Pool Nickname challenge

jmorton

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A few more tall tales...

A few more tall tales...

SJDinPHX said:
JM, Sax del Porta is of Portuguese descent. Marshall Carpenter was Tusc. Squirrell's name. I don't think he became a preacher but I could be wrong. Cole used to stop in the Circus and 4th St. Bowl (in San Jose) in the early 60's. Pros Lopez, Chuck Bailey, and I used to send him home busted. Thankfully I moved to Texas before he became a world beater at 9 ball.
We became good friends in his adult years. Yes he loved to party, maybe a little too much.

Dick

Okay. Portuguese sounds good. I never asked him nore even spoke to him. But I had seen him once before and he was pointed out to me the first time so I knew who he was.

This was "Little Squirrel," Keith Thompson. I read in a post that he really came out of St. Louis. But he left a big and lasting impression on everyone in Houston. And this is where he and Cole got together. And this is when they came back to Fremont.

I was loaned a book called, "Winning One Pocket," by Eddie Robbin. I'm sure you all heard of it. Well I scanned every page cover to cover and the covers, too. In that book there is a picture of Keith Thompson and in the caption it confirms what I was told a year or two after I met him, that he had won in Johnson City. There's also a picture of Cole in there.

If no one else posts these pics here I might in a few days.

Like taking candy from a baby, eh? By the way, when you were sending Cole home busted he would have been about what, 14 or maybe just 15? I was told that when he was 16 that nobody in the San Francisco Bay Area could beat him. How old was he then?

And when I first met Cole he couldn't have been older than 19 and he was a seasoned road player by then and famous.

The last time I saw Cole was at Ceasar's Palace in Lake Tahoe at the 9-ball tournament around '76 or '77. I can remember reading the tournament program. His picture was blank so I guess he may not have wanted it in there. But anyway, there were descriptions of all the players. I had no idea Cole was 6' tall. Hah hah. I swear that is what it said. Cole had this attitude that I interpreted as he was a big kidder and this was typical as far I thought. He was standing out in the casino outside the doors to the tournament room. There were at least 5 guy fans standing around him. They all impressed me as if they were little puppies with their tails wagging vigorously. Cole had great fans. They seemed to all really love him.

That was the year that Buddy "The Rifleman" Hall came back to pool. I remember the announcer saying this. Apparently Buddy had been in a bad car accident and he had just recovered. You could feel the love for Buddy in that room when the tournament started. Buddy won that tournament. So some of you might be able to pin down the year for us.

I remember seeing Mike "Tarzan" Massey there, too. What a kick. I used to like watching those Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and as you know Mike looked like his son. Incredible. I seen him make a shot on the practice table where he had to shoot the length of the table but the cue ball had to jump over about 25% of a blocker ball to get to the object ball. But the blocker ball was at the fifth diamond and the cue ball was at the first diamond and the object ball was at the 7th diamond.

Mike had a sidekick with him. He says, "Hey. Come. Come over here. I figured out how to make this shot. I can do it. Watch." Man he was excited. I think he had never made the shot before but he had just figured it out in his mind and he was excited to try it. So he quickly sets the shot up. He raises the cue stick up and hits down on the ball. The shot happened so fast I'm not sure if the cue ball flys through the air past at least 5 diamonds or if it hits just before the blocker and then bounces and jumps over the blocker but anyway the cue ball smacks the object ball and makes it straight in and the cue ball draws back all the way back to the first diamond where he executed the shot. WOW!

As you know Cole could make 11 foot draw shots. I saw him shoot an 8 footer with the cue ball about 2 inches off the rail. He shot the object ball that was about 8 feet away and a foot from the pocket straight in and that cue ball drew back to the head rail and came out 3 feet. It was probably better than 11 feet since the shot was more or less diagonal across the table.

Efren is great. Efren does not have a super stroke like Mike or Cole as far as I know. But he certainly don't need it, either. Many of us have seen Efren run 15 ball racks in rotation repeatedly in a row. I watched him run 5 15 ball rotation racks in a row once. He shoots the thirteen and rolls up with shape on the 14 near the rack outline. The 15 ball is about an inch off the rail about a foot from the corner pocket. Efren shoots the 14 and goes around the table three rails and kicks the 15 straight in! There were at least 10 others sitting in the stands as he gave this demonstration.

Cecil told me that he could draw even better than Cole, maybe about a foot better. He said he and Cole would practice those shots.

Here's a funny story. Cecil told me that he would bet a guy that if they passed on the sidewalk that the other guy couldn't touch him. He described the bet to me. He said he and a guy would stand on the sidewalk. They would face each other and be several feet apart. The object of the bet was that either the guy couldn't pass him on the sidewalk or that Cecil could pass him on the sidewalk but in either case the guy couldn't touch him. Cecil tells me he could win that bet. Yes, it's Cecil Tugwell. Have any of you seen Cecil make this bet?

JM
________
ANAFLAVORLATIN LIVE
 
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shooters1411

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Sax Del Porto is Italian and if anybody talk to him for very long he would tell you he was Italian. I would like to hear some more stories of Sax. If anybody knows anything about Al the Plummer Sax taught Al the Plummer to play. There was a tournament in 1961 or 1962 Sax was the only player to beat Ronnie Allen.
Sax's wife was a champion pool player too. Sax ran a lot of pool rooms in the bay area. There should be some stories right out of those pool rooms. Like i said before I never met Sax but I'm a very good friend of his son. Please post some stories if anybody has any.

Mike White
 

androd

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New Braunfels tx.
Country Calvin= Calvin harcrow

Country Calvin= Calvin harcrow

NH Steve said:
Was (or is) 'Country' a black player -- I know a couple of different players have mentioned him and I know nothing about him. The name might be coming up in a OnePocket.org interview with Bugs & his crew (in a few weeks :) ). Can anyone enlighten me a little?

Country Calvin is white, from Arkansas, started playing at a very young age, never wore shoes. I played him in North Littlerock when he was about 14yrs. old. It was december, the tempature was in the 30's and he was barefoot. He may have won the Texas state 9 ball championship once, I seem to remember it but am not sure. He should be in his middle 50's now and was wearing shoes last time we played.
Rod.
 

SJDinPHX

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androd said:
Country Calvin is white, from Arkansas, started playing at a very young age, never wore shoes. I played him in North Littlerock when he was about 14yrs. old. It was december, the tempature was in the 30's and he was barefoot. He may have won the Texas state 9 ball championship once, I seem to remember it but am not sure. He should be in his middle 50's now and was wearing shoes last time we played.
Rod.

Yes Calvin is white. Last name is Harcrow. His younger brother David, is a regular poster on AZ Billiards...His handle is "catpool9" I think he has a pool room in Arkadelphia Ark. He told a lengthy story on AZ, about Calvin and I's first session.
If I knew how to link it I would. They are both great guy's.

Dick
 
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SJDinPHX

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shooters1411 said:
Sax Del Porto is Italian and if anybody talk to him for very long he would tell you he was Italian. I would like to hear some more stories of Sax. If anybody knows anything about Al the Plummer Sax taught Al the Plummer to play. There was a tournament in 1961 or 1962 Sax was the only player to beat Ronnie Allen.
Sax's wife was a champion pool player too. Sax ran a lot of pool rooms in the bay area. There should be some stories right out of those pool rooms. Like i said before I never met Sax but I'm a very good friend of his son. Please post some stories if anybody has any.

Mike White

Mike,

I did not know Sax's son and its not a big deal, but he is at least half Portugese. Sax's lovely wife, Evelyn, I believe was Italian, but Sax was pure Portugese. Thats why Porto is preceded by "Dal" instead of "Del" (Portugal is like a suburb of Spain, France, and Italy anyway, but they do speak a different language)

I knew him well, and respected him a lot. He was (or is) a good man.

In the 40's-50's in the bay area, there was a slight stigma attached to being Portugese. They, and the Italians were called "prune-picker's" and somewhat looked down upon as poor working stiffs, and second class citizens. (unless they were "connected")

Most of them share-cropped, or worked in the fruit packing sheds. They were accepted in the mainstream about like illegal immigrants are nowdays. So Sax and his family had to deal with that.

Another thing, in those days, the Portegues said they were Italian, and the Italians claimed to be French or Spanish.
It was a funny situation, but they did get the last laugh on a lot of people.

They were hard workers. They bought all the land they could, and when the big Cal boom hit, many of them became instant millionaires

Dick

PS Mike, Is Sax still alive ? If he is, could you get me in touch with him through his son ? I would appreciate it.

PPS Sax may have beat RA in a short race 1P tounament match, but he was never the 1P player Ronnie was. He was also not into gambling that much. Sax was a 14.1 player mainly, and a pretty darn good one at that.
 
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lfigueroa

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SJDinPHX said:
Mike,

I did not know Sax's son and its not a big deal, but he is at least half Portugese. Sax's lovely wife, Evelyn, I believe was Italian, but Sax was pure Portugese. Thats why Porto is preceded by "Dal" instead of "Del" (Portugal is like a suburb of Spain, France, and Italy anyway, but they do speak a different language)

I knew him well, and respected him a lot. He was (or is) a good man.

In the 40's-50's in the bay area, there was a slight stigma attached to being Portugese. They, and the Italians were called "prune-picker's" and somewhat looked down upon as poor working stiffs, and second class citizens. (unless they were "connected")

Most of them share-cropped, or worked in the fruit packing sheds. They were accepted in the mainstream about like illegal immigrants are nowdays. So Sax and his family had to deal with that.

But they all worked hard and bought all the land they could, and when the big Cal. real estate boom hit, many of them became instant millionaires.

Bottom line is, in those days, the Portegues said they were Italian, and the Italian claimed to be French or Spanish.
It was a funny situation, but they did get the last laugh on a lot of people.

Dick

PS Mike, Is Sax still alive ? If he is, could you get me in touch with him through his son ? I would appreciate it.

PPS Sax may have beat RA in a short race 1P tounament match, but he was never the 1P player Ronnie was. He was also not into gambling that much. Sax was a 14.1 player mainly, and a pretty good one.


I may be wildly wrong on this, but, FWIW, I seem to recall that somewhere I read that neither Sax, nor Evelyn, are with us any more. ICBW.

On occasion, they'd come into a pool room I grew up in, up in Daly City, CA. Sax was quite the gentleman and Evelyn, quite the lady. I seem to recall him playing 14.1 with the local guys that liked that game. I think he may have played Tugboat Whaley a few times. I may have also seen him at a 3C event in southern California around the late 70's.

I just seem to recall he was a nice, older guy.

Lou Figueroa
 

SJDinPHX

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lfigueroa said:
I may be wildly wrong on this, but, FWIW, I seem to recall that somewhere I read that neither Sax, nor Evelyn, are with us any more. ICBW.

On occasion, they'd come into a pool room I grew up in, up in Daly City, CA. Sax was quite the gentleman and Evelyn, quite the lady. I seem to recall him playing 14.1 with the local guys that liked that game. I think he may have played Tugboat Whaley a few times. I may have also seen him at a 3C event in southern California around the late 70's.

I just seem to recall he was a nice, older guy.

Lou Figueroa

Lou,

I did not know your roots were in the bay area. How is it our trails never crossed ?...generation gap probably huh ?

Can you substantiate (or repudiate) my take on the social climate in Pre-boom California ?
(meaning when you could still buy a 3 BR tract home for under 20K.

Things just seemed so different then. Guess I'm really missing the old days tonite.

Dick

PS I will not hazard a guess on your heritage, but I assume you are a Latin Lover of some ilk. (not that it really matters.)
My first wife, and the mother of my four children, was born Paula Rose Archuleta. third generation Mexican and half Jicarilla Apache. She passed away 30 years ago. Her family and I are still very close.

Don't know if you recall him or not, but "Popeye" Archuleta, top notch Alburqurque pool hustler, (along with Fez and Cigaro) was her uncle.

Boy, I've got to quit the Yukon Jack, and hit the sack. Nostalgia is rampant tonite. ;)
 
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lfigueroa

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SJDinPHX said:
Lou,

I did not know your roots were in the bay area. How is it our trails never crossed ?...generation gap probably huh ?

Can you substantiate (or repudiate) my take on the social climate in Pre-boom California ?
(meaning when you could still buy a 3 BR house for under half a mil.)

Things just seemed so different then. Guess I'm really missing the old days tonite.

Dick


Oh yeah. I was born and raised IN SF, down by the Cow Palace. I went to SI and then USF. Played at Billiard Palacade (Mission and Geneva), Verns or Van's (on Van Ness), some rooms in the Sunset, Cochran's, Palace, Town and Country, Family Billiards (in at least three different locations on Geary), and Carousel over in San Mateo (played Tony Anigoni there a few times :). Later on, I spent some time in Sacramento and played at Terry Stonier's Jointed Cue, and Gene Aloha's place across town, I think the Golden Cue.

As to pre-boom California, I'm not so sure what you're talking about, but I do know my folks bought their first house, a nice three bedroom, for around $25K, circa 1960. Later on, maybe 10 years later, they bought another, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge (when it wasn't foggy) for $55K :)

Lou Figueroa
 
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lfigueroa

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SJDinPHX said:
Lou,

I did not know your roots were in the bay area. How is it our trails never crossed ?...generation gap probably huh ?

Can you substantiate (or repudiate) my take on the social climate in Pre-boom California ?
(meaning when you could still buy a 3 BR house for under half a mil.)

Things just seemed so different then. Guess I'm really missing the old days tonite.

Dick

PS I will not hazard a guess on your heritage, but I assume you are a Latin Lover of some ilk. (not that it really matters.)


OK, so went back and looked and saw I didn't answer all your questions, Dick.

First off, I think you may be a touch older than me. That's one we reason we missed. I'm going to be 56 this year, in August.

Also, I was a high school and college student when I played In SF. I use to go the Palace at 1am and regularly get clipped by a scruffer named Mike down there. 75 point races for $25. I never won, but I scared the begesus out of him the night I ran a 57 :) It was only at Town and Country that I could hold my own against the regulars.

My parents are from El Salvador. I was born in SF.

Lou Figueroa
 

SJDinPHX

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lfigueroa said:
Oh yeah. I was born and raised IN SF, down by the Cow Palace. I went to SI and then USF. Played at Billiard Palacade (Mission and Geneva), Verns or Van's (on Van Ness), some rooms in the Sunset, Cochran's, Palace, Town and Country, Family Billiards (in at least three different locations on Geary), and Carousel over in San Mateo (played Tony Anigoni there a few times :). Later on, I spent some time in Sacramento and played at Terry Stonier's Jointed Cue, and Gene Aloha's place across town, I think the Golden Cue.

As to pre-boom California, I'm not so sure what you're talking about, but I do know my folks bought their first house, a nice three bedroom, for around $25K, circa 1960. Later on, maybe 10 years later, they bought another, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge (when it wasn't foggy) for $55K :)

Lou Figueroa

Lou, see my very edited post, I am a ramblin' wreck tonite. :eek: Thanks for your patience with me...This is PM stuff when I'm sober.
And yes, you are 19 years my junior. Also, I left the Bay area in the early sixties, but returned to visit quite often.
 
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shooters1411

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SJDinPHX said:
Mike,

I did not know Sax's son and its not a big deal, but he is at least half Portugese. Sax's lovely wife, Evelyn, I believe was Italian, but Sax was pure Portugese. Thats why Porto is preceded by "Dal" instead of "Del" (Portugal is like a suburb of Spain, France, and Italy anyway, but they do speak a different language)

I knew him well, and respected him a lot. He was (or is) a good man.

In the 40's-50's in the bay area, there was a slight stigma attached to being Portugese. They, and the Italians were called "prune-picker's" and somewhat looked down upon as poor working stiffs, and second class citizens. (unless they were "connected")

Most of them share-cropped, or worked in the fruit packing sheds. They were accepted in the mainstream about like illegal immigrants are nowdays. So Sax and his family had to deal with that.

Another thing, in those days, the Portegues said they were Italian, and the Italians claimed to be French or Spanish.
It was a funny situation, but they did get the last laugh on a lot of people.

They were hard workers. They bought all the land they could, and when the big Cal boom hit, many of them became instant millionaires

Dick

PS Mike, Is Sax still alive ? If he is, could you get me in touch with him through his son ? I would appreciate it.

PPS Sax may have beat RA in a short race 1P tounament match, but he was never the 1P player Ronnie was. He was also not into gambling that much. Sax was a 14.1 player mainly, and a pretty darn good one at that.

Sax and his wife are both dead his wife Evelyn hook up with a pool player don't know first name but last name is Carter after Sax died. I post things about Sax for his son and try to get some stories about his Dad for him. His son knows alot of the stories and remembers alot of the pool players. His son said they are Italian. Ronnie Allen won that tournament but Sax gave him his only lost in that tournament. Sax ran over 300 balls in 14.1. thanks for your post. I will get a hold of Sax's son Paul and find what year Sax died it has been a while. Thanks again

Mike
 

fred bentivegna

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Country from New York

Country from New York

Fanatic said:
There is a black "Country" and Freddy and Grady mentioned them on this thread on pages 2 or 3 I believe. I believe his last name was Monroe or Monrow (not sure of the spelling) first name Charles; some people call him "Big Country"...I met him when I was a teenager, but never seen him play; I only seen him back people at the time but he was in his seventies. Recently I asked someone that knew him as well, and he says he's doing good and still playing, but I can't bet my life on that. he is still alive that I know. He was real sweet to me and a real southern gentlemen; he had impecable manners and was a sharp dresser.

Charles Country Monroe was from New York but spent much time in Chicago and especially in Detroit. I havent heard anything about his passing. He would be in his 80s. He did a little time a few years ago. Great, smart hustler and master dirty 8 ball player. Beat Bunny Rogoff playing dirty 8 (no mean feat).

the Beard

Country Calvin and I used to do battle periodically in Hot Springs AR in the
80s. It was more of a chemistry battle than anything else.

Here is a repeat of a much earlier post I made on this thread:
Country was a black high roller from NY. He is still alive and he must be close to 80. He played good straight-rail billiards, top-notch dirty 8-ball and decent one-pocket. He just got out of jail a few years back. I know him 40 years. He hung out in Detroit when the big action was there. He and I played partners one pocket $1000 a man against Freddy Salem there. Freddy Salem was playing him 9 to 7 at that time. With Country as my partner, we played Freddy even. We were a good combo and we beat Freddy 8 in a row. Country wouldn't shoot at a bad shot with a machete at his throat.
the beard
 

Scrzbill

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John, “Gentleman John”, Henderson.
And his road warrior, bunk mate, “Colnerl” Billie
And his stuck horse, “Rocket” Meyers, for going off like a zoom zoom.
 
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