Tuscaloosa Squirrel

[MisterBanker]

Doing the social isolation thing today and was reading a bit of Minnesota Fats' book. He was telling a story about beating Marshall Carpenter three games of one-pocket in five minutes. I looked on youtube and didn't see any, but does anyone know of any videos of Marshall Carpenter playing?

 

[gulfportdoc]

Doing the social isolation thing today and was reading a bit of Minnesota Fats' book. He was telling a story about beating Marshall Carpenter three games of one-pocket in five minutes. I looked on youtube and didn't see any, but does anyone know of any videos of Marshall Carpenter playing?

I haven't seen any videos of Squirrel. There may be something from the Johnston City videos. Marshall didn't play tournaments much, especially in later days, so there may not be anything out there. Too bad. Steve has a nice interview with him on this site. I'm guessing Marshall is still alive because we surely would have heard otherwise. He'd be 92 now. We used to have a couple of Bama guys on the site, but haven't heard much from them lately.

I had the opportunity to play him in Mobile about 15 years ago. He gave me 10-7, and we broke even, but I'm not supposed to win at that spot, even at his then age. He's a great guy to talk to. A real gentlemen, and has plenty of stories.

 

[Jakie]

I haven't seen any videos of Squirrel. There may be something from the Johnston City videos. Marshall didn't play tournaments much, especially in later days, so there may not be anything out there. Too bad. Steve has a nice interview with him on this site. I'm guessing Marshall is still alive because we surely would have heard otherwise. He'd be 92 now. We used to have a couple of Bama guys on the site, but haven't heard much from them lately.

I had the opportunity to play him in Mobile about 15 years ago. He gave me 10-7, and we broke even, but I'm not supposed to win at that spot, even at his then age. He's a great guy to talk to. A real gentlemen, and has plenty of stories.

When I was 14 yrs old (1964) my family lived in Hillcrest Heights MD. (right on the line between Md and DC) . About 2 miles from where we lived was a movie theater in Coral Hills MD that my friends and I would walk to. One Sat night after seeing a movie one guy in our group says that there is a pool room upstairs above the theater and we should check it out. None of us had any pool experience but our curiosity pushed us upstairs. The room was packed with people standing along the walls and between the tables. Only one table was being played on and the table next to it had more cash on it than I had ever seen. Two men where playing one pocket which at this point in my life I had never seen or even heard of. We found a place to stand against a wall where could see the table and tried to figure out what was going on in this strange game.( I am still trying to figure it out). An older black gentleman figured us out pretty quickly and gave us a running analysis of the game and what was going on with the betting which was changing between each game. What impressed me the most was the way both players handled themselves. One was a white guy thirty to forty yrs old. He was dressed in all black (western style. well groomed) and moved around the table like he owned it) . The other player was a black gentleman who was equally confident in his demeanor and was clearly the crowd favorite as the western clad man and his partner plus me and my three friends were the only white people in the place. We watched this match until it ended with the white guy prevailing and winning what seemed to me an extraordinary amount of cash. The whole scene that I had just witnessed had me mesmorized me and although I did not realize it at the time I was hooked.
Fast forward a few years and I come to learn that these impressive players were the great Melvin "Strawberry" Brooks and the southern gentleman
Marshall "Tuscaloosa Squirelly"Carpenter. Being as we both were from DC, Straw and I became friends and I asked him about his match with the Squirrel. He was very complimentary and said Squirrel was relentless,always played the correct shot and gave every shot 100%.(never took a shot off)
I ran into Mr Carpenter many years later and asked if he recalled the match and he lit up like a Christmas tree. He remembered it vividly and was very impressed with Strawberry's savvy and heart.He stated that Straw would play anybody and all but a few top players gave him a wide berth.
He also laughingly asked in his best AL drawl "can you believe that rascal Strawberry had me giving him a ball?"

 

[baby huey]

About twelve years I was at the Executive West DCC event for the first time. As I was getting on the elevator to go down to the tournament area an older man probably in his seventies or so saw my cue and asked if I wanted to play some one pocket for $100 a game and I said "sure." We went down and couldn't get a table and that man was Marshall Carpenter. Later in the event I saw him again and asked to play and he said he saw me play and wanted 9/7. I said I give him a ball just to kick the game off and he declined. Well we never played and I never saw him again. So, my opportunity to play one of the all time greats never happened.

 

[NH Steve]

He made it to DCC a number of times, and always seemed to play a little. He had people that wanted to play him. He told me he would play "anybody his age" even, but those guys were tough to find then, and even tougher now. I remember thinking Patcheye or Henderson but I think Squirrel spotted both of those guys a few years

 

[rnewkirk]

I had the pleasure of sitting with Marshall for about 4 hrs sweating a 1-pkt game at Banana's in San Antonio. Probably around 1987-1989.
Squirrel had a player with him, I don't remember the name. Now that I think about it he looked a lot like Bill Stroud, maybe taller.
At that time I was around 40 and knew a lot of the old timers, Puckett, Eddie Taylor, Jersey Red, etc.
Squirrel kept me entertained with stories the whole time.

He told me about his only hustling trip to Ft Worth around 1953. He was out at the bars on Jacksboro Hwy. He said it was so rough and
gangsterish, he never went back to Cowtown.

Oh yeah, I don't know if they ever trapped Freddie the Bookie, or not. That is why the 4 hr match with a local player.
Rodney (Androd) also was living in San Antonio at the time. He also played a lot at Banana's.

Bananas Rodriguez was the owner and an old road hustler, crusty, but a very nice man.

I could share a good story about Rodney and me, but I will pass on that.

 

[vapros]

I suspected there might be a bunch of good stories about Rodney that we had never heard here.

 

[unoperro]

I had the pleasure of sitting with Marshall for about 4 hrs sweating a 1-pkt game at Banana's in San Antonio. Probably around 1987-1989.
Squirrel had a player with him, I don't remember the name. Now that I think about it he looked a lot like Bill Stroud, maybe taller.
At that time I was around 40 and knew a lot of the old timers, Puckett, Eddie Taylor, Jersey Red, etc.
Squirrel kept me entertained with stories the whole time.

He told me about his only hustling trip to Ft Worth around 1953. He was out at the bars on Jacksboro Hwy. He said it was so rough and
gangsterish, he never went back to Cowtown.

Oh yeah, I don't know if they ever trapped Freddie the Bookie, or not. That is why the 4 hr match with a local player.
Rodney (Androd) also was living in San Antonio at the time. He also played a lot at Banana's.

Bananas Rodriguez was the owner and an old road hustler, crusty, but a very nice man.

I could share a good story about Rodney and me, but I will pass on that.

Nuke did Mondo Canales play at Bananas?
Believe he was orig from ElPaso?

 

[rnewkirk]

Mondo played at Moyers in Austin, Bananas in SA, Clicks in Arlington. I believe he is still playing in El Paso at Clicks.
Also, he spent a lot of time in Albuquerque. Mondo's father in El Paso was a very good player and a nicer man.
Mondo and I had a lot of matches in 70's. I can still see him right up in the middle of a 9 footer at Moyers. I would wonder how in the world is he going to cut that ball in and get out of the way of the cue ball.

He always did. He was an ex-jockey, about 5'2 and 130.

Mondo, if you are reading this I still owe you a meal from Vegas.

 

[unoperro]

Mondo played at Moyers in Austin, Bananas in SA, Clicks in Arlington. I believe he is still playing in El Paso at Clicks.
Also, he spent a lot of time in Albuquerque. Mondo's father in El Paso was a very good player and a nicer man.
Mondo and I had a lot of matches in 70's. I can still see him right up in the middle of a 9 footer at Moyers. I would wonder how in the world is he going to cut that ball in and get out of the way of the cue ball.

He always did. He was an ex-jockey, about 5'2 and 130.

Mondo, if you are reading this I still owe you a meal from Vegas.

Last I knew he was in Phoenix selling windows.
I played him some cheap 1pkt 1 night when he wasnt "quite himself". I drummed him 4 games straight and he quit. A few nights later he caught up with me and I never got to 8 balls in the four games we played. He cut balls 94° down the rail from 7 diamonds away just to start runs after I thought I moved on him. Some of the most impressive shot making I ever saw. He quit after winning his money back and got right in my face and said "you cant play with me". He had stayed with me for a couple weeks at 1 time so he wasnt out to rob me.

 

[one pocket guy]

I had the pleasure of sitting with Marshall for about 4 hrs sweating a 1-pkt game at Banana's in San Antonio. Probably around 1987-1989.
Squirrel had a player with him, I don't remember the name. Now that I think about it he looked a lot like Bill Stroud, maybe taller.
At that time I was around 40 and knew a lot of the old timers, Puckett, Eddie Taylor, Jersey Red, etc.
Squirrel kept me entertained with stories the whole time.

He told me about his only hustling trip to Ft Worth around 1953. He was out at the bars on Jacksboro Hwy. He said it was so rough and
gangsterish, he never went back to Cowtown.

Oh yeah, I don't know if they ever trapped Freddie the Bookie, or not. That is why the 4 hr match with a local player.
Rodney (Androd) also was living in San Antonio at the time. He also played a lot at Banana's.

Bananas Rodriguez was the owner and an old road hustler, crusty, but a very nice man.

I could share a good story about Rodney and me, but I will pass on that.

Robert next time you see Rowsey ask him about when he and Rosie played Squirrel and his young nephew A little partners.
They later found out his youngster was Scott Frost

 

[MisterBanker]

Harold McAbee just posted on AZBilliards that he passed away today.

 

[Erik]

Whenever one of these players passes it seems to emphasize the importance of the work Steve did in creating the Hall of Fame, and particularly the player interviews, it seems like without a lot of those interviews so much valuable history would be lost

 

[JAM]

Back in the late '70s, eary '80s, I was young and dumb with no responsibilities to keep me from going on the road with a pool player named Geese. We went down South and encountered quite a few characters along the way. Geese had a "steer" from Georgia who took him around to different action spots.

Unlike most of today's tournament soldiers, Geese could play all games, but one-pocket was his specialty. When we left the steer and headed out on our own to Tennessee, he gave Geese some advice on who to play and who to stay away from. And the Tuscaloosa Squirrel was one of the players he told Geese to stay away from because he was that good.

Many years later in 2003, I went to the Derby City Classic (DCC) in Louisville at the old Executive West, and I had the oportunity to see this famous Tuscaloosa Squirrel. Interestingly, he was in a captains game with Cornbread Red and another player whose name escapes me at the time of this writing. They were laughing it up having a blast together.

Here's a cute photo of Berle, Cornbread, and Squirrel taken at the 2003 DCC. How fitting is it that they are standing by the Action Room sign.

Wow! 92 years old. May he rest in eternal peace. I'm sure he'll be in action in heaven playing with Grady and Cornbread.
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