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Hustler's Story: "Rags" to Riches
With help from friends and family of John "Rags" Fitzpatrick, we present an oral history of one of the greatest - and least documented - hustlers of all time.
By R.A. Dyer
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| In 1956, Fitzpatrick was dapper and dangerous. (Photo courtesy of Christine Schaffer) |
Welcome back to Untold Stories. Let's go to the mailbag. Reader Bill McVeigh, who comes to us all the way from Quepos, Costa Rica, writes:
"In the 1950s and '60s, I lived in Washington, D.C., and hustlers from all over the country used to come here. Wimpy, Gasoline Jack from Texas, the Squirrel from Alabama, and both John Fitzpatrick ("Rags") and Earl Schriver - who were native Washingtonians, from Capitol Hill, where I was born and raised.
"Now I've got a question. It seems all the 20 or so hustlers I watched there in the '50s agreed that Rags was the best all-around hustler in the USA. He was unbeatable in 9-ball and one-pocket. If you know anything about him, would you agree he was the best of the best?"
Was John "Rags" Fitzpatrick the best-ever hustler? Good question, Bill.
In some sports - say, bike racing or sprinting - determining "the best of the best" is relatively easy. Lance Armstrong has won the Tour de France, the world's premier bike race, more times than any cyclist in history. Therefore, I say he's the best of the best. Likewise, U.S. sprinter Justin Gatlin could be considered the world's best-ever sprinter, because he ran faster during the 2004 Olympics than every other man that came before him.
But with pool hustling - which is just as much art as sport - it's impossible to say. Some reasons are obvious, others less so. For instance, it should come as no great surprise that hustling is not simply the measure of a man's skill, but also of his winning personality and his ability to deceive. Mosconi and Greenleaf may have been the greatest players - but the greatest hustlers? That's a different question entirely.
But also consider this: Plenty of the truly greats - especially those playing before 1950 or so - have been completely lost to history. Because they avoided the spotlight, they were totally lost once they passed from living memory. They've left no record at all. And remember, this country saw some of its greatest pool prior to 1940.
But that doesn't mean considering the world's best-ever isn't a fun exercise. (If you have any doubt, just look at the chatter on Internet pool blogs.) By the broad standards of hustling, I'd put Minnesota Fats up there. I might also include Don Willis, of Cincinnati, as well as his long-time road partner, Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter. Some might name guys like former world champion Eddie "Knoxville Bear" Taylor, who was a devastating banks player.
But the choice of Rags Fitzpatrick is also a fascinating one. Unlike Fats or Wimpy, Rags stands right on the cusp of being forgotten. Relatively little has been written about him, and only the oldest of old-timers even remember who he was. Rags also had the misfortune of dying a year or so before pool caught fire during the 1960s. It was during this renaissance that the media turned its attention again to the sport - but by then, Rags was already gone.
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