DON WILLIS GREATEST POOL HUSTLER OF ALL TIME Story by POOL LEGEND GARTEN BIERBOWER

how good was Donnie and uh Fred says I don't know and Fred says I can tell you I say how many nine ball racks Donnie could run he says I don't know he says but I'll tell you this when they were In New York City I had a guy who was a bookie who booked horses and numbers, you know, three-digit numbers and booked illegal gambling and Donnie had hired a guy for a lot of money. Donnie came in and told him if you give him the break just one break with no ball in hand after you give me the break at nine balls he says and I'll give you 10 to one odds that I can run out Don was giving the odds, said we'll play for a thousand a game Fred Martin told me he says 45,000 the bookie quit Willis hadn't missed ran 45 racks a nine ball from half

time

without a miss Donnie was someone who knew him said he was a damn character you know what Nick Warner went to cut collie in Malone, don't you think, huh, I thought he went to Purdue, just in Malone, well, no, he might have gone to Purdue after, maybe he went to high school, cut here , okay, but see, he knows he has a lot of guys. around Canton and Aon Nick, yeah, Nick used to bowl in college.

Nick said he would never admit it, but the best player he ever saw was Don Willis. I'm going to talk to him. I mean, believe it if you can. Ask him, but Willis Willis saw him play there at the varsity dance and Donnie says the kid shows too much speed talking about Nick. Willis said yes, about Nick, he says the kid shows too much, he shows too much speed, not only did he show that he was too good. Willis was phenomenal, you have no idea, I mean, Willis said it shows too much about Nick, he was talking about Nick, yeah, yeah, yeah, he said the kid chose too much, he didn't want to play Nick, no, no, no, no , only Nick showed. guys too much every

time

he, you know, every time he played oh he showed too much, yeah, he showed too much talent, oh yeah, that's like Donnie Donnie ran his finger over his hand when he played, instead of sticking his finger in , he put it here as M.

Conone, yeah, well, I asked him why he did that and he said players didn't do that in those days and it seemed like I couldn't play. No, Mone did the thumb on top of the finger like that. The thumb didn't fit his finger right. Masone. he did it backwards so Willis Willis did it like that huh yeah that looks pretty oh but that's good the thumb is solid on the thumb though yeah it looked horrible yeah he did it because it looked horrible , but what about his hit? Although he must have done it. It was a pretty soft blow.

Willis could hit that damn ball however he wanted, he could hit it where he would roll, I mean it, and he would just fall off the end of the hole, or he could hit it like he was breaking through a grate. nine ball and it would still go in that's the truth I saw him do that you mean just hit any shot like it was a stop shot yeah yeah he can hit it any way he wants people were playing the guys weren't very good . I would make it look like he was just potting the ball the first time I saw him break a rack, here we go, here's what he had, here's the table, okay, it breaks, he's got the Q ball placed here, a ball here, all nine balls out. here we knew who he was he was in Pittsburgh the nine balls in the pocket nine balls right here okay Don says well all I have to do is hit that ball Move it away from the rail come here I can hit a nine in this corner he shot it like a 91 bullet in a hole we saw him do that seven more times or six more times seven times he made the nine after the first shot I know a guy, another guy who went was here in Canton from Pittsburgh uhhuh come back to Pittsburgh, says garton, He says I played a guy who was the luckiest guy I've ever played, he says you wouldn't believe how lucky this guy was, I know you're recording that, I say what do you mean? he says every time. that guy shot, the nine came in and we had a photo of Willis in Silers.

I got the photo. I showed him a photo. I said: is this the guy? Yes, that's him. What are you doing with a photo? Hoppy from Cambridge, he went to Cambridge years ago and he went into that little

pool

hall downstairs and it was years later, it was in the '50s, he went in there and it was in the '70s when we were down there in Canton, they had a tournament there. on that hill or not, the university bowl, what is that that comes out? 162 that bowling alley Hall of Fame yeah, Hall of Fame land we went out there and Dawn was there Dawn walks in and Hoppy says I saw you play once in Cambridge Ohio Willis says oh yeah, a little room down in the basement, when you came down the stairs, there was a barber shop on the left, the door on the left and the door on the right was the

pool

room, he even told them where the tables were.

Now there were the tables. It wasn't like that when I went there in the '70s because they had moved the pool table from the front of the room to the back and the barbershop pole was still there, but the barbershop was closed. Willis remembered that many years later. He was only in Cambridge maybe an hour and a half super memory Willis played with hops said Willis played a guy there in Cambridge well there were some guys playing nine ball Willis came in and sat at the counter yeah and they have like one of those old men from Brunswick.

Brunswick back bar counters that came with the place that was there from the beginning and he says uh Donnie, come in and uh Donnie sat at the counter and got a seven and there they were little ones. short bottles, yeah, I drank some of their weed and smashed it into the piñata, you know you didn't do that in pool halls, then everyone looked up and the guys were playing nine ball on the front table, well, he says , you know you're playing my game I'm the best nineball player in Canton Ohio nobody said anything they kept playing Willis drank a little more he closed the bottle again he says no, he says I'm the best nineball player in the state of Ohio they kept going playing and there was a guy called Ernie Finley from Cambridge Ernie passed away now he was a farmer he was wearing bib overalls Ernie was just sitting in a chair he was too good to get in the game they wouldn't let Ernie get in the game Willis finished off the pop hits the bottle twice about that, Conor, everyone looked up Willis says no, I'm G, to tell you the truth, he is, I'm the best nine-ball player in the world.

Finley got up from his chair, lifted his overalls and says. I think you're taking up too much territory mate, so they tossed the coin for the break, Willis won the toss and he had the shelves there, the shelves are still there like he had them in Cambridge with home that Finley had one that he always used came back to look for his Q while he was looking for his Q Willis ran him seven or eight games Finley shows up and says how am I doing they said you're about eight games down Finley says That's it, I left it and then Finley asked me and said: "You play with three cushion ".

Willis says no, but I'm willing to learn. Finley says I thought you would and the games he ran he always made it look like he dropped the game. nine never had to run a rack how many didn't you say he made 23 nine balls in a game and I'll tell you who I'll tell you who told me that H Jerry Wolf from akan oh yeah, they were in a bar a kid comes from the south he wants to play Willis for 20 a game Willis says how do you want to play for a couple hundred I'll play otherwise I don't want to play the boy says now do you want to play for 20 Willis says well I don't want to play so Willis was sitting at the bar and the boy started to talk about how I was afraid to interpret him.

Donnie says, okay, I'll play it. The boy says we will play the southern rules if you. do the nine out of turn they pay you and they see you keep shooting Jerry Wolf told him, you know, Jerry? Did you ever refer to Jerry? I remember that name. I'm sure I know him. I must know him. Jerry is older now, but if you ever do. See Jerry up there, ask him about it Jerry told me this Jerry says Gart, I couldn't believe it, he says I was sitting there and I looked at Don, he said that kid wanted to quit so bad and the first game wasn't over yet, said.

Don did the N 23 times in a game the boy never came to the table what were they playing? 20 per game 20 a game that is hilarious in a game the boy couldn't get out of the game the game wasn't over finally down He got there where he had nothing left to pool or deposit something in it to hit it. Only the nine ball was left, uh, yeah, he shot it reluctantly. There was a guy. There was a guy. I don't remember his name. now, but he and a guy named Smitty owned a pool hall in Butler PA and the other guy was from that little town just outside of Butler.

I can't remember the name of the town that is now Lwood City and that was owned by his partner. a pool hall back in Butler and he was in Florida at some tournament in Florida, yeah, and they had