"MONK" Warren Costanzo...1979 World Champion

Well, a recent post about a different Monk led me to look this up. Some of you may find this thread interesting. Of course SI has moved the article. SI has a really lousy interface, but it's free. Here is the article that I think was referenced in the OP:

vault.si.com

Ahead of the nine ball

Warren Costanzo deals blackjack for a living in a Reno hotel. With his round, gentle face and thick salt-and-pep-per hair, he looks as if he could be some
vault.si.com vault.si.com
 
At the bottom of the page was a link to a 1980 edition with Christe Brinkley on the cover. I clicked it and clicked through all 80 pages (she was in the middle 3 or 4). Anyway, there must have been 10 different advertisements for cigarettes, by far the biggest advertisers in the magazine. I wonder where the magazines got their money once cigarette companies were banned from all sporting events sporting magazines?
 
Here are some pictures of Captain Hook hooked and "Monk" Costanzo shooting. That issue of The National Billiard News is in the "Goldmine" that you can find on the AZB home page. Here it is:

www.azbilliards.com

National Billiard News – January 1980 - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM

National Billiard News – January 1980
www.azbilliards.com www.azbilliards.com

CropperCapture[794].png


I think that's Cole Dickson in the first row behind the table.
 
jay helfert said:
Cool story. He captured the moment well. Monk was a huge underdog in the match with Sigel, especially since they moved it to a 9' table. After he made the final nine ball on the break, he actually fainted and fell to the floor.

What was really funny was that when Monk got down to shoot the long cut shot on the nine, it got deathly quiet in the room, with well over 500 people watching. Monk stood up, looked around and said, "It's too quiet in here." Everyone laughed. I think that calmed Monk down. Because then he got back down and made it.

One of the most amazing rolls I ever saw was when Sigel played back and forth position from the eight to the nine ball to win the match. The cue ball just kept rolling and corner hooked Mike on the point of the side pocket. He made a great safety, half masse'ing the cue ball to hit the edge of the nine ball and leave it very tough with distance.
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And didn't Monk get his nickname from rarely speaking?
 
Nostroke said:
And didn't Monk get his nickname from rarely speaking?
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I don't know the answer but I think I saw somewhere in that issue of National Billiard News from post #24 that he was referenced as "monkey". I don't know if that was an error, or the original/origin of his nickname, or something else.
 
If my memory serves me, Monk got the nickname, because he was an advocate of meditation. He used it to calm himself when under pressure.
 
Monk was short for monkey because he was a knuckle dragging, hairy looking dude. Last I heard he was having health issues living in Reno...

Jaden
 
Bob Jewett said:
Here are some pictures of Captain Hook hooked and "Monk" Costanzo shooting. That issue of The National Billiard News is in the "Goldmine" that you can find on the AZB home page. Here it is:

www.azbilliards.com

National Billiard News – January 1980 - News - AZBILLIARDS.COM

National Billiard News – January 1980
www.azbilliards.com www.azbilliards.com

View attachment 616855

I think that's Cole Dickson in the first row behind the table.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's Cole, leaning over with his arms on his legs. Monk was kind of his mentor in Pool. The bottom left photo shows Sigel shooting at the nine ball that he can only see half of. He makes an excellent safety and leaves Monk the shot on the upper right, a very long and thin cut shot. He slices that ball in and proceeds to make the nine on the break in the next game to win the match! Pretty big crowd there, well over 500 people.
 
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