by radyer | Dec 28, 2024 | 1940s Pool, 1960s Pool, Hustler Stories, Minnesota Fats
Back in 1970 Minnesota Fats was in Johnston City, Illinois making games with Richie Florence, a young player then considered one of America’s best. Florence was flush with cash from a recent score in Alabama. He would have been about 25 years old. Fats was pushing 60....
by radyer | Oct 24, 2023 | 1960s Pool, 1970s Pool, Hustler Stories, Jansco Brothers, Minnesota Fats, Tom Fox, Tournaments
Why should we still care about Johnston City, now a half-century later? There are plenty of reasons, but foremost is that the tournaments changed American pool forever. ________________________________________________ By R.A. Dyer They came flooding in, maybe forty in...
by radyer | Jul 26, 2020 | 1960s Pool, Jansco Brothers, Minnesota Fats, Tom Fox
Karen Fox, widow of Sports Illustrated writer Tom Fox, was there during the ’61 Johnston City tournament. Karen Fox Karen Fox, the widow of Sports Illustrated writer Tom Fox, recounts just below how her late husband came to author what would become one of the...
by radyer | Apr 17, 2020 | 1940s Pool, Hustler Stories, Minnesota Fats, Wimpy Lassiter
How much were historic wagers by Lassiter, Fats, and De Oro in today’s dollars? This is what Luther Lassiter said about Norfolk, Virginia, back in the 1940s: “Greatest pool town that’s ever been. You had five or six people there who were...
by radyer | Feb 22, 2020 | 1960s Pool, Hustler Stories, Jansco Brothers, Minnesota Fats, Tom Fox
Old-time hustler was part of pool’s most colorful generation. The autobiography of Minnesota Fats, written with Tom Fox, references Cornbread Red. Billy Burge, better known as “Cornbread Red,” was a famed road player, an expert one-pocket player and...
by radyer | Nov 6, 2019 | 1960s Pool, Hustler Stories, Minnesota Fats, Willie Mosconi
The catch, however, is that the match was never really played. By Bryan Johnston Ask any pool player what they consider the greatest pool match ever played and you’ll most likely hear Efren Reyes vs. Earl Strickland, June, 1995. Or perhaps Willie Mosconi vs. Rudolph...
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