April 18, 2012

Grady 'The Professor' Mathews

January 3, 1943 - April 18, 2012

Pool champion, instructor, promoter, and tireless supporter of the game he loved, Grady Mathews III died today after a long battle with cancer. He was surrounded by family and friends. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Caughman-Harman Funeral Home, with the service scheduled for Saturday, April 21 at their Lexington Chapel, 503 N Lake Dr,
Lexington, SC.

They called him ‘The Professor’, but they could just as aptly have called him Mr. One Pocket. It is hard to imagine a model for contributing more to the game of One Pocket than exhibited over the career of Grady Mathews; he was truly an ambassador to the game.

Born January 3, 1943 in San Antonio, Texas, when Grady was a teenager his family moved to San Mateo, California, just about 25 miles outside of the pool Mecca of San Francisco. Grady was a good natural athlete, but once he got started with pool, that is here he turned his attention. He proved to be an adept student of pool, especially the game of One Pocket, honing his skills at fabled Cochran’s in San Francisco in the early 1960’s before he took to the road.

Just about every great player of that era made appearances at Cochran’s. As Grady tells it, “You had guys there at Cochran’s like ‘Bananas’ Rodriguez. ‘Mexican Phil’ was another one. Those two guys couldn’t run a lot of balls, but boy could they play One Pocket! The young guys like me and Rich Marques and Ronnie Barber and Denny Searcy and ‘One Eyed Hank’; we’d kick shots around, trying different ways to do things. We learned pretty quickly as young people are wont to do. I don’t think you could find a better learning facility than Cochran’s.” Grady even worked at Cochran’s for a while, until it became clear he could make more money playing pool than he could working.

Read the rest of this Grady Mathews tribute

January, 2012

2012 Derby City Classic

Not since Mark Tadd at the Los Angeles Open in 1993 has a player so dominated a major all-around tournament like Shane Van Boening did this year at the 14th annual Derby City Classic. It took the straight shooting young man from Canada, John Morra, two tries to defeat Van Boening in the Banks finals, thus preventing what would have been a sweep for Van Boening, as he went on to win both the One Pocket and 9-Ball divisions.

Morra had entered the final Banks round with his "buy-back" still available, whereas Shane had suffered a loss in an earlier round. Shane prevailed in the first final match, but was finally dispatched by Morra in the second final match. Third place went to Brandon Shuff and 4th to John Brumback.

It only got better for Van Boening in the One Pocket division, as he navigated his way through a field of 312 players to sweep his way to the top prize. Not that it was easy, nor was it just his superior fire-power that carried him. He survived one match with veteran Chicago player Ike Runnels that included a single two hour game in which Shane clawed out a win after falling way behind.

Obviously, Van Boening also came away with the Master of the Table bonus. It was a great week for Van Boening overall, who took home $33,000 in purses and an extra $20,00 for the Master of the Table bonus.

Click here for many more photos from Derby City

October, 2011

Johnston City

50th Anniversary of Jansco Brothers First Tournament 1961-2011

October 25th, 1961 the world of pool in America woke up to a remarkable new kind of tournament that shook the pool establishment out of a deep slumber. It was an unusual event on several fronts; one being the unlikely location for a major national pool tournament, deep in rural southern Illinois. Second, it was a game, One Pocket, not recognized by the established sanctioning body of pool in America at that time, the Billiard Congress of America. Third, the tournament boldly featured a number of known hustler pool players who had not participated in the few sanctioned events of the mid-century -- whether by their own choice, or because they were not invited due to their reputations. And finally, the promoter was a total newcomer to pool tournament promotions, a fellow who had his roots more in the gambling side of pool than the establishment side of pool, the remarkable George Jansco. So who were the Jansco Brothers, and what made them think a small town in southern Illinois could become the “Billiard Capitol of the World”?

Click here for more of the story about the Jansco's legendary Johnston City tournaments

Banking with the Beard

by Freddy Bentivegna

Freddy 'the Beard' Bentivegna has just published a unique new book on banking, entitled Banking with the Beard, Secrets of a Master Banker.  Chicago has for years been host to a culture of big action Bank Pool, home to legends such as 'Bugs' Rucker, Glenn 'Piggy Banks' Rogers, and of course, 'The Beard'.

Click here for our complete review