Jim Rempe - One of the Greats?

macneilb

macneilb

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
i was just wondering what everyone where thought of Jim Rempe and his place among the the best pool players in the world today. I personally think he's a great player and should be considered among the greatest like efren or earl, but everytime i see a thread about the best of all time, its usually the same people on there and he isn't one of them. I was just wondering what you guys thought..there aren't too many players like him who can play all games as well as he did, plus his list of past accomplishments is as impressive as it gets.
 
macneilb said:
i was just wondering what everyone where thought of Jim Rempe and his place among the the best pool players in the world today. I personally think he's a great player and should be considered among the greatest like efren or earl, but everytime i see a thread about the best of all time, its usually the same people on there and he isn't one of them. I was just wondering what you guys thought..there aren't too many players like him who can play all games as well as he did, plus his list of past accomplishments is as impressive as it gets.
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FWIW, I have been told that Rempe played his best pool when he was young (17-23). He played good later but not as well as when he was young. A local player here that played most of the top players from the 70's-80's, Kenny McCoy aka "The Truck Driver", says that Rempe was the only player he ever played that actually beat him. IIRC, Rempe was 17 or 18 at the time.

Saw
 
macneilb said:
i was just wondering what everyone where thought of Jim Rempe and his place among the the best pool players in the world today. I personally think he's a great player and should be considered among the greatest like efren or earl, but everytime i see a thread about the best of all time, its usually the same people on there and he isn't one of them. I was just wondering what you guys thought..there aren't too many players like him who can play all games as well as he did, plus his list of past accomplishments is as impressive as it gets.
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Jimmy belongs among the greats! He played all games jam up, including One Pocket, Straight Pool and 9-Ball. His Bank game had a few holes though. :wink:
 
hi

rempe was awesome period.one of the greatest ever for sure. kenny the truck driver did not play many people if rempe was the only one to ever beat him lol.
 
macneilb said:
i was just wondering what everyone where thought of Jim Rempe and his place among the the best pool players in the world today. I personally think he's a great player and should be considered among the greatest like efren or earl, but everytime i see a thread about the best of all time, its usually the same people on there and he isn't one of them. I was just wondering what you guys thought..there aren't too many players like him who can play all games as well as he did, plus his list of past accomplishments is as impressive as it gets.
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Ummm..... considering he's in the Hall of Fame....

Fred <~~~ considers Jim Rempe one of his heroes
 
john schmidt said:
rempe was awesome period.one of the greatest ever for sure. kenny the truck driver did not play many people if rempe was the only one to ever beat him lol.
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No disrespect John, but most players in our generation don't know much about Kenny and even some from his generation because Kenny worked a full time job driving truck for Krogers grocery stores and played pool on the side. You being from the left coast probably never heard of him. If you would have taken a road trip thru here when you came east your steer would have told you not to play Cory, Dee, or the truck driver... Howard Vickery, also from Columbus, played pretty good right? Ask Howard how many times he beat the truck driver, and they played regularly, the answer is he didn't...... And Howard being 12 or so years younger was in his prime and Kenny was a little past his. He beat Seigel and Varner in a ring game at one of the Dayton All-Stars tournaments. Buddy told me that Kenny was one of the best shot makers he ever seen and that he would not have given Kenny more than the last two playing the old push out rules 9-ball. Lol if you want but that sounds pretty strong to me.... Maybe I didn't word the comment about Rempe beating Kenny right. Sure Kenny lost to some people but he said Rempe was the only one that truly outclassed him and beat him.....

Saw
 
I saw Rempe play sometime in the early to mid-90's at a seniors event in KS with Buddy, the Miz (may he rest in peace), Dick Lane, and others. I don't know if he went on to win it, but Jimmy played the best pool of anyone I watched that day. He played what probably would have been .900 9-ball throughout the few-hour period that I watched him. IIRC, he was struggling with his break a bit, but otherwise played nearly flawlessly, and he was certainly well past his prime at that time. I went to see Buddy, but ended up being mesmerized by Rempe. Seemed like a heck of a nice guy to boot.
 
i actually really like jim's commentary too - he seems very intelligent and articulate too and i particularly enjoyed his "how to run a hundred balls" video, where he commentates one of his own runs.

top man.
 
jus4funbilliard said:
I saw Rempe play in an open event in Mass around 94 nice guy take time to talk between matches shot very well
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King James = Class Act

Was this the Joss finale at Country Club? If so, I was there too and got to speak with him.
 
Truly one of the greats, class act, been married to Sally probably 40 years now. Ambassador of the game world wide years before his time. Consummate professional and extremely tough to beat in match play for anyone. Truly one of the greats at pocketing tough shots and getting out, much like Sigel.
 
Some of the best pool I've ever seen has been Rempe either live or on tape.

Fantastic straight pool and nine ball player. Jimmy Fusco absolutely tortures Rempe on a classic Accu-Stats match (Freddie B on commentary, BTW) at one pocket and it didn't seem like Rempe knows the game all that well, but he even won the one pocket at Johnson City one year by shooting crazy shots and making most of them.

His player review match of 14.1 against Ginky is a must for any 14.1 fan. His knowledge of 14.1 is as deep as anyone alive I'd guess.

The nine ball finals against Archer at the Sands in the early nineties was also an incredible match, both shot well over .900 but Jim prevailed by playing dead solid, run out pool.

I think I've heard Jim say that he should have another world 14.1 title but it wasn't recognized by the BCA or something. A ball skidded on him and cost him another championship or his record might be even greater.
 
bud green said:
Fantastic straight pool and nine ball player. Jimmy Fusco absolutely tortures Rempe on a classic Accu-Stats match (Freddie B on commentary, BTW) at one pocket and it didn't seem like Rempe knows the game all that well, but he even won the one pocket at Johnson City one year by shooting crazy shots and making most of them.
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I feel the same way. Rempe was one of the great all time 9-ballers, and straight pool players. I don't think 1P was his game, except for 8's-and-outs.:smile:

But pool skills aside, he was (and probably still is) a class act. He's a handsome man, an excellent dresser, and has a real gentlemanly quality about him. I wish there were a few more like him playing today.

Doc
 
A Jim Rempe quote, "Your choice of shots is not always the most important thing. It's how you execute the shot you choose."

One other thing. If you're tall, you would do well to emulate his stance. He had the best (and most solid) stance of any tall player I ever saw.
 
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I want to echo the sentiments of basically everyone else here. Jim Rempe has been one of my favorite players if not my absolute favorite since I started playing pool. To me he seems to be everything a great professional pool player should be both on and off the table. Also, I want to reiterate something someone else touched on briefly. In my opinion the commentary that Jim has done for Accu-Stats is some of my favorite commentary. That's just another reason to buy the Efren Earl Z shot match. Also another recommendation is his straight pool match against Oliver Ortman at the 2000 U.S. Open. Even though he looses the match he comes back from being down almost 90 balls to only loose by 4 or so.
 
Rempe is in the Hall of Fame because of his prowress in the 70s. He won numerous tournaments back then, and gained the nickname "King James".


I attended a tournament in Irvine at the Regency Hotel in about 1978 or so. Rempe beat Sigel, Billy Johnson, Cicero Murphy, all of them and won the tourney.

He was definitely the man to beat for about ten years.

He had his day in the limelight in the mid 70s to the early 80s when he was beating everyone.

He is definitely one of the best players of all time, in all games.
 
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