25 Questions
with Eddie Taylor
Why did they call you the Knoxville Bear?
In 1947, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, I had been playing a fellow, his
name was U.J. Puckett. I had beaten him a few times. So then I said,
“Well, I believe I’ll go out and do a little partying.” I called this
lady that I knew, and we went out. So, this was the second nightclub we
had gone to, and while we were dancing, they announced that Eddie Taylor
was wanted at the front door. So I go to the door and it was a cab
driver, and the cab driver says, “There’s a fellow called by the name
Puckett said if you wanted to play some, get your fanny on down there.”
So we went down there, and quite a lot of the ladies came and watched
with their husbands and boyfriends. I took a bottle of whisky up there,
and half of us had a drink or two before we played. We’d play for $200 a
game and we see-sawed back and forth, like two games apiece, and then I
beat him six games in a row. And [Puckett] was just dabbing his eyes and
saying, “I am a smart so-and-so. I give a cab driver $20 to go out there
and get a damn drunk to come down here and beat me one more time.” He
said, “You might as well fool with one of them Smokey Mountain bears as
to fool with Taylor.” And before I got back home, it was already in the
paper that they were calling me “The Bear.” I hated it, but there was no
way I could get around it.
What’s your favorite drink?
I used to like Sloe Gin Fizzes. I drank those a lot, though I haven’t
drank one in 40 years. I never was a beer drinker. Beer never did agree
with me.
How many balls have you banked in a row?
That was 37. I was playing a guy in Asheville, N.C. He was a very good
banking player, and we were playing $2 a bank. I was between 18 and 19
years old, and I banked the last 12, the next 15 and the next 10. I
never even mentioned that for years and years.
What advice do you give for banking?
I would advise them to not ever draw your ball when your object ball is
close to the rail. If you try to draw your ball, you’ll kiss the ball,
but if you hit it with no English, like center ball, you’ll have more
chance of making the bank without kissing it.
Was there any special reason you became perhaps the best banker ever?
Not especially. That’s just what they all played around Tennessee.
Kentucky was even more famous for the bank pool players. That’s why when
they have that Derby City Classic in Louisville every year now, there
was like 300-400 people in the bank pools division.
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