Student Union Pool

[Biloxi Boy]

Not complaining at all, I am very happy with my experiences, and I hope mine are shared and continuing . . . Over a 50 year period I have played in fifteen to twenty college student unions -- as a legit student, visiting student, and plain old interloper. I have always found that I was welcomed without question -- even under circumstances in which I clearly did not belong. While I sometimes wondered why this was so, I never came up with an acceptable answer. As I consider it today, I can only attribute my experiences to the camaraderie of this wonderful fraternity of ours -- a parallel can be found in my visits to "true" pool halls. Bars with pool tables are a different story . . .

What are y'alls experience?

 

[mikemosconi]

Going back 20 to 40 years ago young hustlers would sometimes “visit” student union billiard rooms to dislodge cash from unsuspecting students- I knew one guy who was a bit older - so he passed himself off as a graduate school student.
Hustling knew no low points back then -

 

[David in FL]

I always found the student union to be a great place to go to put a little cash in my pocket before going out to look for better action...

You'd never make much there, but it was always good for a few bucks. Drunk college kids who think they're good because they can beat other drunk college kids.

 

[DeeDeeCues]

My student union rec center had players who were among the best in the state when I was there.

 

[smiling_Hans]

Besides sneaking into pool halls at 16, the student union was where I spent most of my time as a teen. I would play college students, which I didn't take them for serious competition, for money and/or snacks.

Yes, as a teen, I thought they were inferior to me and had a few friends who went to college and play. They play for fun because they had time to kill. I played because I wanted to get good.

I remember they were Gold Crown Brunswick and very fast tables. Very good times. As I hit my senior year in high school, we started hanging out there at night because it turned into a little night club. Of course I hid alcohol and messed with college women as a high schooler. Loved it.

Us group of friends were probably the best players in the union at the time. LOL

$1/hr for pool. LOL

 

[Benelli]

I learned to shoot pool at the Sam Houston State SU Hall, it was outstanding and the tables were lightyears better than the one in my fraternity house.

They had a mix of 9ft GCs and Valley Boxes, I loved every one of them...

The guy that ran it had a Richard Black pool cue and I bought my first cue from him which was an ADAM Kansas City Merry Widow.

Still have that cue...

 

[CLAUD]

I worked in the student union part time while going to college. We could play all we wanted for free as long as it wasn't busy. There were a few students who were exceptional, traveled to all the tournaments in nearby towns because it was hard to get a game in the city where the college was. There was one student who I never saw lose until we were in Shreveport. He played Buddy Hall before everyone knew who he was. I can't remember his name, too many decades ago. He was an education major, had one of the very early Joss plane janes. I sometimes wonder if he might still be playing.

 

[lfigueroa]

Not complaining at all, I am very happy with my experiences, and I hope mine are shared and continuing . . . Over a 50 year period I have played in fifteen to twenty college student unions -- as a legit student, visiting student, and plain old interloper. I have always found that I was welcomed without question -- even under circumstances in which I clearly did not belong. While I sometimes wondered why this was so, I never came up with an acceptable answer. As I consider it today, I can only attribute my experiences to the camaraderie of this wonderful fraternity of ours -- a parallel can be found in my visits to "true" pool halls. Bars with pool tables are a different story . . .

What are y'alls experience?

I majored in pool at the USF student union.

Got my first pool nom de guerre there, Luigi, and college girlfriend, Kathy. Won a couple of school championships and played in some regional ACUI events at other student unions like Davis.

This is me checking things out at the UCLA student union during the Western ACUI championship, circa the early 70’s.

Lou Figueroa

 

[mnorwood]

My University had a classic pool room complete with a 10 foot table and a bowling alley. It was closed in favor of opening a really terrible pizza restaurant. The tables were dispersed to the dorms around the campus. The 10 footer was placed in the old ball room of my wife's dorm. This is the table that I learned on. The table would eventually succumb to fat chicks dancing on it and wrecking the cloth. It was never fixed it was just moved in to storage. It was the source of many hours of fun and discovery. Wish I could acquire what's left of it and restore it.

 

[Craig Fales]

I loved going to MSU student union. OG Anniversaries and set up by someone who knew what they were doing.

 

[FranCrimi]

I got lucky. My college, Queens College in NYC, had a brand new student union with 25 Gold Crowns with Centennial balls back in the mid 70s. Spent all my time between classes there and went through the ACUI tournament system. Won my college and then the Regionals, and placed 3rd in the Nationals. Then got a call from the WPBA inviting me to play. The rest is history. They were wonderful at the student union. They let me practice for free. I had basically free pool for 4 years. I met Danny Barouty for the first time there. He was also a student there and played there.

 

[jay helfert]

I did visit a few student unions when I was traveling about. Many of them strictly enforced rules about gambling (Ohio State for one), and some of them did not allow the game of 9-Ball to be played there (Also at Ohio State and Indiana U.). At Oklahoma U. they were pretty lax about overseeing the games going on there and some of us gambled in there every day (all small stakes, one and two dollar pool). I also gambled at Long Beach State (two $50 sets) and at U. of Florida ($50 9-Ball set and $50 14.1 to 100). My experience was that there were few games of any consequence to be had in student unions, so I pretty much stuck to pool halls which were everywhere in abundance back then.

 

[justnum]

In the basement of Polytech in Brooklyn during the early 2000s, there was a barbox in the basement. Most of the students using the equipment, just wanted to hang out and meet regulars. I would go down there once in a while to show some shots.

For some reason people do not handle shot makers well. Its like they'd rather hang out with a weak shooter, than someone that can show something worth filming.

 

[ShootingArts]

I played at a few student unions, mostly for fun. I was pretty much the youngest in my group all the time so chasing older women, over eighteen, was more appealing than trying to gamble for almost nothing.

The pool halls and bars I played in were more than a little on the trashy side as an underage teen, student unions I encountered were clean, bright, and friendly. Nice places to play in the daytime and work on my game.

I think it was LSUBR that had bunches of pool tables. A nice place to grab a sandwich for lunch and play a couple hours.

Hu

 

[Z-Nole]

My first year at FSU I joined a cheap ring game with 7-8 other guys from UAB, Clemson, UF and I think GT while waiting for a school hosted tournament to start. We were all thrown out for gambling so I never went back. Sounds like I might of missed something.

 

[sam74]

UTK had 8-10 brunswick 8 foot tables, air hockey, and a bowling alley in their student union recreation area that got demolished a few years back. They did allow nonstudents to play with a picture ID held back in the day (90's). They built a new student union its place. Last year over Christmas vacation I emailed them to see if they stilled allowed non-students to play and didn't get a response. Things are a little tighter on rules than they used to be so I kind of doubt they do anymore.

 

[Lynch]

I started to get serious about pool playing in a student union in Moorhead State, MN. I probably should have focused a little more on school, but at times would play for 7-10 hours straight in there on the 9' gold crowns. Great memories playing leagues out of there and just in general. There were some decent players there, especially the foreign exchange students from Nepal. They shot very straight!

 

[Biloxi Boy]

The South American students tried to teach me carom. They were very much amused by my efforts. Laughter requires no interpretation.

 

[eastcoast_chris]

I went to Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, 91-95

Our student union had a great set up with about 6 - 6'x12' snooker tables ... don't even remember if there were pool tables as all we played was snooker. Cheap.... likely $2 and hour for a table.