Stories behind nicknames

Mystick Cue Fan said:
they call me Rags.....cus I'm Black and I play pool.

Tony<------Black as they come.
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My oldest and dearest friend is a black man named Jerome. He and I got caught skippin' during HS 100 yrs ago at...of course the pool room. We both got caught by our parents and paid the price, LOL!! Anyway...we affectionately call him Cicero, he loves it.
 
"The Magician" - not talking about Efren, but Keven Trudeau... because he made all the prize money disappear. That's one of his less popular nick-names these days.
 
Before the era of political correctness many players got nicknames which were uncomplimentary references to physical characteristics. Some of these are quite apparent, such as Fats, Shorty, Bignose, and Bucktooth. Some are not so obvious, such as Captain Hook and Monk.

Mark
 
gulfportdoc said:
I feel certain Warren got his nickname simply because he LOOKS like a monk. The guy is right out of "Robin Hood". If they wanted a guy from central casting for a TV commercial, they could put a friar's robe on Warren, and start shooting without any further touch-up.

Doc
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Correct. Many nicknames are given as a description. "Fats", "Slim", "Lefty", "Too Tall", "Red", "One Eye", "Shorty" etc. etc.
 
AZE said:
"The Magician" - not talking about Efren, but Keven Trudeau... because he made all the prize money disappear. That's one of his less popular nick-names these days.
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All along, I really thought that KT's nick was "The Magician". My bad...
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Monk

I have known Monk for many years...he told me he picked up the name when he was real young, back in the Philly area.
 
All my girlfriends called me "Short Stroke" and they didn't even know each other.

Took me a while to figure out it was not pool related.

Stones
 
Mystick Cue Fan said:
Rags was indeed black.....;)

Tony<-----Black historian.... :D
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Yes, there were at least two Rags and one of them was black. In fact, Buddy was called Rags in his young and slimmer days. Just as there were two John Henrys. One was black and the other white. The white John Henry's last name was Neel and still lives on the south side of Chicago.
 
HitHrdNDraw said:
I just read a portion of Danny Diliberto's book "the road player" (which is excellent in my opinion) and he talks in one section about the tuscaloosa squirrel, marshall carpenter. They called him the squirrel because you couldn't see the whites of his eyes, only brown, like a squirrel. Does anyone else know any stories behind nickenames of great players?
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Thats funny, that may be true, but squirrel says he got that name from selling peanuts at a peanut stand when he first started playing pool. Ive heard others say because hes always got the nutz. Maybe all of the above..
 
Lol

Stones said:
All my girlfriends called me "Short Stroke" and they didn't even know each other.

Took me a while to figure out it was not pool related.

Stones
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Reminds me of a law partner my brother used to have, a real character.
He always use to say, "If I had 2 inches more, I would have been a king,
2 inches less and I would have been a Queen!!!' ...... LOL :D
 
RiverCity said:
Pool Hall Junkies reference (they used real names in the movie). Although in real life, Rags Fitzpatrick was white.
Picture of Rags
Chuck
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And the tale I heard of the nickname there was that, everytime his opponent shot, it was from "the rag".
 
Inzombiac said:
LOL apparently Tony is on crack this week.
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Apparently you haven't seen the color of my soul......:p
Black as night and I have soul like James Brown.....OWWW.

Tony<------Experimenting with crack.....:D
 
When I was a kid living in Lansing, MI, I made my first trip to Detroit and saw Cornbread Red play. I asked someone how he got that nickname and they gave me a story that had to do with a brand of chewing tobacco. Does anyone know if this is true and, if so, what the story is?
 
smackmac said:
Thats funny, that may be true, but squirrel says he got that name from selling peanuts at a peanut stand when he first started playing pool. Ive heard others say because hes always got the nutz. Maybe all of the above..
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Plus he's not much bigger than a squirrel, Harold.:) He also LOOKS like a squirrel: chubby cheeks and sqinty eyes when he smiles.

But what about Lil John? He's not exactly little. I'd say about 5' 9" or 10". Do you know how he got the handle?

Doc
 
hemicudas said:
Yes, there were at least two Rags and one of them was black. In fact, Buddy was called Rags in his young and slimmer days. Just as there were two John Henrys. One was black and the other white. The white John Henry's last name was Neel and still lives on the south side of Chicago.
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Two Cannonballs also, one black, one white. Johnny Chapman and Lou Klenowski (or something like that). He was from upstate New York.
 
lil john

I think Lil John used to be Lil for his age then sprouted all at one time(Lost his Little but kept his name)
 
whitey2 said:
Jimmy Mataya is known as "Pretty Boy Floyd". According to him, for some
reason or another, pool and gambling has always been thought of as having a
connection to gangsters. When he was traveling with "Fats", sometimes "Fats"
would introduce him as his protege "Pretty Boy Floyd".
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he was also known at one time as "hippie".........I remember some people talking about a guy that played real sporty, this was in '71' ......
they didn't know his name , and just refered to him as hippie, because of his long hair..........I would be interested to hear from anyone who also remembers this.......................
 
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