U J Puckett on CBS 60 minutes

thanx for the vid freddy. u.j seemed like a cool guy. wish i couldve met him. A true texas legend
 
Another American original. Did you notice when he is talking about age, he seemed to be so young again. U.J. had a great line, "How old would you be if you didn't know when you were born?" Think about it.

Like Freddie, I got lucky and got to hang around with U.J. quite a bit. We even roomed together in Phoenix when Ronnie was playing Danny. I loved U.J.'s philosophy of life. He was very smart in a lot of ways.

He never called me Toupee. He had a unique name for me which cracked him up when he said it. He called me "Ball Knob", after a small town in Arkansas. He liked to say that to embarrass me, which it did. And he thought that was just hilarious. Of course, when we were having a serious discussion he would call me Jaayyyy, with his Southern drawl.

I feel fortunate to have spent so much time around people like U.J., Cornbread, Jersey Red, Ronnie, Keith and Louie. I had more fun and more laughs in the poolroom than anywhere else in life.
 
I played UJ in the Moyers tournament in Austin just after the "River City Open" interview.
The River City Open was played at Gordo's in downtown Austin.
It was a great place to hang out, shoot some pool and have a couple of drinks.

Harry Reasoner was very friendly with all the players, they said and with Utley.
 
Told this before, might as well tell it again.

U J Puckett was one of the most colorful pool players who ever lived. Yes he was a great sharker and a horrible loser. He was not cut out for tournament play. His act only played well to the hustler cognoscenti. In Hot Springs, AR at the Oaklawn Park race meet about 20 or more yrs ago, UJ hung in the poolroom with us. He was 80 plus at the time. In those days I was a bad boy and did coke. (no longer, 18 years clean) 20 years ago almost everybody was a user, so we were snorting up in the back of the poolroom when unbelieveably, Puckett wanted in! We were all astonished. An 80 yr old man wanting to party! He laughed at us and said we all thought we were real cool, when actually he'd partied with coke back in the twenties! That's when I realized I was in the presence of greatness, an octogenarian with the attitudes of a youth.


the Beard

(I have acquired a good copy of the interview Harry Reasoner had with the great Texas hustler, U J Puckett from Ed Tarbutton of Dallas. It's on one of my blogs. It contains probably the only images of Mexican Johnny and Bananas Rodriguez on film.
http://secretsofahardcorepoolhustler.blogspot.com/

Take a look and fu@##!! buy sumptin, for crisakes)
 
Shit,,,,who's Cooler Than ''the Beard '' ??

Thanks,,,,,,,,,,,great Shirts And I WEAR THE HELL OUT OF 'EM !!

Alan,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
 
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Thanks Freddy,the video is great and I have never seen it before.I wish we could get all of the old videos out there. :smile:
 
Thanks a ton Freddy. Great video, I heard of that one before and have wanted to see it for years. The Lady in the second half towards the end crushed the balls on the break.

What year was that shot????

thanks
 
One thing that I pick-up when I talk to older players who were, Actual players is the feeling and sence of what life leaves you with. Weather it be knowledge, Sence of self or sence of being...Something actually worth life it's self to know. I hope to grow wise like some of the men I've been able to converse with over my few years.

It's a Beautiful thing man, a Beautiful thing.
 
Fatboy said:
Thanks a ton Freddy. Great video, I heard of that one before and have wanted to see it for years. The Lady in the second half towards the end crushed the balls on the break.

What year was that shot????

thanks
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That was from the mid 80's, like 1986. That lady is June Hagar, John Hagar's mom. She was one of the best woman money players of all time. June would bet it up!
 
Not The Only One

punter said:
I thought he was joking, until I googled it and there is a Bald Knob, Arkansas.
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There is one in Illinois too. But its a mountain top, not a town.
 
Okay, another little Puckett story. We are all in Atlantic City for the first Legends Of Pool. All the old timers are there like U.J., Fats, Lassiter, Crane, Mosconi, Caras, Black Rags. The Straight Pool guys hang together and go to sleep early. There is some serious money to be won here, something like twenty five grand to the winner. I was there because Big Fights hired me to write all the bio/promo material for the TV guys to use.

But the old hustlers like U.J. and Fats stay up late hanging out in the bar, telling stories, drinking and just having a lot of laughs with all assembled. Fats and U.J. are having a blast. After all, the bill is on Big Fights, so they are going to party it up on their dime. The conversation gets around to the recent 60 Minutes show with Harry Reasoner, and U.J. tells everyone that he and Harry are buddies now, and he talks to him all the time. He said they even went fishing together, and hung out for a couple of days after the shoot.

A few in the crowd express doubt about this, since Harry Reasoner is a big TV star. U.J. says Hell, I've got his phone number right here. You want me to call him and talk to him right now. Now, it's after one in the morning, but U.J. is a little looped and feeling no pain. He has the bartender bring a phone to our booth and plug it in. No one is believing him now. So U.J. pulls out a piece of paper and calls the number in New York. He wakes Harry Reasoner ("Wake up Harry, it's U.J") from a dead sleep. But once on the phone they begin to gab.

U.J. puts his hand over the phone and says to us, "He's got a broad with him", and he cackles away. Now he hands the phone to Fats, telling Harry there's someone who wants to talk to him. Fats and Harry talk for like 15 minutes, laughing like hyenas. Then he hands the phone back to U.J. U.J. tells Harry to come on down and hang out with them. Now, I know this is crazy, Harry Reasoner is NOT going to come down to Atlantic City to hang out with a bunch of pool players.

The next day Harry is there! With his girlfriend, a young beauty. No one can believe that THE Harry Reasoner is here sweating the pool players. He hangs around all day watching Fats and U.J. play and then they hit the bar. Harry parties with the best of them, drinking and laughing just like one of the boys. U.J., Fats and Harry are like three little kids, telling jokes, laughing their asses off and drinking up a storm. I hung around and did my gopher thing for them until about 2 AM. Then I went to bed. No telling how long they stayed up. Probably till the wee hours. Harry was gone the nest day. U.J. said he had to go back to work. :)
 
jay helfert said:
Okay, another little Puckett story. We are all in Atlantic City for the first Legends Of Pool. All the old timers are there like U.J., Fats, Lassiter, Crane, Mosconi, Caras, Black Rags. The Straight Pool guys hang together and go to sleep early. There is some serious money to be won here, something like twenty five grand to the winner. I was there because Big Fights hired me to write all the bio/promo material for the TV guys to use.

But the old hustlers like U.J. and Fats stay up late hanging out in the bar, telling stories, drinking and just having a lot of laughs with all assembled. Fats and U.J. are having a blast. After all, the bill is on Big Fights, so they are going to party it up on their dime. The conversation gets around to the recent 60 Minutes show with Harry Reasoner, and U.J. tells everyone that he and Harry are buddies now, and he talks to him all the time. He said they even went fishing together, and hung out for a couple of days after the shoot.

A few in the crowd express doubt about this, since Harry Reasoner is a big TV star. U.J. says Hell, I've got his phone number right here. You want me to call him and talk to him right now. Now, it's after one in the morning, but U.J. is a little looped and feeling no pain. He has the bartender bring a phone to our booth and plug it in. No one is believing him now. So U.J. pulls out a piece of paper and calls the number in New York. He wakes Harry Reasoner ("Wake up Harry, it's U.J") from a dead sleep. But once on the phone they begin to gab.

U.J. puts his hand over the phone and says to us, "He's got a broad with him", and he cackles away. Now he hands the phone to Fats, telling Harry there's someone who wants to talk to him. Fats and Harry talk for like 15 minutes, laughing like hyenas. Then he hands the phone back to U.J. U.J. tells Harry to come on down and hang out with them. Now, I know this is crazy, Harry Reasoner is NOT going to come down to Atlantic City to hang out with a bunch of pool players.

The next day Harry is there! With his girlfriend, a young beauty. No one can believe that THE Harry Reasoner is here sweating the pool players. He hangs around all day watching Fats and U.J. play and then they hit the bar. Harry parties with the best of them, drinking and laughing just like one of the boys. U.J., Fats and Harry are like three little kids, telling jokes, laughing their asses off and drinking up a storm. I hung around and did my gopher thing for them until about 2 AM. Then I went to bed. No telling how long they stayed up. Probably till the wee hours. Harry was gone the nest day. U.J. said he had to go back to work. :)
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This is a great story and thanks for it,this stuff is truly priceless,rep for you Jay. :smile:
 
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