Chris,
I grew up in Dayton, Ohio and George was a legendary player back when I was a kid. In the 60's I worked at a place called "The Cue And Bridge" and George would come in every other day or so to practice. He would throw the balls on the table and run 80 or 90 and then practice 9-Ball the same way. Just throw em out and run em out. He might run ten or twenty racks that way and if he missed he would shoot that shot four or five times until he was satisfied.
George was content to play an hour or two and then head home to his wife and dogs. If ever a road player came into the room, we were instructed to call George. On several occasions I watched him send the roadman to the rack. His victims included Joey Spaeth, Patcheye, The Chicken Man and a few others whose names I've forgotten. When Fats came to town for an exhibition, he was very complimentary to George and made it clear he wanted nothing to do with him. The great Eddie Taylor also declined to play George when asked, as did Lassiter who was heard to remark that George Rood was the best 9-Ball player he knew.
The match I remember most fondly was when a slick looking young man came in asking for a game. He played a couple of locals and beat them easily. Then we summoned George. He proceeded to give this young gun a 9-Ball lesson at 20 a game. After getting behind six or seven games the young player asked George to raise the bet. He refused saying "you win it back the way you lost it". After losing a couple or three hundred the frustrated young gun gave up.
Only later did we find out that this young gun was none other than Ed Kelly, the best young player in the country at the time.
George was always a gentleman, dressing sharp and never raising his voice. I'm glad I got to see him play a little in his prime.
