My friend Joe Nelson, from Mobile asked me to relay this story about he and young-gun Bubba Howard
b.1952 (also from Mobile) who played Randy Brown several times.
From 1969 to 1971...Bubba was a monster teenage player. He played terrific from age 14 to 17 but got even better at 17.
Joe had taken him to California to play some of the greats there. They met Randy Brown at the Stardust Tournament
in Las Vegas. Bubba was 17. Randy was about 19 .
They were outside the pool hall discussing the match when Wade Crane pulled Joe off to the side and said: ‘Do you know who Randy Brown is?...He’s the best teenage player in the world.’
Joe said...’No, he’s fixing to play the best teenage player in the world.’
The game was on. Randy broke first and ran 6 racks then failed to make a ball on the break. Bubba had no clear shot and pushed out. Randy made a tough shot, finished that rack then ran 6 more racks. Bubba didn’t flinch. They played all night until noon the next day. Bubba pounded Randy until finally they busted both Randy and Wade Crane. He came out 50 games ahead.
Bubba played many great players like: Grady Matthews, Steve Cook, Billy Incordona, Richie Ambrose, Jack Cooney, Cleo Vaughn, Earl Strickland and others. Joe has many stories to tell about Bubba but I’ll defer since this is a thread about Randy.
Joe has another story about Randy and Bubba as well. I’ll relay it later.
gbru, thanks for the story. I think that's the first story about him here besides the ones I've posted. I remember when we'd stop in Dothan, Junior Goff would mention Bubba from time to time. Good memories.
Back around 70 or so, maybe 69, Randy and Wade Crane stopped into Family and while there, bet someone a few hundred they could, between them, cover every inch of felt on one of the 5 x 10 snooker tables with c-notes. And they did it. Every flippin inch, rails included. I've often wondered how much the total was. A lot.
Joe says Junior Goff was a monster player but couldn’t play for anything over about $20 or $30.
He says the black player Youngblood asked Junior to play for $200 a game and Junior said no. Joe asked why he said no..
Junior said he wants to play for $200 a game . Joe said I’ll take $150 of it. Joe knew Junior had the nuts..
Junior agreed to take the bet after he got a partner to take 1/2 of his $50 wager
They busted Youngblood.
That’s a lot of thousands![]()
That’s a lot of thousands![]()
Well, a US bill is more or less 3"x6" so if you put them on the table lengthwise you have 20 in the long direction and 20 in the short direction that's 400 100's or maybe 500 to allow a little overlap or $50,000.
I can remember a night at Amodeo's Cue Club. Buddy, Howard Schnellenberger (God knows if I spelled that right) and Jr Goff were telling lies to each other over a cold mug. I was hitting balls near them.
Buddy jumps up and runs over me like a semi hitting a mouse, just one game. Howard at least shook hands first before doing the same. Now Jr gets up, I rack, he breaks, and gets to about the 4 ball. Misses the 5. Oh my God. I get to shoot. I finish the rack off. Jr is furious. He goes back to his beer and is cussing them both out. Buddy grins, looks at me and tells Jr, well I said look out, she can play a little. Jr picked up his mug and pouted to the other side of the room.
At another tournament at Baker's, We were sweating a match between Detroit Whitey and Miami Shorty. If you knew Shorty, or ever saw him play you know he wasn't the most talkative player, to say the least. He sometimes would go hours and never say a word. A the beginning of the match, both he and Whitey missed more than a few balls. After Shorty missed yet again, Whitey gets up to shoot and says to Shorty, "Damn, Shorty, neither one of us can make a ball!" Shorty didn't say anything, but Randy pipes up from the crowd and, looking at Whitey, said, "Shorty says speak for yourself." Shorty responds with "Yeah...". And that was all he said the entire match.
OMG..... LOL!:grin::grin::grin: