Jean Balukas

JoeyA

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
I was looking through an old issue of one of the billiard magazines from 1988. A friend had given me his collection of pool magazines and when I travel I carry a few with me to read.

The story detailed Jean's reason for leaving the women's pro tour and there were many interesting details about Jean that I didn't know that I thought some of you might be interested in.

At one time, Jean had won 16 CONSECUTIVE women pool tournaments. I don't think there is any other person in the world that could honestly say they had won 16 consecutive pool tournaments, men or women.

Jean, like many other professional pool players had some unique idiosycracies that she carried with her into each match. Jean reportedly didn't like to get friendly with her competitors and when competing wanted to destroy and humiliate her opponents. She suggested that if she was friendly with her competitors she would lose her edge.

Jean once beat Buddy Hall in a tournament and remarked that she had just caught Buddy on an off day. It was a classy thing to say even if it was true.

Jean had plenty of people advising her to pay the fine levied against her but she refused and supposedly talked to John McEnroe and he advised her NOT to pay the fine. The reason Jean didn't want to pay the fine is she felt that her fellow competitors should not have had the power to levy the fine and that this was just an opportunity for the other women players and management (who were tired of Jean winning virtually every women's pool tournament) to "get Jean".

Just a few thoughts from the past.

JoeyA
 
Joey...The rules were quite clear back then. Jean sharked Robin Bell, was warned, and then did it again. That's why the fine was levied. It would have been the same for any player who exhibited that behavior. Jean didn't want to pay it ($200), and so resigned from the tour. There was no plot to "get" Jean.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

JoeyA said:
Jean had plenty of people advising her to pay the fine levied against her but she refused and supposedly talked to John McEnroe and he advised her NOT to pay the fine. The reason Jean didn't want to pay the fine is she felt that her fellow competitors should not have had the power to levy the fine and that this was just an opportunity for the other women players and management (who were tired of Jean winning virtually every women's pool tournament) to "get Jean".

JoeyA
Click to expand...
 
Scott Lee said:
Joey...The rules were quite clear back then. Jean sharked Robin Bell, was warned, and then did it again. That's why the fine was levied. It would have been the same for any player who exhibited that behavior. Jean didn't want to pay it ($200), and so resigned from the tour. There was no plot to "get" Jean.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

"sharked" could mean a lot of things.. what exactly did she do?
 
Scott Lee said:
Joey...The rules were quite clear back then. Jean sharked Robin Bell, was warned, and then did it again. That's why the fine was levied. It would have been the same for any player who exhibited that behavior. Jean didn't want to pay it ($200), and so resigned from the tour. There was no plot to "get" Jean.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

Scott are you sure that is the way it went down? I have a friend that played on the tour at the same time and knew Jean well that gave me a different reason.
 
Jean didn't "shark" anybody. She was playing Robin in the Finals and Robin made the nine on the break twice. The second time Jean got pissed, and shouted out to her from her chair "Beat me with skill, not luck!"

It was an unusual outburst from Jean but nothing worse than I saw happen dozens of times among the men (and worse). After the match (Jean won), Robin complained to the WPBA board who levied the fine against her. Jean felt singled out, since other women had yelled at their opponent before and not been fined. She refused to pay the fine and was suspended from the WPBA and not allowed to play in any events until the fine was paid.

The fine has not been paid to this day. Jean later confided in me that she was burned out on pool anyway. She was 29 years old and had been playing for twenty years straight! Since she was a nine year old. It gave her a reason to get away from pool for a while, and she never came back. I think Jean was smart enough to realize that competitive pool had become unhealthy for her mentally.

Jean will occasionally show up at a tournament as a spectator to watch some of her friends play. She has no interest in getting back into professional pool. In her day, the WPBA tour was not nearly as full of good players. Only three or four women could even compete with Jean and the fields only had 16-20 players on average.

How good did she play? IMO every bit as good as Allison or Karen. And Jean was just as much of a competitor as them also. Jean was probably the greatest woman athlete to ever play pool. She excelled at all sports she tried, including golf and tennis.
 
Last edited:
I couldn't remember what it was that she did to get fined, but I was sure she didn't shark anyone. Nice to have someone who clearly remembers Jay ! I tried to give you rep but I got the "must spread it around" thing. REP TO YOU JAY...Tom
 
JoeyA said:
I was looking through an old issue of one of the billiard magazines from 1988. A friend had given me his collection of pool magazines and when I travel I carry a few with me to read.

The story detailed Jean's reason for leaving the women's pro tour and there were many interesting details about Jean that I didn't know that I thought some of you might be interested in.

At one time, Jean had won 16 CONSECUTIVE women pool tournaments. I don't think there is any other person in the world that could honestly say they had won 16 consecutive pool tournaments, men or women.

Jean, like many other professional pool players had some unique idiosycracies that she carried with her into each match. Jean reportedly didn't like to get friendly with her competitors and when competing wanted to destroy and humiliate her opponents. She suggested that if she was friendly with her competitors she would lose her edge.

Jean once beat Buddy Hall in a tournament and remarked that she had just caught Buddy on an off day. It was a classy thing to say even if it was true.

Jean had plenty of people advising her to pay the fine levied against her but she refused and supposedly talked to John McEnroe and he advised her NOT to pay the fine. The reason Jean didn't want to pay the fine is she felt that her fellow competitors should not have had the power to levy the fine and that this was just an opportunity for the other women players and management (who were tired of Jean winning virtually every women's pool tournament) to "get Jean".

Just a few thoughts from the past.

JoeyA
Click to expand...

If my memory serves correctly, she beat Buddy and Rmepe the same day at the Clyde Childress tournament.

Her match the next day was with David Howard who was up a practicing at 9 AM. He was worried and determined. He won 11- 9 and looked as if he had just won the US Open.
 
There are some YouTube videos of Jean on PBS specials or Charlie Rose I think.

I have heard from people that talked to Jean the reason for her outburst was her opinion that straight pool was the only "real" pool game. So her comment about "beat me with skill" was also directed at the womens league as a whole concentrating on 9 ball instead of straight pool.

Someone published an article that was scanned and uploaded on AZbilliards some time ago. Its always good to hear Jean Balukas stories. She was one of the early greats that paved the way for the women players of today.
 
that says a lot

ironman said:
If my memory serves correctly, she beat Buddy and Rmepe the same day at the Clyde Childress tournament.

Her match the next day was with David Howard who was up a practicing at 9 AM. He was worried and determined. He won 11- 9 and looked as if he had just won the US Open.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this post....it's a very telling indication of how good she really was....As much as they used to say about how Tiger Woods playing in a tournament meant everyone was playing for 2nd place, this must have been true with Jean many times over...... and thanks to Jay for another good insight into history.......

I guess some women might have sympathized with Jean, but probably far more were sorta glad she wasn't participating anymore.........She was so dominating.....That is also why so many wonder how she would've matched up with Allison, although we will never know, because she is past her prime by now, I guess.......
 
I still have this Balukas/Bell match on VHS tape - somewhere. Jean was quite upset and felt like the balls weren't being racked tightly, thus making it easier to snap the nine. She was under intense pressure at that time because she was competing in men's tourney's (to scathing comment in many cases - it was largely unpopular), and was expected to win every women's tourney. Can you imagine?
I think the main reason the fine was levied was because this public meltdown, unfortunately for everyone, happened on television - on ESPN - the primary media outlet for pool at the time. It really was quite embarrasing & painful to watch, and unfortunately may be the most vivid remembrance of a truly great champion for those who don't follow pool w/ the kind of enthusiasm most of those on this forum do. (I'm talking about exactly the demo needed to push pool into a more elevated media position, here.)
Too bad. She was great, and quite personable once the smoke cleared after competition. It's not at all unusual for players to be severe in their personna while competing.
I think she truly was an entirely unintended whipping post for a sport in transition, and at a time when she was ill prepared absorb the extra scrutiny in her life.
 
Last edited:
freddy the beard said:
I have on my blog a 20 min video of a young Jean being interviewed by the editor of the Billiard Digest, Mort Luby.

http://vintagevideo-balukas.blogspot.com/2008/05/jean-balukas-interview-part-1.html

the Beard
Click to expand...

In the interview she discusses having beat McCready, Hall, Mizerak, and Lebron. That's quite an accomplishment. Jean was the real deal. She is/was the type of competitor that I could respect, not just for her accomplishments but for her competitive nature alone. I guess even the greats can get burned out on pool. Sometimes I think it is simply the intensity of staying on top of your game that finally "cooks" you.

Thanks for the video, Beard.
JoeyA
 
JoeyA said:
Jean ....when competing wanted to destroy and humiliate her opponents. She suggested that if she was friendly with her competitors she would lose her edge.


Jean ........ supposedly talked to John McEnroe and he advised her NOT to pay the fine.
JoeyA
Click to expand...

JA,
I find that sort of competitve nature common among "world-beaters". To succeed at that level requires quite a bit of fortitude (and ego as well).

I was fortunate to fall in with a group of pro's - one of whom has been #1 in the world. We've had regular competitive sessions (always 14.1) for at least 3 or 4 years now. The very first session, I was asked whether I wanted some friendly practice (drills and such) or wanted to play a game - I said that we should just play a friendly game, and I would start with a large (oh, alright...a monstrously large) handicap. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was told, "you know you are my friend, but if we're keeping score I'm going to have to rip your heart out" - I now know this was only half-joking.

I also was intrigued by your report that Jean sought out JOHN McENROE for anger management advice. Priceless. What's next....beauty tips from Madeleine Albright, hair styling tips from Ralf Souquet, etiquette lessons from Sarah Ellerby, spelling lessons from Fatboy, punctuation tips from Travis Trotter.......hey, this is a thread in itself.
 
JoeyA said:
x
Jean had plenty of people advising her to pay the fine levied against her but she refused and supposedly talked to John McEnroe and he advised her NOT to pay the fine. The reason Jean didn't want to pay the fine is she felt that her fellow competitors should not have had the power to levy the fine and that this was just an opportunity for the other women players and management (who were tired of Jean winning virtually every women's pool tournament) to "get Jean".

Just a few thoughts from the past.

JoeyA
Click to expand...

She was right. Organizations of pool players should have no right to fine players or dictate conduct of any kind. When players organizations try to run tours, and promote and direct tournaments there is a conflict. They wind up limiting tournament opportunities because they want control of the players. The player's organization should only decide sanctioning and rankings. Tournaments should be independent and sanctioned by the player's organization to give points according to added money/entry fees/openness/etc.

In this case, the tournament director had the option of disqualifying Balukas. When he didn't, then that subject should have been closed. If the director does a bad job the tournament sanctioning could be pulled for the next year.

The WPBA is our most successful pool org. But if they had folded after the Balukas fine maybe she'd be back playing. Maybe there'd be more, better tournaments. And maybe the men and women would be playing at the same venues like they used to, which added atmosphere to the older events.

I congratulate the WPBA though on going to the smaller pockets. I haven't been able to catch but a couple of matches on TV since they did but they are more fun to watch now.

I saw Balukas drill Larry Liscotti at the US Open eleven to one. Liscotti won his first game to make it 9-1 I think and took a break. He announced very loudly that he was going to the MENS room where she couldn't follow him, lol...
 
freddy the beard said:
I have on my blog a 20 min video of a young Jean being interviewed by the editor of the Billiard Digest, Mort Luby.

http://vintagevideo-balukas.blogspot.com/2008/05/jean-balukas-interview-part-1.html

the Beard
Click to expand...

Great stuff Freddy, so much irony in that interview considering how things changed not too long after. I thought her comments about changing the image of pool and women being the ones who could do that are so true.
Jean was good at promoting herself. I visited her pool hall a few times and she had a lot of her old press displayed. I remember an article which I think was in the NY Post, where she challenged Eddie Murphy to a match. He had stated publicly that no woman could beat him in pool or something like that. She also got on a lot of talk shows and stuff like that, she new being a woman in the sport was unique.
It still is and I think some of the players today might capitalize on it more if they invested in a publicist or something.

I am planning to spend some more time today going through your videos, what a great resource.
 
One thing to note on this story is that we lost a great champion for many years because of bad racks in 9 ball. That problem has been solved. A good rack of 9 ball turned out to be a bad thing, however. So the game is going to change to ten ball (and up, I'm sure) with good racks. Maybe doing that now on the WPBA would get Jean back playing if Fatboy would come off some of his dough and pay her fine already... I'd love to see Jean knock the British invaders down a peg or two.
 
I think I saw the match in question back in the day.

Seems like the controversy was complex, but I don't remember "yelling", I remember Jean grumbling from her chair.

I gathered it was something about trying to hold the women to higher standard, as the men were acting like scrappy, tough guy hustlers, and were NOT getting on TV as much as the women.

I got the feeling they wanted to "make an example" of Jean. There was also some friction because the girls felt she was "double dipping" playing in the open division of tournaments as well as the small pond.

I was starting to play but I remember being impressed, she was CASHING in pro men's events. :eek:

She's got my vote for best women's player.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top