Reportedly Hayden Lingo is second from left, middle row. Although captioned “First Tournament” 1961 in the 1969 Johnston City program, this photo was actually taken later, probably in 1963. Often cited as ‘the man that invented One Pocket’, it is more likely that he was just such a strong early practitioner of the game that he and […]
John ‘Rags’ Fitzpatrick was a very talented player and dapper gentleman whose name nearly always comes up among old-timers as the top all-around road player of his time. Yet he is largely unknown today, and missing from the record books, mainly because he died at the age of 41 in 1960. The date is significant, […]
A lifelong resident of Washington, DC, ‘Strawberry’ was born Dec 10th, 1933, so he just turned 73 earlier this month. He was a family man and a US Army veteran and then worked for the Post Office for a time before he turned to pool full-time to support his family. He had nine sons and […]
Gary showing his winning form at the Clyde Childress tournament photo courtesy of Bill Porter Gary Spaeth grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and was introduced to pool at a very early age by his father, Joey ‘Cincinnati Kid’ Spaeth, who just happened to be a Johnston City and Stardust regular. Joey Spaeth was one of […]
Truman Hogue grew up in the heart of Bank Pool country, in Louisville, Kentucky. Born January 11, 1946, Truman grew up in Danville, Kentucky, about 30 miles outside of Lexington. He got his start playing pool at about eleven years old when his mom used to work at a restaurant that had pool tables in […]
Freddy at Grady Mathews’ 2004 Gulf Coast Classic Freddy ‘the Beard’ Bentivegna grew up in Chicago, where he first took to pool in a neighborhood bowling alley that had a few well-worn pool tables. Later, he started to make trips to the shark-infested environs of Bensinger’s downtown poolroom. At first repeatedly sent home broke, Freddy […]
Originally from Knoxville Tennessee, Eddie Taylor was the elder statesman of the generation of One Pocket legends that were already strong players well before the first 1961 Johnston City event. Growing up in the heart of Bank Pool country, Eddie became the master at Banks in the early 40’s, and is generally acknowledged as the […]
Leonard Rucker — but everybody called him Bugs — hailed from Chicago, IL, where he developed into a very strong Bank Pool player as a teenager. Like fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Taylor, Bugs took advantage of his tremendous banking skills to go on to develop a very strong One Pocket game. * As a […]
‘Champagne Eddie’ Kelly was born May 17th, 1938 in Waterbury, Connecticut, and it was in Waterbury that he first began to wander into the local poolroom. He found a natural calling for the game, which led him to start a little hustling by the time he was fourteen. After a stint in the Marine Corps, […]
One Pocket legend Steve Cook died in his sleep at his home in Lima, Ohio at the age of 56. Under the tutelage of Junior ‘Lefty’ Goff he took to One Pocket as a young man, surprising the field with his 1970 Stardust victory. His boyish looks belied his fierce competitive talent, earning him the […]
Marshall Carpenter was born in February, 1928 in the same Alabama town of Tuscaloosa in which he still lives. He started going in to the poolrooms as a kid selling peanuts, which led to his nickname, ‘The Tuscaloosa Squirrel’. Gambling was deeply ingrained in that part of the South at the time, and Squirrel quickly […]
Billy ‘Cornbread Red’ Burge grew up in the small town of Fulton, which straddles the border between Kentucky and Tennessee in the rural South. Later, for many years he made his home base The Rack, just outside Detroit, Michigan. Formally known as the Capital Billiards Club, The Rack became a mecca for pool’s road players […]