........High school girls!!!!!!!!
In all seriousness...
Gary Nolan started "coming up" in pool in the 60's and was very much a product of his generation. His hair was out of control as a kid. And from what I was told.... out-of-control wasn't even the word for it. His hair was long, wire-thick, unmanageable and downright unruly .
To an onlooker, he might be thought of as a hippy.
When he would play, he would actually use bobby pins to hold his hair out of the way. So, in the pool halls of New York City, they would call him... The Bush. When Gary's game started to click....and then go beyond clicking into the realm of trouncing other players, his nickname went from The Bush to The Bushwhacker.
He's was generally regarded as a player who knew how to get the cash. He was never too shy to match up with top competition, yet not too proud to wait for a player to get out of line, accept a spot, and heist the moolah.
From what I was told, it was sometimes said that New Yorkers did not have a lot of gamble; however, The Bushwhacker was quite the opposite. Running around with guys D'Onofrio Lauri and Johnny Ervolino, you're figuring to be a good player at some point.
The Bushwhacker has been in big action with the who's who of "players."
The Bushwhacker is a pool player's "pool player."
He has a legacy in that he has mentored several top players, namely a certain U.S. Open 1P Champion.
NOTE: I just received this information from a scuffler in Baltimore who was privileged to know and learn from the Whacker.