Tom Jennings ?

[bud green]

I was looking in the BCA rulebook and noticed that they have a Tom Jennings listed as winning the US OPEN 14.1 in both 1976 and 1977.

Seems like I've heard less about this champion than anyone else I can think of.

Any good stories?

 

[Bob Jewett]

I was looking in the BCA rulebook and noticed that they have a Tom Jennings listed as winning the US OPEN 14.1 in both 1976 and 1977.

Seems like I've heard less about this champion than anyone else I can think of.

Any good stories?

He got a little press about the time he won the US Open. I think he was a school teacher. He said he would practice every night until he ran 100. Those were the two years that the PPPA was running the Asbury Park "World Championships" in competition with the US Open, so many of the top players were elsewhere.

 

[sjm]

Tom Jennings was a phenomenal player who didn't stick with pool. I remember hearing about him from Pat Fleming, who had an enormously high opinion of Tom's game. I saw Tom play on a few occasions, and he could light it up. Not quite on a par with Sigel, Miz, Martin, West or Varner, but more on a par with guys like Rempe, Margo, and Butera at the time.

Like Mizerak, Tom was an educator in New Jersey. Miz was a seventh grade English teacher in Edison, New Jersey. Jennings, however, was a professor of mathematics at Middlesex County College, not too far from where Miz taught.

 

[bud green]

Thanks for the info. The little detail that most of the top players were elsewhere explains quite a bit. The list of champs is crazy:

Crane-1966
Caras
Balsis
Lassiter
Miz 4x in a row (wow)
Balsis
West
Jennings ?
Jennings ?
West

A bunch of absolute top tier champions everyone has heard of and then a guy who almost nobody has heard of won it twice? Still, he must of been quite a player to win back to back regardless of who wasn't there.

Seems weird he's kind of forgotten; Eufemia is talked about almost daily on here and he never won any major event. Ran a million balls, but never won a national title.

 

[tom haney]

Who's West?

Thanks for the info. The little detail that most of the top players were elsewhere explains quite a bit. The list of champs is crazy:

Crane-1966
Caras
Balsis
Lassiter
Miz 4x in a row (wow)
Balsis
West
Jennings ?
Jennings ?
West

A bunch of absolute top tier champions everyone has heard of and then a guy who almost nobody has heard of won it twice? Still, he must of been quite a player to win back to back regardless of who wasn't there.

Seems weird he's kind of forgotten; Eufemia is talked about almost daily on here and he never won any major event. Ran a million balls, but never won a national title.

 

[Salamander]

Dallas West. A terrific straight pool tactition.

 

[pooltchr]

With a name like Jennings, he HAD to be good!!!! LOL
Steve Jennings

 

[Cane]

This is a quote from a post that Dick Leonard made on CCB about 2 years ago. All I could find on Tom Jennings...

I played in a tourney at Mike Ashes in the late 6os and the final two games were probably the best two final games I've seen. The first game Tom Jennings runs 90 on Miz, who goes 16 in the hole. Jennings runs to 120 or so but fails to get out. STeve puts together a 90 and 51 and wins 125-120.