Shannons Dad was bettin 2 or 300 a game with someone.

First time I ever hit balls with Keith was in Lexington. Warming up before the tourney started.
 
thank you to keith and jay for their input. its always great to hear some back-in-the-day stories from legends like keith. i kinda figured any matchups between you two would've been interesting b/c you contrast eachother so much, not to mention each of you got so much gamble in yourselves. all i can say is i wish you 2 would've hit your primes around the same time...that would've been a war in the making. thanks again keith. take care :cool:
 
Keith McCready said:
Johnny and I have had a few battles. He's definitely ahead of me on money. When it's all said and done, between the golf course and the pool hall, he's probably got me about 60,000 loser.

As far as me and Johnny matching up today, it would just never happen. I have sort of taken Johnny Archer off my hit list, if you know what I mean. LOL. It was fun while it lasted, and it had its moments sometimes. I don't want to get into all the preliminaries and express how I really feel about it, so I'll just let it go at that.

The time we ran into each other in Lexington was sort of funny. I loved that Lexington tournament. I always had a good time there. There was one time in Lexington when I had Burle G. with me, and Big Sue. And it was Burle doing all the whoofing at Johnny, but I had my feet in there too.

I tried to leave Johnny alone because I knew I could play Tony Ellin. Tony was a little softer action than Johnny. They're both tough, but I preferred Tony. Johnny was trying real hard to get me in the box, but I wasn't going for it.

I had my eyes on playing Tony Ellin, and we did end up playing, even, a race to 21 for about 7 or 8 dimes. Burle bet 7,000 in the middle. Johnny Archer had a piece of Tony. I think he had half, and I loved that. It gave me a little more incentive to knock him in the tub.

Burle ended up betting the rail as well. I was down 8 to 7 at one point, with Tony shooting. It didn't look good for me, but Burle never gave up and bet another 7,000. The score got tied up, 8-8, and then Burle got down for another 6,000. Next time Tony looked up, it was 13 to 8, me. And that was the end of Tony. The final score was 21 to 17. It was a hard-fought match.

I'd have to say it was funny watching Johnny Archer and Tony Ellin walk around the tournament room, and they couldn't swallow a beebee. I can't remember if this was the same tournament, but I ended up winning the Lexington tournament one year, defeating Moro Paez in the finals. Moro had me 11 to 3. The final score was 15 to 11, me.

Keith, you came back from Lexington all pumped up. I think you won 10K in the tourney and over 20K on the side, and you got a nice piece of all of it. If you could have avoided the track, you might have got to spend some of that loot. :)
 
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