Jay Helfert please read

measureman

measureman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am always astounded by your knowledge of pool players,characters and history. I grew up in New Jersey and learned to play in the early 60's when there were a lot of great and very good players around.
So my question is have you ever heard of these four somewhat unknowns to the general pool playing public.
Ernie Lager
Sam "One Poke" Fauver
Joe Russo from Trenton
Doc Hazard
I knew Ernie and "One Poke" quite well and played Joe Russo some 9 ball a couple times. Doc i never played and did not want to and if you know him you will know why.
If any of these ring a bell you will further amaze me. Anybody else know these guys?

Thanks
 
I think I may have seen Joe Russo in Binghamton, NY once or twice. Probably at the NYS 9 Ball Championship. I definitely remember a Russo, but it might not have been him. Played pretty well, as I recall. Long time ago:frown:
 
Of these, I only recall Joe Russo, who, as you note, was from Trenton, New Jersey.

His two great achievements were a) when he captured the 1971 Stardust Open in Las Vegas, and b) when he won the 1969 Hustler in Johnston City.

He was a classy, graceful player. He was a billiard room proprietor, but the name and location of his room escape me.
 
measureman said:
I am always astounded by your knowledge of pool players,characters and history. I grew up in New Jersey and learned to play in the early 60's when there were a lot of great and very good players around.
So my question is have you ever heard of these four somewhat unknowns to the general pool playing public.
Ernie Lager
Sam "One Poke" Fauver
Joe Russo from Trenton
Doc Hazard
I knew Ernie and "One Poke" quite well and played Joe Russo some 9 ball a couple times. Doc i never played and did not want to and if you know him you will know why.
If any of these ring a bell you will further amaze me. Anybody else know these guys?

Thanks
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I awalys bust Jays balls about everything I can think of only as a friend. Jay has one of the best memories of anyone I ever met. Everything that Jay has wrote or talked about is 100% no exaggerations etc, I know cause I was around back in the mid to late 80's and know what he is talking about. If Jay says something thats the way it went down,
 
rackem said:
Did you guys ever play at West End Billiards?
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Never played there, but spectated the weekly event at West End Billiards in New Jersey on a few occasions in the 1980's.

The legendary weekly event there lasted until about 1990. Among those who competed in that event were Ray Martin, Allen Hopkins, Pete Margo, Jack Colavita, Irving Crane, Steve Mizerak, and many other world beaters. A very young Tony Robles used to play in that event, too, but he was not quite ready to succeed against this collection of world beaters. Still, Robles, the eventual 2004 BCA 9-Ball champion has taken note of the fact that playing in this event toughened him and gave him a lot of seasoning.
 
measureman said:
I am always astounded by your knowledge of pool players,characters and history. I grew up in New Jersey and learned to play in the early 60's when there were a lot of great and very good players around.
So my question is have you ever heard of these four somewhat unknowns to the general pool playing public.
Ernie Lager
Sam "One Poke" Fauver
Joe Russo from Trenton
Doc Hazard
I knew Ernie and "One Poke" quite well and played Joe Russo some 9 ball a couple times. Doc i never played and did not want to and if you know him you will know why.
If any of these ring a bell you will further amaze me. Anybody else know these guys?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I knew all these guys. Ernie played good straight pool, just under the top players. Sam was mostly a low stakes gambler from what I remember about him. He was well under Ernie's speed. Doc Hazard probably got around more than any of the other three. He showed up in many action rooms up and down the East Coast. I think he even made it to Johnston City a couple of times. I'm pretty sure I first saw him there and he was also in Dayton in the 70's.

Joe Russo I knew the best of the four. He was a world class Straight Pool player. I think he's still alive, probably over 80 by now. He invented the Russo Interlocking Bridge, which made it easy to stack two bridges for more elevation. Sold a bunch of them too.

Tell me if I'm right. Ernie and Doc are both deceased and Sam is still alive. He would be the youngest of the bunch and probably still playing somewhere. If I'm wrong I owe you a drink. :rolleyes:

P.S. You had to know Peter Rabbit too. He died a few years back. What a funny guy he was!
 
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my testimony

When Helfert finally bites the dust we've got to freeze his brain so that some time in the future we can figure out how to access it's memory like we would a computer. What a treasure he is. I gave no thought to the life of the game until I suddenly became an old fart and reading Helfert:bow-down:
 
Doc Hazard

I never met Doc Hazard, but a good friend of mine got to know him very well. His name was E.Z. (doc) Hazard.

In the early years (like maybe 1940- early 1960's) Hazard was never asked to play in the 'invitational 14.1 events. He was that good - but terribly slow and methodical.

John Duclos who now lives around Kennewick, Washington - spent a lot of time with him around 1970-72. John was living in Florida - I believe in West Palm area. Hazard worked (or hung out) at a bowling alley with 9' tables.

He taught John (already a very accomplished player) a lot. John was very impressed with Hazard.

Weenie Beenie came through and they played to (I think) 150 for $500. Doc would only play one game a day. I believe he broke even with Weenie - and this was when he was in his late 60's or older.

A great teacher and player - just another player that did not get the respect he deserved.

Mark Griffin
 
jay helfert said:
I knew all these guys. Ernie played good straight pool, just under the top players. Sam was mostly a low stakes gambler from what I remember about him. He was well under Ernie's speed. Doc Hazard probably got around more than any of the other three. He showed up in many action rooms up and down the East Coast. I think he even made it to Johnston City a couple of times. I'm pretty sure I first saw him there and he was also in Dayton in the 70's.

Joe Russo I knew the best of the four. He was a world class Straight Pool player. I think he's still alive, probably over 80 by now. He invented the Russo Interlocking Bridge, which made it easy to stack two bridges for more elevation. Sold a bunch of them too.

Tell me if I'm right. Ernie and Doc are both deceased and Sam is still alive. He would be the youngest of the bunch and probably still playing somewhere. If I'm wrong I owe you a drink. :rolleyes:

P.S. You had to know Peter Rabbit too. He died a few years back. What a funny guy he was!
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It ain't no fun if the rabbits got the gun! That old dude took Bartram and I around Philly a long time ago and drove 100 mph laughing the whole way. Scariest ride of my life.
 
jay helfert said:
I knew all these guys. Ernie played good straight pool, just under the top players. Sam was mostly a low stakes gambler from what I remember about him. He was well under Ernie's speed. Doc Hazard probably got around more than any of the other three. He showed up in many action rooms up and down the East Coast. I think he even made it to Johnston City a couple of times. I'm pretty sure I first saw him there and he was also in Dayton in the 70's.

Joe Russo I knew the best of the four. He was a world class Straight Pool player. I think he's still alive, probably over 80 by now. He invented the Russo Interlocking Bridge, which made it easy to stack two bridges for more elevation. Sold a bunch of them too.

Tell me if I'm right. Ernie and Doc are both deceased and Sam is still alive. He would be the youngest of the bunch and probably still playing somewhere. If I'm wrong I owe you a drink. :rolleyes:

P.S. You had to know Peter Rabbit too. He died a few years back. What a funny guy he was!
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Ok you owe me a drink. You got them all right on except for Sam.
Sam "One Poke" Fauver was born in 1900 i met him at the pool room he owned in Neptune NJ in 1961. At that time he was done with competitive pool playing. Some of the stories about him that i had verified from reliable people were that Jimmy Caras came to town(as the masked marvel ?) and Sam beat him pretty good and that he played Mosconi and won 1 out of 3 straight pool games. He claimed a high run of 426 balls but that was on his say so only. He was certainly capable of that but it was unverified. When he was 64 years old and wore thick lens glasses i saw him run 169 and only missed because he got out of line and had to shoot a long shot and with his vision it was all that harder. He did teach Neptune Joe Frady a lot about the game. If you ever run in to Joe he could probably add some information on a very good player that time has forgotten. There are probably a lot of old time players like Sam whose stories have been lost or forgotten. But again your knowledge is astounding. Hopefully i have added a little more. I know for sure that Ernie passed sometime in the mid to late 70's from cancer. I would guess that Doc is gone or he would really be old now. Never ran into Peter but knew of him.
 
measureman said:
Ok you owe me a drink. You got them all right on except for Sam.
Sam "One Poke" Fauver was born in 1900 i met him at the pool room he owned in Neptune NJ in 1961. At that time he was done with competitive pool playing. Some of the stories about him that i had verified from reliable people were that Jimmy Caras came to town(as the masked marvel ?) and Sam beat him pretty good and that he played Mosconi and won 1 out of 3 straight pool games. He claimed a high run of 426 balls but that was on his say so only. He was certainly capable of that but it was unverified. When he was 64 years old and wore thick lens glasses i saw him run 169 and only missed because he got out of line and had to shoot a long shot and with his vision it was all that harder. He did teach Neptune Joe Frady a lot about the game. If you ever run in to Joe he could probably add some information on a very good player that time has forgotten. There are probably a lot of old time players like Sam whose stories have been lost or forgotten. But again your knowledge is astounding. Hopefully i have added a little more. I know for sure that Ernie passed sometime in the mid to late 70's from cancer. I would guess that Doc is gone or he would really be old now. Never ran into Peter but knew of him.
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I am confused on Sam. I guess I heard so much about him from the East Coast guys that I "assumed" he was still around in the 80's. Neptune Joe used to play in the big tourneys in Atlantic City, and he mentioned Sam more than once and talked about him like he was still playing. I never saw him or Ernie play, only knew them by reputation. Ernie did play in some of the big East Coast 14.1 events back in the 60's and 70's. First drinks on me!
 
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