Donnie "Waterdog" Edwards

[cincy_kid]

Been so darn busy, I forgot to post this a couple weeks ago, someone popped into our discord chat channel and posted this. I told them I would post on the forums where more people would see it. Here you go:

"...Hey everybody, I'm not sure I'm in the right place but I read some forums from the website a while back and thought this would be a good place to start: I am writing a book about Donnie "Waterdog" Edwards during his prime and the years following. It will be around 300-400 pages, hoping to finish by the end of 2023. If anyone has any stories or remembers anything about Waterdog, I would love to hear them. I'll check back but you can also email them to me danieljnelson91@gmail.com Thank you all I appreciate it and I appreciate the lifestyle. God bless...."

 

[J.R.]

I know the final years of "Waterdog's" life were spent mostly hanging around Chicago's Chris's Billiards. My best, unfortunately not favorable, memories of "Waterdog" were seeing him bedding down for the night under the outside stairs behind the pool room until they put steel bars up to prevent him from that shelter and seeing him walk along one of Chicago's westside, infamous dope strolls trying to cop a bag of heroin.

 

[mhilton777]

I remember plenty of times when I was young (18 or 19yrs old) giving Waterdog or Rich Crawford a little money to get by for the night. Sad times for some of those guys around Chicago then.

 

[jazznpool]

I remember plenty of times when I was young (18 or 19yrs old) giving Waterdog or Rich Crawford a little money to get by for the night. Sad times for some of those guys around Chicago then.

I did not personally know Waterdog. The memories I have of him in the early to mid 70s were sad (I can't recall the year exactly). Over the course of a few weeks during the winter I saw him slumped in a chair nodding off or asking for money in the pool room I frequented in East Detroit. I had heard from a few guys that he was a good player (and a junkie) but I did not get to see him play.

 

[EtDM]

I have a great memory of visiting Chris's with my dad and getting to see Waterdog shoot in a tournament. Even though he was past his prime his skill was still obvious. I remember several players were upset that he was allowed to play despite it being an amateur only tourney.

 

[Frank Almanza]

I played him around the early seventies. Nice guy and played very well. About 20 years ago we met in Vegas. He came up to me and we talked for a while. Truth is that I would have never recognized him because he had changed so much. Life was not treating him well. I felt sad for him.