Back in the early 70's, There was Barry Greenberg, a lawyer out of New York. He could run 100's at will. Poor fool decided to get a job. Wonder who remembers him.
Greg Stevens and Joe Salazar were not unknown by any means. Weldon Rogers stayed under the radar much better. On the West Coast, everyone knew the name Peter Gunn, but most did not know what he looked like. Tacoma Whitey found out to the tune of 60K in 1970's dollars.
Jack Cooney hid his identity successfully for two decades or more. Bill Mielke was another good sniper back then. He could beat all but the best players. James "Youngblood" Brown snuck up on a lot of good players, on big tables and bar boxes. Just ask King Kong what happened to him the first time he met James.
Mikey Carella was an unknown monster until he finally got "outed". Danny D. kept him under wraps for several years, just bringing him out long enough to get the cash. Wade Crane (aka Billy Johnson) was another 'unknown' monster player back then. He went back and forth across the country beating everybody before he started playing tournaments under his real name.
One of the best ever was Canella the Mexican champion who emerged in the 70's and was beating EVERYBODY. Very few people knew what he looked like. He succumbed to drugs at an early age. When he came back north, he was not the same player.
Did you know the first time Parica came to this country was in the early 80's to play in a Straight Pool tourney in New York. None other than Steve Mizerak tried to give him 50 going to 150. Didn't work out so well for Steve. Then Parica came back in the mid 80's and went to Houston. He played David Howard, James Christopher, Louie, Earl and a couple of other top players. He spotted EVERYONE at Ten Ball, giving some the eight and others the nine. NO ONE know who he was! He won over 100K that first trip. Try that sometime.
Just remember one thing, back in the 70's and 80's Buddy was a very well known player. All the unknown 'monster' players ducked him. He was where they drew the line. Only Parica wanted to play him. No one else wanted to play a guy who got perfect position a foot or two away from the object ball all day long. Would you?
And one more thing, Keith went looking for 'monster' players.