BILL LOONEY
My experience as a poolroom owner in the South and amusing stories about hustlers and pool players in general.
Steve Mizerak and the Misfits, is the name we in the quaint little town of Athens, Al. have given the exodus of these young men in "65" from New Jersey. They invaded our town to attend the small college called Athens College, now Athens State. Evidently they couldn't get into college where they were from and the college recruiter from Athens found a gold mine in New Jersey and hit the mother lode. Word spread and the small town in the South suddenly was inundated with kids from surrounding states of New Jersey. The halls of Athens College reverberated with the sound of Yankee brogue." Oh, Jesus Christ and a couple of By Gods" seemed to roll of their tongue with ease.
Athens was a town that had been burned and plundered during the Civil War, not once but twice, so even though the "War" had been over for a hundred years there was still distrust for the "Yankee." They let us hold on to that distrust by stealing Civil War veteran's grave markers and taking them back North. It's the same thing a Southern kid would have done up North so it was not a hate crime it was just juvenile.
Steve was an adroit pool player who later went on to win several World Championships. Most of them were for 14.1, or Straight Pool, but he was also a One Pocket, Snooker and 9 ball champion. He met a formidable foe in a young man by the name of Kenneth James. Kenneth's dad, William James owned the local billiard parlor known as Pastime Billiards. Steve is professed to have said that Kenneth was the best damned dumb pool player he had ever met. Of course he did not mean this in a condescending way. It was a compliment. Ken had never read a book on pool, never seen a VCR tape on pool, or never had a teacher, a tutor, a mentor, or even a coach and Steve had all of these, if not more. Ken was a self taught player, having to rely on his keen sense of memory to store every new thing he saw for future reference. This astounded Mizerak. How could this guy play so well when no one had shown him anything about the game, especially in this small redneck town. They would do battle everyday for 4 years until Mizerak graduated.
Sometimes Steve would get a buddy and play Kenneth and a local yokel some partner Poker Pool. Not many young people have ever played this game and I haven't seen a set of Poker Pool balls in ages. The game consisted of 16 balls, 4 Aces, 4 Kings, 4 Queens,and 4 Jacks. A special diamond shaped rack is required. The object of the game is to get the best poker hand. You only got one shot at a time so you better make it count. You would shoot in one shot rotation. You would shoot until the best hand won. Steve never failed to try to pocket all of the Aces first, then a king or a queen for the best hand. Kenneth and his partner would always go after the 4 Jacks, then one of each of the other suits. Ken's team always won, Mizerak never really understood the game and of course you couldn't tell him anything about pool, he was the pro. He turned pro at the age of 13. He was the one that had the great Willie Mosconi as a coach and mentor. He was probably around 21 at this time.
Mizerak suffered a stroke in 2001 and never played competitively after that. He had pool rooms in West Palm Beach and Lake Park, Fl. He organized the Senior tour for men over 50 in 2006. He died May 29, 2006.
Athens was a town that had been burned and plundered during the Civil War, not once but twice, so even though the "War" had been over for a hundred years there was still distrust for the "Yankee." They let us hold on to that distrust by stealing Civil War veteran's grave markers and taking them back North. It's the same thing a Southern kid would have done up North so it was not a hate crime it was just juvenile.
Steve was an adroit pool player who later went on to win several World Championships. Most of them were for 14.1, or Straight Pool, but he was also a One Pocket, Snooker and 9 ball champion. He met a formidable foe in a young man by the name of Kenneth James. Kenneth's dad, William James owned the local billiard parlor known as Pastime Billiards. Steve is professed to have said that Kenneth was the best damned dumb pool player he had ever met. Of course he did not mean this in a condescending way. It was a compliment. Ken had never read a book on pool, never seen a VCR tape on pool, or never had a teacher, a tutor, a mentor, or even a coach and Steve had all of these, if not more. Ken was a self taught player, having to rely on his keen sense of memory to store every new thing he saw for future reference. This astounded Mizerak. How could this guy play so well when no one had shown him anything about the game, especially in this small redneck town. They would do battle everyday for 4 years until Mizerak graduated.
Sometimes Steve would get a buddy and play Kenneth and a local yokel some partner Poker Pool. Not many young people have ever played this game and I haven't seen a set of Poker Pool balls in ages. The game consisted of 16 balls, 4 Aces, 4 Kings, 4 Queens,and 4 Jacks. A special diamond shaped rack is required. The object of the game is to get the best poker hand. You only got one shot at a time so you better make it count. You would shoot in one shot rotation. You would shoot until the best hand won. Steve never failed to try to pocket all of the Aces first, then a king or a queen for the best hand. Kenneth and his partner would always go after the 4 Jacks, then one of each of the other suits. Ken's team always won, Mizerak never really understood the game and of course you couldn't tell him anything about pool, he was the pro. He turned pro at the age of 13. He was the one that had the great Willie Mosconi as a coach and mentor. He was probably around 21 at this time.
Mizerak suffered a stroke in 2001 and never played competitively after that. He had pool rooms in West Palm Beach and Lake Park, Fl. He organized the Senior tour for men over 50 in 2006. He died May 29, 2006.
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