Eddie Taylor (billiards player)

Eddie Taylor (born October 1, 1918 in Anderson County , near present-day Oak Ridge , Tennessee , † September 5, 2005 in Bossier City , Louisiana ) was an American professional pool player .

Professional career as a "road player"

Taylor came from near Knoxville and started playing pool as a child . By his own admission, however, as a 14-year-old he was a much better snooker player . Nonetheless, as a teenager, he made his first professional experience as a bank-pool player, since in the 1930s and 40s this type of pool was the most likely to make money in the southern states. At the age of 16, Taylor learned the basics of one pocket billiards from his friend, Earl Shriver , a discipline in which Taylor would become very successful in later years, but which was not widespread in the southern United States at the time. However, Taylor took the chance in Knoxville to train with traveling "One Pocket" specialists like Hayden Lingo .

As a professional player, he was nicknamed "The Knoxville Bear" for his exceptionally powerful kick , and known as "Fast Eddie". He earned his fame primarily as a road player , i. In other words, he traveled from town to town, at times together with players he was friends with, and concentrated on privately organized pool matches in which high prize money was played, which was negotiated between the players.

Tournaments

Due to the comparatively low prize money, Taylor, like some other famous players of the time, largely refrained from participating in tournaments. In his rare tournament appearances in the 1960s , however, he was able to collect some successes and became a multiple title holder (so-called world champion) at the World All-Around Championships in Johnston City , Illinois , a three-week eventing competition with separate preliminary round competitions in the pool disciplines One Pocket , Nine Ball and Straight Pool and a final round of the preliminary round winners for the overall victory. While he won the “One Pocket” competition in 1963 and 1964, in 1964, in a hard-fought final, he also won the overall victory over the famous multiple overall winner Luther “Wimpy” Lassiter . In addition to the official tournament games, high-value private games in the "back room" of the Jansco brothers' pool salon were among the highlights of these events, which took place annually from 1961 to 1972. In 1967 Taylor succeeded in winning the One Pocket competition and in the final round at the Stardust Open , another all-around tournament in Las Vegas, against Mike Eufemia and Danny Jones ; in the same year he reached the seventh place at the " 14 and 1 endless " World Championships in New York City with a record of 9 wins and 5 losses.

Career end and death

In the 1970s, Eddie Taylor gradually withdrew from professional sport, among other things because of a progressive visual impairment that increasingly hindered him playing. Even today, many professionals consider him to be one of the best one-pocket and bank-pool players of all time. He also mastered other variants such as 9-ball and " 14 and 1 endless " above average. One of his specialties was also one-handed play, a skill that he regularly used to profitable games for money.
Since 1993 he has been a member of the Hall of Fame of the Billiard Congress of America in the category Best Players . A few months after his induction into the One Pocket Hall of Fame , at which Eddie Taylor again demonstrated his skills to the audience, he died on September 5, 2005 at the age of 86 in his home in Bossier City, Louisiana of complications from cancer.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ HOF inductees: 1992-1996 ( Memento of 26 May 2011 at the Internet Archive ).
2. ↑ http://www.onepocket.org/Taylor_HOF_Event.htm
3. ^ Obituary ( memento January 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) of the Billiard Congress of America .