Legends of the Road

L.S. Dennis

L.S. Dennis

Well-known member
Back in the mid 90’s Pool and Billiard magazine published a wonderful series of articles of road players called ‘Legends of the Road‘ ,These were a collection of colorful players who for the most flew under the radar from most of the top tournament named players I believe the author of this series was Thomas Shaw.

I remember dutifully clipping each one of those article to save for my billiard memorabilia, when I mistakenly loaned the collection to a friend who promised not to lose it. Well he lost it but that was long ago.

I heard something about Shaw wanting to make a book out of this series, but never heard much more about it. Anybody know anything about this? Can all those wonderful stories be accessed on line anywhere?
 
That's a shame. Those pool stories, like stories of the old west represent a small segment of time/history. Maybe from 1920s with the advent of the automobile, to the 1980s when things just changed.

It's a history maybe not that important to most, but very important to us as pool players. When I say pool player, all that is required to be a member of the club is to love pool be you a player or rail bird.
 
I asked Shaw if he planned to do a reprint and the basic answer was no. I don't remember why.

P&B has set up online copies of some issues but those only go back a few years. I think they are planning to add to that archive. I think it is for subscribers only.

Here is the LotR article about George Rood, copied with Thomas Shaw's permission:

 
Bob Jewett said:
I asked Shaw if he planned to do a reprint and the basic answer was no. I don't remember why.

P&B has set up online copies of some issues but those only go back a few years. I think they are planning to add to that archive. I think it is for subscribers only.

Here is the LotR article about George Rood, copied with Thomas Shaw's permission:

Click to expand...
Thanks so much Bob that post, I sure hope Shaw will change his mind some day and reprint the entire series.
My colllection of all those articles ended up in New Mexico with a friend far from where I’m now in Redwood City.
 
I will try to make a long story short
I went to Tulane university from 1971 to1975
i was hustled by a road player in my student union but that’s another story for another day (earl morgan the boston kid)
( if anyone has stories about him i would love to hear them)

he also showed me that he was on the stall or playing Lemon pool and took me to the sports palace which was the main room for action for road players across the country in New Orleans at that time
Earl Heisler and New York Blackie were the House pros that took on all The road guys looking to gamble
i’m going to the sports palace was an eye-opener for me because I had never seen pool played at that level
I learn quickly to just sit there and watch because there was nobody in there I could play with
I saw Bugs (Leonard Rucker) play Earl $500 one pocket back in the early 1970s
Saint Louis Louis came to town play Blackie
none of these names meant anything to me at that time they were just the people in the room and people playing for money
in the 1990s when those articles of legends of the road came out all of a sudden names I had a long forgotten popped into my brain
Holy shit I saw all these legends of pool back in the day and had no clue they were among the best that ever played
 
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Bob Jewett said:
I asked Shaw if he planned to do a reprint and the basic answer was no. I don't remember why.

P&B has set up online copies of some issues but those only go back a few years. I think they are planning to add to that archive. I think it is for subscribers only.

Here is the LotR article about George Rood, copied with Thomas Shaw's permission:

Click to expand...
Thanks for that(y)(y)
 
L.S. Dennis said:
... I remember dutifully clipping each one of those article to save for my billiard memorabilia, when I mistakenly loaned the collection to a friend who promised not to lose it. Well he lost it but that was long ago.
...
Click to expand...
I have duplicate copies of more or less every P&B during the time they were printing LotR. I don't have a list of which issues those were, though. If anyone wants a specific copy, bob@billiardbooks.com
 
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