Ross Keith Thompson
Verified Member
It's nice to know there is Giants of my era still around such as Bill Incardona, Tall Jeff and so on. I read about the Golden Years of pool in the late 60's and early 70's by Incardona and company and just want to add to it!
In 1970 I walked among giants of the game at Jansco's showbar in Johnston City IL.
No matter who you were or how well you played, even the people players of this time right now could not enter those premises and think he or she was going to rob everyone.
If you wanted to play some nine ball, there was no less than fifty players that would play you a race to eight or eleven and you may never shoot!
I truly understand now why they called Johnston City the Legendary tournaments.
There was still a slew of the old guns Lassiter, Fats, Crane (didn't gamble), D. Jones and so on, Then there was R. Allen, J. Red and the middle age giants.
Then there was the young guns of that era, Mataya, Incardona, Tall Jeff, Jimmy Marino, Eddie Burton, Richey Florence, Steve Cook, Hippy Jimmy, Jim Rempe, Nick Varner, Cole Dickson, Myself and so on.
If you, (meaning everyone of you) LOL, picked any player from any era, come on people, Efren Reyes or whomever, including me, and turned that player loose with 10k, chances were very very good he would leave there with a broke a--!
That is coming from me the All around champion of that year 1970!
How many times have any of you ever been in a pool room where you could go from one room or table to another and watch either opponent run five racks of nine ball all night long, just table after table, room after room, rack after rack, good tough playing tables, not the slop buckets some guys made them out to be.
We had fine equipment back in this era, even indoor toilets, LMAO.
Players from every nook and cranny in the country showed up at Johnston City or the Stardust in Vegas, what tournaments they were.
There were no easy brackets in any division, you had to earn every victory playing these Giants a race to eleven in nine ball.
If you could not run five racks consistently in your every day game you had no chance of winning a bracket.
If your one pocket game wasn't with in a ball of Ronnies game, you had no chance of winning a bracket.
If you couldn't run a hundred in 14 and one, you had no chance of winning a bracket.
This is what Mr. BILL INCARDONA, and myself say and mean about pool's golden years with the utmost respect to MR. INCARDONA because he was one of those ELETE, MID-EVIL NINERS of the DAY that would send you packing!
Nobody ever walked in the Stardust or Janscos Showbar and told every one to line up, chances were they wouldn't make it past #2, LOL.
Even Incardona knew better than that!
Forget for a moment the great players but some of the characters of the day were as good as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy!
I use to go to LaCue Club and downtown Houston to wage war with Tall Jeff, John Duke Dowell, Jersey Red, Greg Stevens and so on and would leave the place 12 hrs. later having not played one game and my sides were sore for two days from laughing the whole time.
These times were the best I've had, not playing Buddy Hall even nine ball or Tall Jeff, but to here some one such as Jersey Red, Grady Mathews or who ever did stand up that night, to be there among giants and to have a front row seat was second to none.
Those were the golden years of pool and we can't get them back but we can write about them.
So if any of you on this site have a story to tell of the golden years please put it here now before you can't put down. I have a book completed and won't get off my a-- and publish it, so don't be lazy like me, put some thing on paper.
YOURS TRULY the FORMER WORLD CHAMPION
In 1970 I walked among giants of the game at Jansco's showbar in Johnston City IL.
No matter who you were or how well you played, even the people players of this time right now could not enter those premises and think he or she was going to rob everyone.
If you wanted to play some nine ball, there was no less than fifty players that would play you a race to eight or eleven and you may never shoot!
I truly understand now why they called Johnston City the Legendary tournaments.
There was still a slew of the old guns Lassiter, Fats, Crane (didn't gamble), D. Jones and so on, Then there was R. Allen, J. Red and the middle age giants.
Then there was the young guns of that era, Mataya, Incardona, Tall Jeff, Jimmy Marino, Eddie Burton, Richey Florence, Steve Cook, Hippy Jimmy, Jim Rempe, Nick Varner, Cole Dickson, Myself and so on.
If you, (meaning everyone of you) LOL, picked any player from any era, come on people, Efren Reyes or whomever, including me, and turned that player loose with 10k, chances were very very good he would leave there with a broke a--!
That is coming from me the All around champion of that year 1970!
How many times have any of you ever been in a pool room where you could go from one room or table to another and watch either opponent run five racks of nine ball all night long, just table after table, room after room, rack after rack, good tough playing tables, not the slop buckets some guys made them out to be.
We had fine equipment back in this era, even indoor toilets, LMAO.
Players from every nook and cranny in the country showed up at Johnston City or the Stardust in Vegas, what tournaments they were.
There were no easy brackets in any division, you had to earn every victory playing these Giants a race to eleven in nine ball.
If you could not run five racks consistently in your every day game you had no chance of winning a bracket.
If your one pocket game wasn't with in a ball of Ronnies game, you had no chance of winning a bracket.
If you couldn't run a hundred in 14 and one, you had no chance of winning a bracket.
This is what Mr. BILL INCARDONA, and myself say and mean about pool's golden years with the utmost respect to MR. INCARDONA because he was one of those ELETE, MID-EVIL NINERS of the DAY that would send you packing!
Nobody ever walked in the Stardust or Janscos Showbar and told every one to line up, chances were they wouldn't make it past #2, LOL.
Even Incardona knew better than that!
Forget for a moment the great players but some of the characters of the day were as good as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy!
I use to go to LaCue Club and downtown Houston to wage war with Tall Jeff, John Duke Dowell, Jersey Red, Greg Stevens and so on and would leave the place 12 hrs. later having not played one game and my sides were sore for two days from laughing the whole time.
These times were the best I've had, not playing Buddy Hall even nine ball or Tall Jeff, but to here some one such as Jersey Red, Grady Mathews or who ever did stand up that night, to be there among giants and to have a front row seat was second to none.
Those were the golden years of pool and we can't get them back but we can write about them.
So if any of you on this site have a story to tell of the golden years please put it here now before you can't put down. I have a book completed and won't get off my a-- and publish it, so don't be lazy like me, put some thing on paper.
YOURS TRULY the FORMER WORLD CHAMPION