looking for Jay "Swanne" Swanson stories

professor1967

professor1967

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hi , guys my uncle was Jay Swanson i met him i few times very very young. If anyone out there in AZ land has any old war stories about Jay or pictures i would love to here or see them on here. Thanks for your time Professor
 
As I recall from around 20-25 years ago Jay lived in San Diego. I was in a small town of Layfette, OR (population 400) in a tavern waiting for a guy named Walley. He was good action and would lose 200.00 to 500.00. I was hoping to get his money when Jay walked in. I looked at him like and he looked at me and I said what the hell are you doing here shouldn't you be in San Diego? He said "I'm in the bush" looking for some action and I said Walley isn't here and I have been waiting for him all night. Of course I knew Jay from living in Garden Grove for 5 years. I told Jay that there was no way I was going to play him and I told him about a tournament the following week. Since he was up here visiting family (don't know if he had any family up here or not) I told him about a tournament that paid a 1,000.00 for first. He went to the tournament at the Hunt & Fish Tavern and won it.

To see a World Class player show up in a small town in Oregon just amazed me and I will never forget him saying "I'm in the bush". Jay was a great player and had the best stroke I have ever seen.
 
ty for the story . i trying to learn a little about my uncle. my dad played too he an my uncle jay really did not see eye to eye. i lost my dad at the age of 12 an not to much longer we lost uncle jay. the few times i might uncle jay he all was fun to be around an love to here his stories. thank you for your post i hope there r more by others. god bless professor
 
I have seen your uncle Jay play countless hours of pool. He was definitely th best player to come out of San Diego. I was absolutely amazed by his stroke. He put in about 20-25% less effort than everybody else to get the same results in pocketing and getting shape.

I have many stories I could share with you as time permits. Many of these stories should also be told at the Jay Swanson memorial tournament that usually comes up in early February.

I'll be back with tales of the legendary Swanny.
 
Jay and this pool player named Chuck had a long-running gambling rivalry.The funny thing was, they gambled at nearly anything but never at pool. One day at College Billiards they started barking at each other. After a while they set up a bet on who could kick the highest. Chuck was a few years older than Swannee and was in good shape for his age. Swannee was a little on the plump side and might have been considered an underdog on this one. So they took it outside and started kicking at the wall of the pool room - craziest thing you ever saw. People driving by on El Cajon Blvd. must've thought these boys were nuts. Jay surprised a lot of folks with his kicking ability and ended up winning the bet.
 
8ballEinstein said:
I was absolutely amazed by his stroke. He put in about 20-25% less effort than everybody else to get the same results in pocketing and getting shape.QUOTE]

This is absolutely true and this is why I said earlier that he had the best stroke I have ever seen! It was amazing how he could hit the ball will less 20-25% less effort and get the same amount of draw, follow, etc than everybody else.

I actually have a DVD of Swanee playing pool that I bought from Jay Helfert. He is a member of AZ Billiards and he probably has another one. Check with Jay Helfert to see if he has another one and if he doesn't I will send you mine. Jay "Swanee" Swanson was a great pool player.
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This forum can be cyclical at times, I am learning! :)

Here's a copy-and-paste of a post written a few cycles ago by a pool player who came up against Swanee in a match on the TV table:

Me and Jay Swanson were best of friends. I remember one of the funniest incidents that ever happened to him.

Swanee, as I like to call him, was a pretty big guy, and he made it to the finals at the Reno Open. At this particular tournament, he was wearing a formal black tuxedo. He was bending down getting ready to pull the trigger on a long shot, and his pants split wide open in the crotch area.

It wasn't too noticeable for him unless he had to make one of those long shots, and when a long shot appeared where something might show, it sort of slowed him down a little bit. It was real funny watching the expressions on his face trying to get through the match. I believe in my heart, if them pants didn't split, he would have won the tournament.

Years later, we'd always joke about that incident. It wasn't funny to Swanee at the time, but he did get through it and laughed at himself when it was over. Jay was one of the nicest guys I ever met in the pool business, and every time we hooked up, we always had a great time together!
 

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JAM said:
This forum can be cyclical at times, I am learning! :)

Here's a copy-and-paste of a post written a few cycles ago by a pool player who came up against Swanee in a match on the TV table:

Me and Jay Swanson were best of friends. I remember one of the funniest incidents that ever happened to him.

Swanee, as I like to call him, was a pretty big guy, and he made it to the finals at the Reno Open. At this particular tournament, he was wearing a formal black tuxedo. He was bending down getting ready to pull the trigger on a long shot, and his pants split wide open in the crotch area.

It wasn't too noticeable for him unless he had to make one of those long shots, and when a long shot appeared where something might show, it sort of slowed him down a little bit. It was real funny watching the expressions on his face trying to get through the match. I believe in my heart, if them pants didn't split, he would have won the tournament.

Years later, we'd always joke about that incident. It wasn't funny to Swanee at the time, but he did get through it and laughed at himself when it was over. Jay was one of the nicest guys I ever met in the pool business, and every time we hooked up, we always had a great time together!
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I remember reading about something like this when he played Efren in the Last Call semi finals. IIRC Rempe defeated Efren in the finals.
 
So Jay shows up at this bar in south Orange County, Calif. He gets matched up with the local hot shot named Joe, a transplant from Philadelphia. Surprisingly, Joe doesn't know anythng about Swanee. Another local player walks in the bar and sees what's happening. He decides he's going to queer the game and let Joe know he has no chance. As he attempts to do this, Joe just tells him to back off. Joe had just ran off a 5 pack and he's in dead stroke. There was no stopping him now! Needless to say, Swanee comes back on the guy and wipes the floor with him.

The next day, the fella who tried to warn Joe about the bad game he was in, shows up with the latest National Billiard News and hands it to Joe. On the cover was Jay Swanson and Efren Reyes, the two finalists at the Reno Open. Joe just looked at this and said, "Hey, he said his name was John!! He lied to me!!!" Just then everybody in the bar started laughing.

Sneaking up on unsuspecting players was not one of Jay's strong points but I guess he found them once in awhile.
 
Quite possibly the best matchup I've ever seen with Swanee was when he was in an organized event at the old Billiard Tavern in down town San Diego. Keith McCready was his opponent. Race to 11, best 2 out of 3 sets. Play was in the back arena, on an old reconditioned Brunswick Arcade table. Spectators paid to see this event and many were there to gamble on the outcome.

From what I could tell Keith was the favorite among the crowd. It looked like people betting on Swanee were getting a handicap - not much though. I placed a sweat bet with "Tortilla Gus", taking Jay straight up.

The match was close, with each man winning a set. Swanee won the final set, 11-9 (if I remember right).

Jay just played great. He may have been a big guy but that night he looked like a ballerina moving around the table. Very sweet stroking too.
 
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And then there was that time that Jay was shooting pool in a gay bar and ... Hey, wait a minute ... Isn't there anyone else with Swanee stories? Meezergirl, dabarbr, jrhendy, I need a little help here!
 
Besides having a wonderful stroke, Jay was also really mellow about everything. At the table, you couldn't faze him. I never saw anyone try to shark him, except for one guy. I don't know if they knew it wouldn't work or they never thought to try it.

But one time at one of the Billiard Tavern's monthly pool tournaments, "El Tico" (Isaac) drew Swanee after having a good run in the event. Jay jumps out with a good lead. He was on his game and Isaac knew he was in trouble. Even though Isaac normally plays at a quick pace he decides he's going to slow the game down, hoping to get Swanee out of his rythme. Unfortunately, Swanee was playing so well that the only time Isaac could slow the game down was when he was racking the balls for Jay. Swanee barely gave Isaac a chance to shoot. In the end, it didn't work and Swanee went on to win.

I always thought that you could have the Swedish Bikini Team dancing around Swanee and the best you'd get out of him was a little smile. He never got too excited about anything.
 
Swanee may have been the best big money 9-Ball player in the world! Only Buddy was in his league for the really big bucks. I'm talking 500 a game or more in the 80's. Sigel or Earl would not play Jay for those kind of stakes. Keith would if he had a backer, but he and Jay were buddies. They used to fly Jay in somewhere if there was a big money player who was beating everybody. Every once in a while, Jay would fly back East to play some big money match. A few days later he would come home with 20 or 30K in his pockets. He would lay on the beach and get high with his friends for the next couple of months.

You will be hard pressed to hear any stories about guys who beat Jay Swanson for the cash. And he was one of the most popular pool players of all time. Everyone liked Jay! By the way, he was Johnny's mentor, taking him under his wing for a couple of years in his formative stages. After that, Johnny became the best player in America. We called Jay "The Gentle Giant."
 
8ballEinstein said:
Quite possibly the best matchup I've ever seen with Swanee was when he was in an organized event at the old Billiard Tavern in down town San Diego. Keith McCready was his opponent. Race to 11, best 2 out of 3 sets. Play was in the back arena, on an old reconditioned Brunswick Arcade table. Spectators paid to see this event and many were there to gamble on the outcome.

From what I could tell Keith was the favorite among the crowd. It looked like people betting on Swanee were getting a handicap - not much though. I placed a sweat bet with "Tortilla Gus", taking Jay straight up.

The match was close, with each man winning a set. Swanee won the final set, 11-9 (if I remember right).

Jay just played great. He may have been a big guy but that night he looked like a ballerina moving around the table. Very sweet stroking too.
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There was quite a bunch of publicity about that challenge match between me and Jay. A lot of people from the L.A. area came up to watch it, as well as the San Diego area. The place was a lot better on the inside than on the outside. It was in an area where there was gangbangers, had to worry about getting robbed when you walked out. Sort of reminded me of 4th and Main down in L.A., if you know what I mean.

Jay was a real good friend of mine, probably one of my best friends in the pool world at that time.

This match-up was a grind. Me and Jay back then played real close to each other. On any given day, one guy could beat the other.

It come down to just a couple of shots. I don't remember exactly what they were, but I know the crowd was in awe. I did win the first set. Jay won the second one, and I edged Jay out the third one, 11 to 9.

I remember taking my winnings and going down to Delmar racetrack and losing it all. That was an ongoing thing back then for me. Win money playing pool, take it to the racetrack and lose it.

Jay was a real good money player. From what I remember, anybody that went over to San Diego and tried to play Jay Swanson for money usually came up short.

I will always love Jay and consider him one of the best players of my era. We used to have fun on the court and off the court. I actually still have pool dreams, and he is in them. I have missed him dearly.
 
Swanee had all the tools to play with the very best pool players in the world, except for one thing. Reflecting back, Jay thought the one thing that held him back was his break shot.

In his era, you had guys like Earl Strickland who made 2 or 3 balls on the snap and then get left with a wide open table. He did this often.

Then you had Nick Varner who made a science out of the break shot. I understand he paid and trained a kid to rack the balls for him while he broke and studied the outcome.

Of course, Mike Sigel and Steve Mizerak were no slouches when it came to breaking either.

These were the top dogs in Swanee's era. Had Jay developed his break like these guys, I'm sure we'd be talking about his multiple US Open and World championships. No doubt in my mind.
 
professor1967 said:
thank u call for the stories an the kind words about my uncle. keep the stories comming please professor
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I was never fortunate enough to meet him. After all these years since his passing, he's still held in the highest regard by all that knew him. That speaks volumes, as far as I'm concerned.

God bless him, and may he rest in peace! :)
 
Jay Swanson (Nov 18, 1943-June 25, 1996) had as many nicknames in pool as any other player who ever shot. He was most happy with "Swanny", which was from the days when he was a top shelf ping pong player in Chula Vista, Cal. He earned that name because of his agility, believe it or not!

Over the years, he was called Jaybird, "The Whale" and even "Captain Kangaroo"! He had worked for the U.S. Forest Service for a while after high school and there he had the nickname of "Smokey" (after the bear).
By his own admission, when he went into a strange room, he introduced himself as "Bill", "Bob", "Dave" or "just whatever I would call myself."

Rumor had it that he also had one of, if not the fastest 1957 Chevy's that he liked racing around on the back roads.

His strength as a player was cue ball control (position play) and his "weakness" was his break. It frustrated him to no end because he worked and worked on it.

One of his tips for aspiring road players was to travel in a car that had the biggest trunk space as possible. He reasoned that if you have a small car, everything gets packed in the back seat area and is more likely to be broken into when your inside somewhere.

He's said to have had a silky smooth stroke, although I personally have not seen him play. I have tapes on hundreds of different players and have seen many in person, but I never did get to view the "Swan" in action.

Swanson was very close friends with Johnny Archer.

After his funeral service, Jay's ashes were spread at sea outside of Torrey Pines State Beach, which was one of his favorite places to just relax.
 
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