An interview with Karen Fox, widow of Minnesota Fats biographer Tom Fox

Karen Fox, widow of Tom Fox, attended the first Johnston City tournaments with her writer-husband in 1961. Both Karen and Tom worked at the Evansville Courier and Press, a newspaper published from the hometown of backroom legend Hubert "Daddy Warbucks" Cokes. Tom Fox would later help Minnesota Fats pen the "The Bankshot and Other Great Robberies," which was republished by Lyons Press in 2006.

What follows is a partial transcript of various interviews with Karen Fox, the first conducted in August of 2000.

"Tom was a sports writer at the time, and he was a very good newsman, as well as being a good sports writer. Somebody called at the sports desk at the Evansville Sunday Courier and Press, and told him that this great Evansville Indiana pool player, Hubert Cokes, an oilman, was going to be participating in the tournament. They said that Tom, with his love for characters, should go to Johnston city, and watch Cokes play.

And this guy, on the phone, said that Cokes was a heavy money-player.

He and I had just started dating, and we had just seen The Hustler a couple of weeks before he got that call. He could not believe that out in the middle of nowhere, in Southern Illinois, were all these incredible pool players. They had this really good tournament room, with good acoustics, and bleachers, in the back. There was a concrete block room where, after the tournament was over, there were heavy-duty gambling. And Tom knew it was a national story.

We got to see it first hand. You know, television has a way of sterilizing stuff like that. ... But what we saw was pure, and raw, and real. There was a moment in time, a freeze frame, that we had that privilege to see. Those guys were incredible characters.

Oh my god, it was awesome. When tom started going over there, he took a bunch of us the 90 miles from Evansville. It was a drive. I worked at the paper too. We had just met. And he e took a whole load of us over there. He had a station wagon. It was so far, that (eventually ) everybody else stopped going, but I loved it."

The 1960s Hustlers' Jamboree and George Jansco's Minor League Baseball Stats

The internet is amazing. Here's a site that references George Jansco's minor league baseball stats back in the 1930s. Notice that the site references George's nickname as "Wimpy" -- which was the same handle used by Luther Lassiter. Odd. Also looks like George had a career batting average of .291. Not too shabby.

For those who don't know, George Jansco was the promoter (along with his brother Paulie) behind the Johnston City hustler jamborees during the 1960s. Lassiter dominated the colorful events, which also featured Jersey Red, Boston Shorty, Ronnie Allen, Harold Worst, Handsome Dan and of course Minnesota Fats. I've attached a YouTube video at the top of this post that features an interview with Fats at one of the southern Illinois tournaments. That's a picture of George Jansco at the upper right. You can find more historic pool videos here. (Freddy "The Beard' Bentivegna also has amassed a cool collection of online videos.) You can read more about George Jansco and his jamborees in Hustler Days.

America's Best Ever Pool Player? You Decide

Who is America's best ever pool player? The poll on the top right of the pool history blog lists some all-time favorites, including recent Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Archer. I've left Willie Hoppe off the list because he was known as one of the best-ever billiards players, as opposed to one of the best-ever pool players. Neither have I included one of my personal favorites, Efren "Bata" Reyes. As he's from the Philippines, I figured I'd save him for a future poll of the greatest international players. I've also tried to get a good mix of players from different eras. (Van Boening vs. Greenleaf?!) Vote early. Vote often. I'll leave the poll up for awhile. Also, if you have a write-in candidate, feel free to comment at the bottom of this post. I'll tally up the write-ins later, along with those listed on the ballot.

Fats, Du Quoin and the G-Men

John Croessman, the publisher of The Du Quoin Evening Call, wrote to me a few years back about Minnesota Fats. Du Quoin, as you may recall, was where Fats and his first wife Evelyn called home for many years. This is a small anecdote, but it's colorful and so I figured I'd post it up. Fats had some trouble with the IRS during his later years in Du Quoin -- but he always kept his sense of humor about it.

Here's what Mr. Croessman wrote:

I was a close friend of Minnesota Fats for many years. When he wasn't playing pool he would collect meat scraps from local butchers and feed dogs all over Du Quoin and Dowell. One of his favorite haunts was a place called Perfection Restaurant and the local KFC. I ran into him in the Kroger store one day and he told me, "You see that man following me? He's IRS. I've got so much money he's following me to make sure that nothing happens to me!"

Pool as Folklore

Here's a site worth noting: The Folklore of Pool & Billiards. An undergraduate student named "Wayne" (I wish he would have posted his contact info) has been working on a project for his University of Wyoming American Folklore course. As part of that project, Wayne has created the site and posted some of his work on it.

For his project, Wayne observes that:

the dynamic world of billiards is just a densely saturated ground for studying folklore, for numerous reasons. For one, the pool ritual just easily meets all the main criteria necessary in order for it to be considered as folklore. In other words, pool is communal, creative, and relatively subversive (also, it is often deviant and non-institutional in origin). What is more, these universal folkloric characteristics (that one must find to study a folkloric material) are so vividly obvious in pool that they are just very easy to withdraw from this lore.

I see no mention of Hustlers, Beats and Others on the site, which also might be useful. Another good source is Charles Lemert, author of Muhammad Ali, Trickster in the Cultural of Irony. I interviewed Lemert for The Hustler and the Champ, and his observations about pool (and Minnesota Fats particularly) definitely would be relevant to Wayne's research project.

White Shoes and a Black Caddy

Kentucky resident Ian Joslyn writes:

A few years ago, when I was in high school I was looking around on ebay and found a 1980 Cadillac Fleetwood Limo. I looked at the types of cars all the time because I love the old Cadillacs. The Fleetwood is my favorite. What really caught my eye was the fact that it was advertised as Minnesota Fats' car. This was of interest to me because I love to play pool. I play even more now than I did then. Well I showed it to my parents and said I would really like to have it. Knowing that I would probably never get it I kind of forgot about it. With out my knowledge my mom contacted the owner and bought the car. She went to Nashville Tn, which is a few hours southeast of Paducah KY, where we live, a few month later and picked up the car. They current owner of the car and Minnesota Fats' second wife T-Bell was there to greet her. The took some pictures and she brought the car home. It was given to me the night before my senior prom. I have now owned the car for about 2 years. I thought you might be interested to see the pictures of this car. I also own a pair of Minnesota Fats' shoes from the seventies.

The Player

Reader Jeff Stanley has come across this poster of a film "The Player," featuring Minnesota Fats. I have never seen the film myself, and neither has Jeff. He was wondering if anybody out there has a copy.

Jeff also has come across eight lobby cards from the film. "I don't know if this is the full set, I hope so," writes Jeff about the lobby cards.

"I have only seen one of the cards for sale before and was amazed when I saw all 8 for sale. To tell the truth, the guy didn't really know what he had. So I grabbed them."