Matt_24
07-18-2005, 11:13 AM
Did anyone here ever travel through Nashville TN in the 70's and play a hustler called "Ugly Dave".
I worked for Dave in the 90's at a pool room called Snooker's in Antioch, TN (suburb of Nashville). He is in his late 50's/early 60's now, short (maybe 5 6' or 5 7'), has a beard, and what I call a white guy afro. He was real quiet and mumbles when he talks. You've really got to listen closely to understand him. In his day he was considered the best one pocket player IN Nashville. Oh, he also has a fondness for Crown Royal (if this might help anyone remember anything) and cigars.
Dave quit playing when his wife came down with cancer and he was taking her to treatments all day and managing the pool room at night. Nobody ever asked him to play either, but when I started working for him at 18 I would slowly start worming stories out of him, and eventually got him to poor himself a glass of crown, light up a cigar and come out and show me a few things after closing time. He only did this when he was in the BEST of moods (being he was pretty down because of his wife's situation). Dave told me TONS of his road stories, showed me tons of proposition shots (wish I wrote them down) and introduced me to the game of one pocket.
When I was 18 I had always played 9 ball and at that time one pocket wasn't really big as far as I knew. Everyone played 9 ball in my pool hall, and some of the older gentleman played straight pool. So, when I heard Dave was the best at one pocket I was impressed, but didn't necessarily know what meant. Well, when Dave started coming out and playing, it turns out he was the best at 9 ball as well (at least in our pool room) but only claimed to be a one pocket player. Dave did show me a few things about one pocket, but I was disenchanted at that age and only cared about 9 ball. It would be 7 years later before I took an interest in one pocket.
Dave told me lots of stories about Johnson City, running around with Eddie Taylor and specifically Marshall Carpenter. From what I remember, Dave idolized Marshall Carpenter and thought a lot of him.
One neat story about Dave ( and I'll quit rambling so anyone can relay if they ever played him) is right after Earl Strickland won his first world championship in the 80's he came through Nashville. After much negotiation Dave and Earl agreed that Dave got the 5 and breaks for whatever kind of set (don't remember) for several thousand a set. Well, they played for 2 days straight and broke even. I heard more than one person tell me some slight variation of that story.
I asked Grady Mathews one time if he knew Ugly Dave (that is his alias) and he said he did. Any stories Grady?
Ok, one other funny story.
Dave was on the road with Squirrel I believe and they saw a sexy girl walking down the side of the road. Ugly Dave set I'll bet you $5000 I can stop this car beside her, say two words, and she'll get in the car and go home with me. Now remember, this is UGLY Dave propositioning this. (He's not really UGLY...but had bad acne scars that he covered up with a beard, plus it was UGLY how he would send you home broke..something along those lines.) Squirrel didn't think too long when he said, "You've got a bet." Dave turned around the car, pulled up beside the girl and leaned over opening the passenger door. Timidly the girl looked in at Dave. He pulled out a bankroll of around 10K in 100 dollar bills, fanned it out and said, "Get in." Needless to say Dave won $5000 of Squirrel's money that night.
Alright, curious to see if any of you know or knew Ugly Dave.
Thanks,
Matt_24
I worked for Dave in the 90's at a pool room called Snooker's in Antioch, TN (suburb of Nashville). He is in his late 50's/early 60's now, short (maybe 5 6' or 5 7'), has a beard, and what I call a white guy afro. He was real quiet and mumbles when he talks. You've really got to listen closely to understand him. In his day he was considered the best one pocket player IN Nashville. Oh, he also has a fondness for Crown Royal (if this might help anyone remember anything) and cigars.
Dave quit playing when his wife came down with cancer and he was taking her to treatments all day and managing the pool room at night. Nobody ever asked him to play either, but when I started working for him at 18 I would slowly start worming stories out of him, and eventually got him to poor himself a glass of crown, light up a cigar and come out and show me a few things after closing time. He only did this when he was in the BEST of moods (being he was pretty down because of his wife's situation). Dave told me TONS of his road stories, showed me tons of proposition shots (wish I wrote them down) and introduced me to the game of one pocket.
When I was 18 I had always played 9 ball and at that time one pocket wasn't really big as far as I knew. Everyone played 9 ball in my pool hall, and some of the older gentleman played straight pool. So, when I heard Dave was the best at one pocket I was impressed, but didn't necessarily know what meant. Well, when Dave started coming out and playing, it turns out he was the best at 9 ball as well (at least in our pool room) but only claimed to be a one pocket player. Dave did show me a few things about one pocket, but I was disenchanted at that age and only cared about 9 ball. It would be 7 years later before I took an interest in one pocket.
Dave told me lots of stories about Johnson City, running around with Eddie Taylor and specifically Marshall Carpenter. From what I remember, Dave idolized Marshall Carpenter and thought a lot of him.
One neat story about Dave ( and I'll quit rambling so anyone can relay if they ever played him) is right after Earl Strickland won his first world championship in the 80's he came through Nashville. After much negotiation Dave and Earl agreed that Dave got the 5 and breaks for whatever kind of set (don't remember) for several thousand a set. Well, they played for 2 days straight and broke even. I heard more than one person tell me some slight variation of that story.
I asked Grady Mathews one time if he knew Ugly Dave (that is his alias) and he said he did. Any stories Grady?
Ok, one other funny story.
Dave was on the road with Squirrel I believe and they saw a sexy girl walking down the side of the road. Ugly Dave set I'll bet you $5000 I can stop this car beside her, say two words, and she'll get in the car and go home with me. Now remember, this is UGLY Dave propositioning this. (He's not really UGLY...but had bad acne scars that he covered up with a beard, plus it was UGLY how he would send you home broke..something along those lines.) Squirrel didn't think too long when he said, "You've got a bet." Dave turned around the car, pulled up beside the girl and leaned over opening the passenger door. Timidly the girl looked in at Dave. He pulled out a bankroll of around 10K in 100 dollar bills, fanned it out and said, "Get in." Needless to say Dave won $5000 of Squirrel's money that night.
Alright, curious to see if any of you know or knew Ugly Dave.
Thanks,
Matt_24