looking for Jay "Swanne" Swanson stories

Terry Ardeno said:
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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Good info, Terry. There was some stuff I didn't know about. For awhile, he did have a strange resemblance to Capt. Kangaroo. Also, Torrey Pines is one of the nicest beaches in San Diego. If you ever go there, check out the hiking trails and the Lodge.

I spoke to an acquintance yesterday and he told me of the classic matchups Swanee had with "Hawaiian" Brian Hashimoto. Apparently back in the 70's, Brian would come down to San Diego to tangle with Swanee. Then Swanee would go to LA to meet Brian. This became a regular thing, lasting at least a couple of dozen times.

It was said that Brian got the edge in matchup wins. This likely had a lot to do with Jay, being as big as he was, getting tired out over a long session. The other thing was, Brian was no pushover. At that time, Brian was beating up on champion after champion. He got the best of Larry Hubbert, owned Larry Lisciotti and took care of business with many others.

Another thing that this acquintance told me that I didn't know was that Swanee was suffering from other health problems that would've caught up to him real soon if the heart attack hadn't got him first. Apparently, toward the end, Swanee knew he wasn't long for this world.
 
8ballEinstein said:
....was beating up on champion after champion. He got the best of Larry Hubbert, owned Larry Lisciotti and took care of business with many others.
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8bE,
Good info in your post as well. The Lisciotti part is interesting, in fact, that's something that surpises me, him beating Lisciotti often. I can see a set here or there, but L.L. was such a great champion! If that match were to go off in their respective primes, I would bet big on "The Oil Can" (Larry Lisciotti).
How great would it be if pool kept stats like MLB or the NFL does? We could search a player and see their lifetime scores vs different opponants.
I bet we'd see lots of surprising results.
 
Terry Ardeno said:
8bE,
Good info in your post as well. The Lisciotti part is interesting, in fact, that's something that surpises me, him beating Lisciotti often. I can see a set here or there, but L.L. was such a great champion! If that match were to go off in their respective primes, I would bet big on "The Oil Can" (Larry Lisciotti).
How great would it be if pool kept stats like MLB or the NFL does? We could search a player and see their lifetime scores vs different opponants.
I bet we'd see lots of surprising results.
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I know what you mean,Terry. When I was told this about "Oil Can" Larry, I said, "What???" My acquintance, who is highly regarded in the pool world, said, "Oh yeah, he owned Larry", as if there was no maybe about it.

I was initially surprised, but also not surprised. I don't know how much you've seen Brian play but that guy was tough as nails. I saw Brian a bit in the early '80's. Real tough action.
 
In the 80's and early 90's, I lived in Orange County, which was an hour up the road from San Diego. This gave me a chance to see Swanee play occasionally. Then in 1993, my job took me to Northern California. Three years later I accepted a 2 level promotion and a position in San Diego.

This was exciting for me, moving to the land of Swanee. I figured if the locals were paying any attention at all they certainly would be stroking as smoothly as the top player in the area. But, after hanging out at College Billiards for several days, I could see that everyone's stroke looked like a muscle spasm compared to Swanee's. The other spooky thing for me was that I didn't see Swanee in the room the first few days I was there. Before moving to town, I don't ever remember being in the room and Swanee not being there.

About a week after being in San Diego, I attended one of College Billiards' weekly tournaments. We were about to start the second round of play when the tournament director came to the loudspeaker and announced that Jay Swanson had passed away earlier that day. The room was suddenly quiet with many of us looking stunned and saddened. It was undescribable.

Word had it, Swanee was looking forward to playing in a major tournament that was coming to town in a few weeks. Apparently he had been away from the game for awhile. When the tournament took place the two finalists were Leonardo Andam and Swanee's long-time buddy, Johnny Archer. In that match, Johnny got to the hill first. Before the next break Johnny declares, "Swanee, this one's for you". He snaps the rack and the 9 goes flying into a pocket to win the event. The place goes absolutely nuts and everyone lets out a loud roar that must've freaked out the convention staff.

About a year later, I was hanging around some of the old-timers and I had to ask them, "Why didn't anyone ever try to duplicate Swanee's beautiful, silky smooth stroke?" The answer was, many tried and just couldn't. No one could move the ball around like him, not even close.

It's kinda unfortunate that the videos of Swanee only show the table and the balls moving around. His real magic came from his stroking arm, something the camera rarely catches. I feel lucky to have seen the Swan at his best.
 
With the Swanee Memorial tournament coming up this weekend, I thought I would revive this thread in hopes of hearing other Swanson stories. Don't be shy. Tell us what you know of the "Gentle Giant".
 
Swanee in action

Several people asked me if i had any video of Jay Swanson playing and I said no. I just dug out a copy of the 1987 Semifinals at the Sands with Jay playing Bob Hunter. I made a few DVD copies of it. If anyone wants one PM me for info. It's now listed on my website, jayhelfert.com. 20% discount for AZ members!
 
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Swanee

I practically grew up at College Billards in the Late 70's and throughout the 80's. I looked up to a lot of players as a kid. Ken Brock, Billy Graves, Mark Arnold, Coit, Roy the Cook, even Jimmy Darling. Jay was by far the best of them all, and without a doubt the quietest and most humble. Watching him move the cue ball around the table was really amazing. Sometimes it seemed like he never made a difficult shot, because he was so rarely out of line. It was sometimes easy to get caught up in watching the flashier players like Graves because he would get himself out of line and need to make an amazing shot to get back in line. He'd have to jack up and blast whereas Swanee seemed to just effortlessly and gently stroke the cue ball and it behaved for him. His pool was just like his personality...gentle and unassuming. The nicest guy I ever met in a pool room, that is for sure.

Paully
 
bump to see if there is any more....

Started playing in San Diego around 87 and had lots of chances to watch him play at College, even got to play him in a weekly hc tourney. I got three going to five, won the flip, snapped the nine then broke and ran. By no means am I a good player, but I was a low b at that time, so he was pretty upset and said he wouldn't play in that tourney any more. Probably the most angry I've ever seen him and he was still polite about it. Sure do miss those times.
 
8ballEinstein said:
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.
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8balleinstein, do happen to recall what city this took place in? I live in south orange county and have roamed around te bars and have met two joes that come to mind that are older. I'm wondering if. Its the same joe?
 
15th Annual Jay Swanson

Just a reminder, the 15th Annual Jay Swanson memorial 9-Ball tournament will be February 12-13, 2011.

This will be at HardTimes Bellflower. $3,000 guaranteed add - $4,000 if full field of 192. (It fills up every year)



I bought College Billiards in 1996 - shorly after Jay's death. I probably know most of the posters that refer to College Billiards. It totally shocked me as to the amount of really talented players in one room.

The Tuesday nite tournament would be full every week and it was tough! I enjoyed owning that room - sold it in 2004. John Pinto, who I bought it from had owned it around 13+ years. College opened up May 18, 1963 and amazingly only had a handful of owners.

Mark griffin,
CSI - BCAPL - USAPL
 
jay helfert said:
Several people asked me if i had any video of Jay Swanson playing and I said no. I just dug out a copy of the 1987 Semifinals at the Sands with Jay playing Bob Hunter. I made a few DVD copies of it. If anyone wants one PM me for info. It's now listed on my website, jayhelfert.com. 20% discount for AZ members!
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Jay, i have a few tapes of Jay Swanson, one playing Morro and the other playing Mexican Johnny. you can have the tapes if you run me a copy. it does require an adapter its a small tape and goes into a vhs tape. single camera no great qaulity but something to show people the smoothest stroke that there ever was. i did run a copy for Jay but dont have the camera anymore to transfer it. appox 1989 on the Kling table. Jeff Olney
 
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Jay Swanson Documentary - Looking for People, Pictures, and Info

Greetings Everyone,
WOW! These are some awesome stories!!!

For those of you attending the upcoming Swanee tournament this weekend, Andy Chen, Doug Wu & I will be producing a short documentary on Jay Swanson. We are currently scheduling 'on-camera' interviews with anyone who was close to Jay Swanson, which will be filmed in the VIP Room at Hard Times Bellflower, and some short clips to be shot outside of the front of Hard Times Billiards.

Mainly we are seeking people who were friends/family with Jay, for memories, pictures, video and/or other information about Jay Swanson.

If you wish to contribute, please contact me directly by phone or email me at povpool@gmail.com

Thanks All,

Daniel Busch
(310) 923-6639
povpool@gmail.com
 
A "Swannee" story to go!

professor1967 said:
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
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...well, in 1984, Jay came to Dayton Ohio to play in the 25,000 added, Joe Burns promoted, Dayton Open. Now this story happened before the Tournament began, some of us that were going to play in the event went to Forrest Park to practice on the ultra-tight, tournament Gold-Crowns, in the back room. Rick Garrison and I had just finished a race to 11 and Rick was feeling particularly good about his playing that day. So this guy walks in, asks if either of us would like to play some cheap, $10. or $20. a game 9-ball. I had never seen this guy before and to boot, one of his eyes looked at you and the other looked away, plus, he really just didn't look all that "T-O-U-G-H!" Garrison spoke right up and said sure, how about $20. a rack! So the stranger walked over to the wall, grabbed a house cue, and flipped Rick for the first break. Garrison won the coin flip, broke and didn't pocket anything, the stranger proceeded to run the next six racks with-out a hitch, right after he asked "Claude, the desk man," to retrieve his cue from the back of his light blue Renault, where it rested atop a massive stack of cloths. Rick quit him before the strangers cue entered the room, and of course the stranger was "Swannee!" He turned out to be a SUPER NICE Guy, as well as a S-U-P-E-R PLAYER, too!
I'll never forget him!:smilewinkgrin:
 
Foolio said:
8balleinstein, do happen to recall what city this took place in? I live in south orange county and have roamed around te bars and have met two joes that come to mind that are older. I'm wondering if. Its the same joe?
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Sorry for the delayed response, Foolio. It's been a while since I've seen this thread.

The bar I was talking about is in Mission Viejo, at Marguerite and Avery. I don't think the Joe I mentioned has been in that bar for 20 years. Last time I saw him he was scrufflin in San Diego. That was about ten years ago.
 
POVPOOL said:
Greetings Everyone,
WOW! These are some awesome stories!!!

For those of you attending the upcoming Swanee tournament this weekend, Andy Chen, Doug Wu & I will be producing a short documentary on Jay Swanson. We are currently scheduling 'on-camera' interviews with anyone who was close to Jay Swanson, which will be filmed in the VIP Room at Hard Times Bellflower, and some short clips to be shot outside of the front of Hard Times Billiards.

Mainly we are seeking people who were friends/family with Jay, for memories, pictures, video and/or other information about Jay Swanson.

If you wish to contribute, please contact me directly by phone or email me at povpool@gmail.com

Thanks All,

Daniel Busch
(310) 923-6639
povpool@gmail.com
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At last years' Swanson tournament, Tina Pawlawski (Girlwon1) had shown me a stack of photos of Jay. Maybe she can bring 'em back for your documentry ... if you ask her real nice. :smile:
 
Jay Swanson Documentary - Looking for People, Pictures, and Info

8ballEinstein said:
At last years' Swanson tournament, Tina Pawlawski (Girlwon1) had shown me a stack of photos of Jay. Maybe she can bring 'em back for your documentry ... if you ask her real nice. :smile:
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Thanks Einstein!
Will look her up and see if she's willing to help. When we have something made, I will send an update to this thread.

We shoot tomorrow, so if anyone who is going to be at the tourney would like to contribute, please hit me up.

daniel
(310) 923-6639
 
Jay Swanson Film

Hey Everyone,
We had a great time at the Swanee Tournament! As well as actually PLAYING in the event, Andy Chen, Doug Wu and I recorded 9 interviews with some of Jay's friends and associates of the past.

The owner of Hard Times Billiards, Eddie Arreguin was nice enough to allow us to shoot interviews in the VIP Room of the poolhall. What we learned about Jay and some of his exploits will be edited into our little film which we hope to continue shooting and producing in the upcoming months.

A special thanks goes out to all of those who came up to see us:

Jay Helfert
Louis Ulrich
Mark Arnold
Scott Slayton
Arturo Rivera
Mark Griffin
Eddie Arreguin
Dave Hemmah
Robin Dodson

We will continue to document interviews until we feel that the story of Jay's life is appropriately honored. You can stay tuned for updates by checking the 'West Coast Pool Players' website, or by joining our Facebook group.

www.westcoastpoolplayers.com

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_201516706527230

Thanks To All,
 
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