Pat Howey

real bartram said:
i think your wrong.
the pockets before were like large mouth bass.
the thick cloth makes the pockets play even bigger.
Click to expand...

As one who has attended countless world 14.1 championship events, I can vouch for this. In world championship play, the pockets were looser twenty years ago than they are now, though I don't agree they were very loose.

Also, I might be wrong about this, but I thought having thicker cloth on the rails causes shots played along the rails to play tougher.
 
real bartram said:
i think your wrong.
the pockets before were like large mouth bass.
the thick cloth makes the pockets play even bigger.
Click to expand...

Chris,

My main point is the difference in styles between those players we consider "legends" and the current group of top players. The equipment has changed the game. For both better and worse. Just as the primary game played as I grew up was 14.1, you great young guns grew up on 9 ball. It shows in how you play 14.1 and I play 9 ball.

Incidentally, I met you at Derby City a few years ago. Kid Delicious intrduced me to you. Your comment was "oh, from Grau country". A meaningless piece of trivia!

Lyn
 
My name is Amy Howey. I am Pat's daughter. I want to thank all of you for remembering my dad. He was so special in so many ways. It was always exciting to watch him play pool at Classic Billiards in Rochester when I was a little girl and to see him play straight pool was quite amazing. He used to run 100+ balls all the time. He was so well known by so many, not just for playing pool, but for being such a good fisherman and singer and just for being an all around nice guy. He was a great father and friend to me and loved his grandkids also. He lived life to the fullest. He thoroughly enjoyed his first few years here in Florida, getting acquainted with the pool players in this area, Ray Martin, CM Lee, and so many others and one-pocket became the game he played the most after moving here. He became a pretty good one-pocket player. He also loved to go fishing for shark and tarpin. We had so many good times together. He began to have stomach trouble and was diagnosed with ulcers yet the pain wasn't going away even with treatment and then he started getting jaundiced which is when we found out about the cancer. We were told he only had 6 months to a year to live. My dad and I didn't accept that and he fought hard, so hard. He lived 30 months from the time of diagnosis and up until about 3 months ago would play pool sometimes 4-6 hrs a day. He was an incredible, wonderful, gentle, genuine good person who I will miss so very much. I am so glad I moved here to Florida just because I was able to spend so much time with my dad. I loved him so much! Thanks to all of you for remembering him. There will be a get together in rememberance of him at CM's Place Billiards in Seminole, Florida on Sunday, May 3. He told me that he wanted people to remember the good times with him and eat shrimp and a few drinks and share stories. Remember him always. It will keep him close. Amy
 
Amy's post is the icing on the cake. Lyn, just as you intended, this thread has been a fitting tribute to a man who distinguished himself over the green felt and also in life.
 
cardiac kid said:
Chris,

My main point is the difference in styles between those players we consider "legends" and the current group of top players. The equipment has changed the game. For both better and worse. Just as the primary game played as I grew up was 14.1, you great young guns grew up on 9 ball. It shows in how you play 14.1 and I play 9 ball.

Incidentally, I met you at Derby City a few years ago. Kid Delicious intrduced me to you. Your comment was "oh, from Grau country". A meaningless piece of trivia!

Lyn
Click to expand...

my comment was from grau country ?
the players of today dont play 14 1 like before because no one plays it.
 
Amy...What a nice tribute to your Dad. I didn't have the pleasure of knowing him personally (although I've talked to several others who did), but I feel I've learned a lot, just by reading these threads. I've been down here all month, on the beach, and unfortunately have to leave on Saturday. Otherwise I would be at the tribute at CM's Place. I'll be on the road back to MI, but I'll raise a glass, in his honor, sometime on Sunday!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

ab14626 said:
My name is Amy Howey. I am Pat's daughter. I want to thank all of you for remembering my dad. He was so special in so many ways. It was always exciting to watch him play pool at Classic Billiards in Rochester when I was a little girl and to see him play straight pool was quite amazing. He used to run 100+ balls all the time. He was so well known by so many, not just for playing pool, but for being such a good fisherman and singer and just for being an all around nice guy. He was a great father and friend to me and loved his grandkids also. He lived life to the fullest. He thoroughly enjoyed his first few years here in Florida, getting acquainted with the pool players in this area, Ray Martin, CM Lee, and so many others and one-pocket became the game he played the most after moving here. He became a pretty good one-pocket player. He also loved to go fishing for shark and tarpin. We had so many good times together. He began to have stomach trouble and was diagnosed with ulcers yet the pain wasn't going away even with treatment and then he started getting jaundiced which is when we found out about the cancer. We were told he only had 6 months to a year to live. My dad and I didn't accept that and he fought hard, so hard. He lived 30 months from the time of diagnosis and up until about 3 months ago would play pool sometimes 4-6 hrs a day. He was an incredible, wonderful, gentle, genuine good person who I will miss so very much. I am so glad I moved here to Florida just because I was able to spend so much time with my dad. I loved him so much! Thanks to all of you for remembering him. There will be a get together in rememberance of him at CM's Place Billiards in Seminole, Florida on Sunday, May 3. He told me that he wanted people to remember the good times with him and eat shrimp and a few drinks and share stories. Remember him always. It will keep him close. Amy
Click to expand...
 
Amy,

Thank for such a wonderful post about your dad. I will try to make it out there on Sunday.

Scott - it was great seeing you again. Be safe out there on the road!
 
Thanks, Amy, for you post about Pat. I didn't know him well, not sure if we ever met, but I remember him seeing him many times during the time I lived in Binghamton, NY.
 
a syracuse toast

lyn,
i think i'll try to get down to cap's fri nite and get everyone to walk over to mickeys so we can raise our glasses of beverage at the same time you are doing the same in rochester to a great player, great father, and very great man. i hope everybody can join in fri nite 7ish everywhere to honor pat howey.
 
I just now saw this thread, and wanted to pay my respects to Pat Howey. I knew him from playing at the same pool hall the past few years. He was very courageous and great man.
 
I met him a handful of times and he was really outgoing and spunky! the man had alot of life in him cause he never let on he was sick from the way he carried himself
 
Blackjack said:
Here is a link to Pat's obituary/guest book.

Pat Howey - Obituary - Guestbook
Click to expand...

Dave,

Thank you so much for posting this link. I signed the guest book this morning. I also requested our local billiards website to post the link as well. If you have an opportunity today, please lift a glass of whatever to his memory at 7:00 PM. Thank you so much for your help. I requested the whole thread be transferred to Hall of Fame Monday morning. It appears Mike is not interested or can not assist me.

Lyn
 
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I did not know Pat but had the honor of talking to him at the DCC in 07. I could tell he was just a great guy and he had a really nice smooth slip stroke and he made 14.1 look so easy. He ran balls like a fish swimming totally effortless. And he had wonderful patterns and his ball speed was spot on. He played with an old cue maybe a Palmer (bought it late 60's)and it looked white because he used a lot of powder I guess for the slip stroke.

I think he used to play with Sigel and some of those big name guys from out east and I think he could give them a game. I had not heard his name before but you could tell he was a real 14.1 player.

I wanted to look him up when I went down to FL last time because he said he would be glad to hit some balls with me but I did not make it over to the gulf side.

My prayers go out to his family and friends. I wish I could have known him better.
 
I first met Pat going on 20 years ago when we both lived in Rochester, NY. I had just started playing and knew next to nothing about pool but a good friend of mine had spoken about Pat and how great of a player he was so I couldn't wait to see him play.

I was working at Olympic Billiards at the time and we had gone to Ridge Billiards to watch him play someone from Buffalo. I don't remember who he played but i remember being amazed with how easily Pat pocketed balls and moved around the table. His grace and prowess were an impressive mix even for someone who knew very little about the game.

In time, I was hired on at Classic Billiards which soon became a hot spot for action and players in Western New York. It was also Pat's favorite room to play in, at that time. He and I quickly became friends and he'd always smile and nod when he said hello. We'd play for hours (which always seemed to be more me racking for him than 'us' playing) and then he'd insist on paying the time as if I was his surrogate kid or something, until I'd remind him we both played for free.

I met many great players there aside from Pat. Mike Sigel, Jim Rempe, Steve Mizerak and Jimmy Fusco were but a few. All of them had a great deal of respect for Pat's game but I was fortunate enough to also get to know Pat as a friend. He took on a role of mentor and was very much a father figure through much of my early days in the game.

As time went on and I moved away for work and school, I stopped playing several times for stretches I regret to say were far longer than I ever intended them to be. One thing kept bringing me back and that was a love for the game that Pat and many others back at Classic Billiards helped instill in me.

Almost 15 years later I was living in Southern California. I had lost touch with Pat for some time and, as it happened, I was traveling to Tampa, FL for work repeatedly when my best friend pointed out that Pat lived here. He mentioned that Pat had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told me how badly Pat looked. He had lost a lot of weight. I immediately got to work on getting back in touch with Pat and, like any great friend in life, it was as if we hadn't missed a beat when we had the chance to hang out again.

Through his weight loss, constant battle with cancer and a myriad of other operations that had to have a dramatic effect on Pat's quality of life, he always remembered to smile. He was as happy to see me again as I was to see him.

Pat showed me around Tampa and, when I had the chance to move here for work, I jumped at the opportunity. I was able to hang out with him more and we had the chance to fish, play pool and we discovered we had more in common than we knew when it came to watching more movies than might possibly be healthy.

More importantly, we talked a lot about life. I enjoyed hearing his take on things even more now that I had had more life experience through which to filter his thoughts. Pat was a good friend in my life and was always looking out for me in his own way. I regret we lost him to such a terrible disease and will miss this man tremendously.

For those of you who knew him, count yourselves among the lucky as Pat was never perfect but he was always trying. When all is said and done and the balls have been cleared from the table, he was a good man. A solid man. The kind of man I always aim to be. His faith, his caring and his heart knew no bounds and I was lucky enough to know him through important periods of my life. To me, he will always be a giant among men and remembered with a smile and a nod and I can only hope he's in a better place today looking down on all of us.

I wish for Pat in the next life two things: infinite sharks to be reeled in and unending strings of 100+ ball runs.

I miss you already, old man. You touched my life in the best of ways.

Your friend,

Chris Turk
 
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Utube slideshow of Dad

One of my aunts posted a short slideshow of dad [Pat] on utube. If you go to the site just search Erwin Patrick Howey memorial. Its a nice little rememberance of his life. Amy
 
I have re-posted this thread on the main forum again. Hopefully a moderator will be able to move it to Hall of Fame where it belongs. Thanks to all who posted here.

I played in a NCS 14.1 qualifier this past Saturday. Many of my fellow players commented on the loss of Pat. We'll never know how great a player (and person) he might have been.

Lyn
 
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