Scott Frost was born July 17, 1975, in Des Moines, Iowa, where he lived until he was about 25. He didn’t start out as a pool player, he was obsessed with basketball in high school, but he missed one practice as a 16 year old junior (visiting his brother who was sick) and his hard […]
Born April 30, 1971, Jeremy grew up in the Baytown suburb of Houston, TX. He didn’t start playing pool until he was about 17, but he was good at other sports too at that time. He had a friend in Baytown that he worked with at a pizza place that talked him into playing – […]
Born February 6, 1931, Eugene ‘Clem’ Metz was originally from Chicago. His mother and father both had worked at the Boardwalk in Chicago during the Al Capone years, and had in fact served Capone (haircut and manicure). Clem died April 26, 2011. Clem came with his family to Cincinnati at 16 years old, that is […]
One Pocket champion Cliff Joyner originally haled from Rocky Mount, NC. He started as a teenager, and in Cliff’s words, “Pool just came naturally to me. I never had anyone teach me.” However, after a while he began to range in search of more competition and it was then that he discovered One Pocket. Mother’s […]
Shannon Daulton was born April 5, 1972 in Somerset, Kentucky. Shannon was an only child and from about as early as he could stand at the table, pool was a major bond between Shannon and his father Gerald Daulton. “I owe 100% of my pool game to my dad – and my mom for putting […]
Nick Varner got started playing pool when he was five, when his father bought a little poolroom in Grandview, Illinois. Nick was a two-time college amateur champion in 1969-70 while a student at Purdue University. As a teenager, he became acquainted with legendary One Pocket player Hubert Cokes, who took an interest in Nick’s game […]
Richard Mc Morran was born September 24, 1934. His family originally lived in the tiny Colorado town of Dolores; a scenic hamlet of only about 550 residents. Yet small as it was, Dolores had a little poolroom in the center of town, and the game quickly caught Dick’s interest. There were no age restrictions in […]
Cecil ‘Buddy’ Hall was born May 29, 1945 in Metropolis, Illinois – just 6 miles from Paducah, KY. The little poolroom he first started playing in at the age of 15 still used an old pot-bellied wood stove for heat in the winter – firing that up before they opened every day was one of […]
Born in Elizabeth, NJ, in November, 1951, Allen Hopkins was one of those child prodigies that surface now and then in pool – even carrying the moniker “Young Hoppe” for a while — except unlike many of the flash and burn careers of other young talents, Hopkins proved to have staying power. Growing up first […]
Artist’s rendering courtesy Ray Desell Players that knew ‘Fats’, especially those that knew him during his prime years before he took on the Minnesota Fats moniker, generally describe Fats as a very good player, but still a ball or two below the best. This is the way Eddie Taylor described it in an interview with […]
Like many child prodigies at pool, Jose got an early start because his father owned two poolrooms – one in his own hometown and another in downtown Manila. And his father was a good player, so Jose got to watch many of the best local players as they came in to challenge his father. By […]
Born in 1934 in West Virginia, Marvin Henderson moved as a child to the hill district of Pittsburgh, where an early job shining shoes just down the hill at ‘Woogie’ Harris’s Crystal Barbershop gave Marvin his first glimpse into the enticing world of pool action. It was a classic barbershop in the front with a […]