Old National Billiard News from 1973

1pwannabe

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Picked these up on Ebay the other day. I'd like to find a lot more of them!



Guess who!



Maybe you guys know him?



I'll post more photos from these if you guys want, the articles are an amazing time capsule as well.
 

lll

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1pwannabe
post EVERYTHING
pretty please....:)
history will be forgotten if not perpetuatedhttp://www.onepoc
p.s. great pic of billy.....:)
 

Billy Jackets

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1pwannabe
post EVERYTHING
pretty please....:)
history will be forgotten if not perpetuatedhttp://www.onepoc
p.s. great pic of billy.....:)

I have a big stack of them from the 70s on to about 1995 I think, many are postmarked to Gary Spaeth the bank pool champion, I bought them from him 15 or 20 years ago
If you just want the info I think there are copies on the web.
I have collected stuff for over 30 years, if you are looking for anything in particular.
Or you could buy it all, and then you could post it for everybody to see.
I was going to write a book with stories about all the best players but I got sick, then Freddie did his book, and all I could add to that, is the guys from about 1870 to 1950. That would have been a nice addition , but I don't think that many people would be interested in guys dead that long. Who knows?
 
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gulfportdoc

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Great find, 1PW! Those weren't easy to come by as I recall. I don't know if they were sent to poolrooms, or whether it was subscription, or both.

Interesting that they say "The New" National... Wonder if it was a new format, or whether the paper had just come back into existence. I see these are from the Volume 1 series, so the paper must have just fired back up. Maybe Billy J. knows.

Nice to see "Gilbert Tops Tiff's Tourney", which is referring to 3C champ Alan Gilbert winning a tournament at Tiff Payne's North Hollywood Billiards-- one of the great 3C rooms in the country in those days.

I didn't realize that they were in print to 1995. John Henderson's fine Cue Sports Journal started up in the early '90s as I recall.

~Doc
 

Jimmy B

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Great find, 1PW! Those weren't easy to come by as I recall. I don't know if they were sent to poolrooms, or whether it was subscription, or both.

Interesting that they say "The New" National... Wonder if it was a new format, or whether the paper had just come back into existence. I see these are from the Volume 1 series, so the paper must have just fired back up. Maybe Billy J. knows.

Nice to see "Gilbert Tops Tiff's Tourney", which is referring to 3C champ Alan Gilbert winning a tournament at Tiff Payne's North Hollywood Billiards-- one of the great 3C rooms in the country in those days.

I didn't realize that they were in print to 1995. John Henderson's fine Cue Sports Journal started up in the early '90s as I recall.

~Doc



Yes Doc, anyone could subscribe to that paper.. .. I had stacks of them also and gave them to a young fry cook I knew who got interested in pool. He was wanting them bad.. I remember subscribing for a year and after a year was up, they just kept sending them. After about two years I felt a little guilty and sent in another years payment and ended up getting them for about 5 years or so. I think the new was because it had come back.
 

androd

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Yes Doc, anyone could subscribe to that paper.. .. I had stacks of them also and gave them to a young fry cook I knew who got interested in pool. He was wanting them bad.. I remember subscribing for a year and after a year was up, they just kept sending them. After about two years I felt a little guilty and sent in another years payment and ended up getting them for about 5 years or so. I think the new was because it had come back.

Almost all mag's will send after you stop paying, they need the numbers for their ad buyers.
 

12squared

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Great find, 1PW! Those weren't easy to come by as I recall. I don't know if they were sent to poolrooms, or whether it was subscription, or both.

Interesting that they say "The New" National... Wonder if it was a new format, or whether the paper had just come back into existence. I see these are from the Volume 1 series, so the paper must have just fired back up. Maybe Billy J. knows.

Nice to see "Gilbert Tops Tiff's Tourney", which is referring to 3C champ Alan Gilbert winning a tournament at Tiff Payne's North Hollywood Billiards-- one of the great 3C rooms in the country in those days.

I didn't realize that they were in print to 1995. John Henderson's fine Cue Sports Journal started up in the early '90s as I recall.

~Doc

I think the title of "New"... was when Bob Mullen (and maybe Ray Abrams from Cushion n Cue) bought the rights to the paper I think in the early 70's. I worked for Bob and Ray both for a short time. Ray at his poolrooms and Bob at his retail shop that also made and repaired pool tables plus did cue work.
 
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NH Steve

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I think the title of "New"... was when Bob Mullen (and maybe Ray Abrams from Cushion n Cue) bought the rights to the paper I think in the early 70's. I worked for Bob and Ray both for a short time. Ray at his poolrooms and Bob at his retail shop that also made and repaired pool tables plus dit cue work.

So that was before Conrad Burkman bought it? Because he owned it for many years until he closed it down and retired only about 10 years or so ago.

One funny thing about many of the old issues is how many player names are spelled wrong. I have often wondered if it was players did't really want their name and photo out there that much lol.
 

mr3cushion

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Ray Abrams use to host the, "Billiard News Open", 3 cushion.

In 1983, I won it and went undefeated with 35 players.

The year before, 1982, the winner of that event was on the cover. In 83, I requested they not put me on the cover! But the story and results were in the center page of the paper.
 

12squared

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So that was before Conrad Burkman bought it? Because he owned it for many years until he closed it down and retired only about 10 years or so ago.

One funny thing about many of the old issues is how many player names are spelled wrong. I have often wondered if it was players did't really want their name and photo out there that much lol.

I'm unclear about that, sorry. Conrad was either a partner with them (probable) or bought it sometime in the 70's. I didn't know Conrad but knew of him.

I found this excerpt of an article that AZB published a while ago about Conrad, which explains it all:

We also wanted to know about Conrad's history with the National Billiard News. As publisher of the oldest billiard publication we knew the road could not have always been smooth. "Two friends of mine, Ray Abrams and Bob Mullins, bought the National Billiard News and got into a bit of a hole right from the get-go. After only three issues they needed another partner to buy in to supply the money to keep it going.


"So I thought about it and told them that I would come on board if I could have say in how the money was spent and the advertising and the subscriptions. They agreed and I've been here ever since. When I came on we had only 300 subscribers and maybe 200 of those were freebies. We righted the ship and eventually Ray and I bought everyone else out. Ray continues his presence on the masthead but hasn't visited the office in a number of years, so I have control of the publication.

Well there you go :)
 
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Jimmy B

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Almost all mag's will send after you stop paying, they need the numbers for their ad buyers.



Makes sense, Rod. I remember all the copies I had were definitely from the 70's.. I first saw Nick Varner in there. There was a big story about him and his accomplishments in college and how well he was playing... A few days later I was in a cowboy themed nightclub in SC that had 3 bar tables and there was tremendous action in there at the time.. There were two 8 ft and one 7ft Valley's... The cost of getting the 15 balls was ONE quarter, yet that 7ft table would take in up to a thousand dollars some weeks.. Varner comes in there. I decided to just avoid him and not say anything to anyone. No one else in there knew him at all. I thought I might get a side bet on him later or something.. I was going to play it smart.. But I felt like playing, so I bypassed him and a couple of other guys in there I knew I couldn't beat, and jumped on this other stranger.. Turns out it was Steve Oaks. I never been beat so bad in my fkkin life.... But I do remember seeing Conrad Burkman's name lots of times, who Steve B mentioned, in that paper........
 

NH Steve

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I'm unclear about that, sorry. Conrad was either a partner with them (probable) or bought it sometime in the 70's. I didn't know Conrad but knew of him.

I found this excerpt of an article that AZB published a while ago about Conrad, which explains it all:

We also wanted to know about Conrad's history with the National Billiard News. As publisher of the oldest billiard publication we knew the road could not have always been smooth. "Two friends of mine, Ray Abrams and Bob Mullins, bought the National Billiard News and got into a bit of a hole right from the get-go. After only three issues they needed another partner to buy in to supply the money to keep it going.


"So I thought about it and told them that I would come on board if I could have say in how the money was spent and the advertising and the subscriptions. They agreed and I've been here ever since. When I came on we had only 300 subscribers and maybe 200 of those were freebies. We righted the ship and eventually Ray and I bought everyone else out. Ray continues his presence on the masthead but hasn't visited the office in a number of years, so I have control of the publication.

Well there you go :)
Cool! Conrad was a very good supporter of the One Pocket Hall of Fame! He came to almost all, until his health just did not permit it. He also provided many photos of players from the past!! Rest in Peace Conrad
 

1pwannabe

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What's really nice about 1973, and going through these stories, is that all the greats from the classic era were still alive and playing or at least showing up at events.

Fixing to post a bunch more photos, stay tuned.
 
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