infamous pool tournament in burlington.ill.

JMB

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
is there anyone outthere that has memories of burlington tournament? was it held only one year? if so what year?? any one reading this that was there, please contact me, thanks--jb
 
The World 9-Ball tournament was held in October of 1975, in Burlington IOWA...across the river from S. IL. The promoter was Bill Incardona.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

If it's the same Burlington I'm thinking about, there was a lot of action at this tournament. Long story short, there was more money involved in the action than, say, the tournament. :o
 
If it's the same Burlington I'm thinking about, there was a lot of action at this tournament. Long story short, there was more money involved in the action than, say, the tournament. :o

I guess I have the impression that is not unusual. :groucho:

Scott. Burlington is across the river from Gulfport Il. Nothing "good" ever happened to anybody in Gulfport.. imo. :groucho:
 
Rempe won it

The World 9-Ball tournament was held in October of 1975, in Burlington IOWA...across the river from S. IL. The promoter was Bill Incardona.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com


Jimmy Rempe won it. I was there. It was held at the Municipal Auditorium.

There was an All-Around held in Burlington too, probably the next year, that included 8 ball. I played in that too. Flyboy Jimmy Spears won the 9 Ball and I think he won the All-Around. It was maybe the toughest field ever assembled in the history of pool. Every human in the US played in that tourn. A lot of players got stiffed.

Beard
 
...It was maybe the toughest field ever assembled in the history of pool. Every human in the US played in that tourn. A lot of players got stiffed.

It was told to me that some players knew in advance that the tournament monies would not be coming forth, so they didn't even bother showing up for their tournament match, even though they were in the money rounds.

That said, there was a lot of action on the offs. One player close to me said he left town with his pockets stuffed with cabbage. :wink:
 
Need the year

It was told to me that some players knew in advance that the tournament monies would not be coming forth, so they didn't even bother showing up for their tournament match, even though they were in the money rounds.

That said, there was a lot of action on the offs. One player close to me said he left town with his pockets stuffed with cabbage. :wink:

JAMMY, I need the year for my memoirs. Keith and Cole were there. Both played great on incredibly tough pockets. But I dont remember anything about guys not showing up for their money rounds. Jimmy Marino and I had to play for 3rd place in the 8 ball and he sure as hell showed up to beat me.
I think it was 76 or 77. The attendance was pitiful. Cardone and Ronnie A and I forgot who else were the promoters. I eventually got paid a few months later.

Beard
 
JAMMY, I need the year for my memoirs. Keith and Cole were there. Both played great on incredibly tough pockets. But I dont remember anything about guys not showing up for their money rounds. Jimmy Marino and I had to play for 3rd place in the 8 ball and he sure as hell showed up to beat me.
I think it was 76 or 77. The attendance was pitiful. Cardone and Ronnie A and I forgot who else were the promoters. I eventually got paid a few months later.

Beard

For sure, Freddy. When Keith wakes up, I will provide more color.

I do know he gambled a good player from Washington State on the offs in Burlington, as well as some others.

I wrote about this tournament, and I can't find the post on AzBilliards.

Right now, though, I'm on a search for a post I wrote about Allen Hopkins playing Jew Paul for big bucks years ago. I wrote it on this forum, and I cannot find it. I have searched and searched with different keywords, and the post just ain't popping up. I know I wrote it because I quoted an article from either Snap or National Billiard Newsletter. I wanted to share it in the thread for Jew Paul to receive the Lifetime Action Award from OnePocket.org's Hall of Fame.

I'll see if I can find the Burlington post I wrote after that. I've been searching for several hours now for Trivett, Burlington, and Jew Paul as keywords on AzBilliards and Google and my computer, coming up empty on all of them. It is very frustrating when I know these posts exist. :frown:

I guess I should go to work, though, because writing about pool doesn't pay my bills. LOL
 
Last edited:
Found this little snippet in one of my older posts to add to your "memoirs," Freddy. :grin-square:

With all that great training provided by Danny [DiLiberto], Mike [Carella] went on to become one of the top one-pocket players in the world, and he was an excellent 9-ball player as well. This he proved in 1974 by placing second behind Jim Rempe in Burlington, Iowa, at the World 9-Ball Championships in a field of 165 of the top players in the world.
 
Here's another little snippet, Freddy, from an older post of mine that I copied-and-pasted from National Billiards Newsletter, a Letter to the Editor written by Jimmy Mataya entitled "Pocket Billiard World," January 1978, The National Billiard News, page 9: :eek:

I'm tired of reading these lies about someone who claims they have won more major tournaments than anyone else, and you know who I'm talking about.

And all of these big-time stars who are suppose to be making their own line of professional cues, they are just trying to become a legend without really winning.

Well, I have my titles, and I don't need to lie about them or doctor them up. I was the World Champion in 1971 and '72. I then moved west and went into semi-retirement. Since then, I have played in a few tournaments, won a few, lost a few. And for what?
Only to get cheated out of my prize money in New Mexico, Florida, and Burlington, Iowa.
 
Here's a list of Jim Rempe's so-called official championship title list, in which he lists Burlington as 1975, another memoir snippet for the Burlington era of tournament(s):

1971 Invitational Nine-Ball Arlington, Virginia
1971 U.S. Masters 14.1 Arlington, Virginia
1971 Hustlers World One-Pocket Johnson City, Illinois
1972 U.S. Master's 14.1 Arlington, Virginia
1972 World's Nine-Ball Dayton, Ohio
1972 Maine State 14.1 Scarborough, Maine
1972 Minnesota Fats Classic 14.1 and All-Around Arlington, Virginia
1973 Ohio Open Nine-Ball Cleveland, Ohio
1973 New York State 14.1 Newburgh, New York
1973 World's Nine-Ball Dayton, Ohio
1975 World Nine-ball Association Tournament
1975 U.S. Master's 14.1 Arlington, Virginia
1975 Eastern Invitational Nine-Ball Elizabeth, New Jersey
1975 World's Nine-Ball Burlington, Iowa
1976 Master's Invitational All-Around Norfolk, Virginia
1976 Indiana Open 14.1 South Bend, Indiana
1976 International Brunswick Open Rotation Tokyo, Japan
1977 Mako World Nine-Ball Association Invitational Tournament, Irvine, California
1977 Q-Masters Invitational All Around Norfolk, Virginia
1977 Miami Open Nine-Ball Miami, Florida
1977 International World Invitational Nine-Ball and 14.4 Grand Championship Osaka, Japan
1990 Classic Invitational Straight Pool Championship, Rochester, New York
1998 World Pool League
1999 World Pool League
 
Interesting how "The Snap" has the date of Burlington as 1974 and Jim Rempe lists it as 1975. :confused:
 
Sometimes its easier to use Google to search these forums.

Try this

That is EXTREMELY helpful, Calcuttaman. :smile:

For some reason, some of my posts are missing from AzBilliards. I know I wrote about this topic, especially Allen Hopkins playing Jew Paul, and I cannot find the damn post. It's frustrating.
 
JAMMY, I need the year for my memoirs. Keith and Cole were there. Both played great on incredibly tough pockets. But I dont remember anything about guys not showing up for their money rounds. Jimmy Marino and I had to play for 3rd place in the 8 ball and he sure as hell showed up to beat me.
I think it was 76 or 77. The attendance was pitiful. Cardone and Ronnie A and I forgot who else were the promoters. I eventually got paid a few months later.

Beard

Fred,
The dates it was played was Thursday Oct 30, 1975 to Sunday Nov 2, 1975.
It was sponsored by the "World Nine Ball Association" P.O.Box 227 Galesburg, Il 61401.
Dick Coffey was the other promoter.

I have loads of info on this tournament, so I don't know what other parts would interest you. Let me know if something specific is needed.
 
Fred,
The dates it was played was Thursday Oct 30, 1975 to Sunday Nov 2, 1975.
It was sponsored by the "World Nine Ball Association" P.O.Box 227 Galesburg, Il 61401.
Dick Coffey was the other promoter.

I have loads of info on this tournament, so I don't know what other parts would interest you. Let me know if something specific is needed.

Terry, do you have any data on there being more than one tournament in Burlington, Iowa?

I seem to recollect a tournament being played at the Holiday Inn in Burlington, but, again, my memory is fuzzy on this.

I'm going to have to go digging in my National Billiards News, I guess. I have the papers in pretty good order from 1975 to 1985. The date is helpful because usually they didn't write about tournaments back then until two or three months after the fact.:o
 
I don't know if it's the case here, but, remember that some threads have been removed for various reasons. Such as getting out of hand, ect. It's possible that it was in one of those threads.

That's a definite possibility, but this post I wrote was truly just about Allen Hopkins. I copied-and-pasted it from "The Snap," I'm pretty sure. I can see his black-and-white photo now in the article, sporting a beard.
 
Terry, do you have any data on there being more than one tournament in Burlington, Iowa?

I seem to recollect a tournament being played at the Holiday Inn in Burlington, but, again, my memory is fuzzy on this.

I'm going to have to go digging in my National Billiards News, I guess. I have the papers in pretty good order from 1975 to 1985. The date is helpful because usually they didn't write about tournaments back then until two or three months after the fact.:o

I don't have anything listed about there being a 2nd Burlington tournament.

The December 1975 issue of The National Billiards News has a lot of info about this event.

I'll peek around in the next day or so to better find out about a 2nd Burlington event.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAM
I don't have anything listed about there being a 2nd Burlington tournament.

The December 1975 issue of The National Billiards News has a lot of info about this event.

I'll peek around in the next day or so to better find out about a 2nd Burlington event.

Thanks a bunch, Terry. :)

Did find this little nugget from the Pittsburgh Post from October 1983 entitled: Bite is Bigger on the Pro Pool Tour. [Retrieved 1 November 2010]

About Jim Marino, who's from Pittsburgh, it goes like this:

But Marino found there were more hustlers running tournaments than were in it.

He has fond memories of victories in 1971 and 1974, but not the 1975 tournament in Burlington, when on the final day it was learned the two promoters didn't have enough money to cover the players' winnings. In the company of a bottle and a fellow pool player, Marino kept an all-night vigil over one of the promoters as assurance he'd receive his check the next morning. As he suspected, the prize money was short.

"The people who cashed their checks that same day got paid. But those who ended up taking their checks home, well, they're still waiting for their money," he said.
 
Back
Top