Howard Vickery

Born: Feb. 14, 1947

From: Columbus, OH

Cue: Meucci 19.6 oz.

Sponsor: Meucci Cues, Pro Billiard Eyewear

"I never played pool," so says Howard Vickery speaking of his youth. A couple of his friends had been playing in a local poolroom for six months or so and would ask Howard to join them. He would say, "No I won’t go down to that place," but eventually they succeeded in persuading him to play. The first time he went he recalled, "I came in second the first game and won the second game. Then I started playing pool."

Thus began the long and illustrious career of Howard Vickery who grew up in Sneads, FL, a little town in the northern part of the state, with his mother, stepfather, sister, and two brothers. "At that time, I was the oldest child, but I had older brothers and sisters from another marriage that weren’t there, so I had been the youngest and the oldest."

After a while he began working in the poolroom. His pay was a dollar a day, whatever food they were serving and free pool. At fifteen years of age, his family decided to move to Ohio, from where his stepfather came. Howard, not wanting to go along, convinced his parents to allow him to remain behind and work for the room owner. "We talked my folks into that and stayed at the house like I was one of his children." He continued his studies and maintained a good grade point average. After about a year, the room owners had opened another poolroom in Georgia. After school, Howard would open the local room, run it and close up at night while the owner would do the same for the other room in GA. The following spring, Howard’s folks returned for a visit and decided that at the end of the school year, Howard was to move back home.

Howard played Golf was his game before pool, but he couldn’t make money with golf as he could with pool. "Everybody played for a quarter or fifty cents." After playing for six months, Howard was the best player around. There was one particular guy who lived and worked in the neighboring town of Chattahoochee. There was no poolroom there so about once every six months or so he would start drinking and then come to the poolroom where someone would put up the money for one of the local guys to play him. Although it would not be a large sum, the guy from Chattahoochee would always win. It was during this guy’s last six month absence from Sneads that Howard started to play. When the Chattahoochee player finally came back to town, he wound up playing Howard. "We played for 20 hours. I finally beat him and won $400, which was a tremendous amount of money for me. I felt like I was rich. I remember I bought a car, cost me one-hundred-sixty bucks, bought a ’55 Chevy. It ran!"

Howard moved back to Columbus, OH, where he finished school and graduated. In Columbus, one had to be 18 to play in poolrooms, so Howard acquired a fake ID, and would use it to play in a poolroom near his house. Eventually he found he had become the best player there so he started going to another room, which was larger and had more players. Soon he was the best player there as well. Howard played all through high school, always winning money. It was obvious he was going to be a pool player. "In the year book they asked everyone what you want to be and I said a pool player and everybody thought that was outrageous."

After graduation, he and two friends decided to take a trip to Daytona Beach, FL. On their way back they stopped off to see Howard’s former boss in Sneads, FL. He told Howard that he had his eye on another room and if he was successful in acquiring it, he wanted Howard to work there. It was a good solid poolroom, but strange cause it opened at 8:00 AM every morning. People would be on the doorstep waiting to get in, get a beer and start playing. Well Howard’s boss did buy the room and Howard did agreed to come back to work for him.

One of the industries in this rural town was the export of fish bait. Yes worms! It was easy to make $20.00 if you get up at 4:00 AM in the morning and gather worms before sunrise. Worms will not come to the surface when it gets hot. To gather them, a stake was driven into the ground and an object was rubbed across it to make the stake vibrate then the worms rose to the surface where they would be gathered. One guy would buy them and ship them out everywhere. Guys would always make $20.00, which at that time was a lot of money. Everyday after collecting the day’s worms and their money, they would be at the poolroom waiting to get in. "I would rack the balls, that was my job, and the other guy would work behind the counter and serve beer and hot dogs. This place had beer. Pool was maybe 10 cents a rack and everybody paid by the game."

The poolroom was always busy. There was a $5, $10 or $20 ring game everyday. "One of the big guys in the game who didn’t play very good was the one who bought the fish bait. He would always have a big wad of money and he’d play for $5 a game, he didn’t care. We played five or six handed and I would win everyday, $200.00 to $300.00. This went on for like six months." After a year Howard quit because he was being drafted. In travelling back to Ohio to report for service, he stopped at nearly every poolroom along the way.

Having been drafted into the war in Vietnam, Howard left for the Navy on his 19th birthday. "I didn’t know anything about the Navy I just didn’t want to be in the Army." There he became an aviation electrician and worked on the flight deck. "It’s nice at night on the flight deck, all the stars are out and you can see a million of them. It’s dangerous, but I really liked working on the flight deck. It was where the action was plus you got that extra pay, you got that flight deck pay, an extra $65.00/month."

In the Navy for almost four years, he was stationed at Oceana Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia. Howard described this as a "hot town for pool." While in Norfolk, he was able to play a lot during his first two years and his game picked up because of competition. "I would play all night Wednesday night, go to work Thursday, sleep Thursday night, and then play Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I got to play some of my best pool there."

During the last two years of his service, he was engaged in active cruises. Outside of Subic Bay was Olongapo City. There are two streets where servicemen were permitted and everywhere else was off limits. You can go down one way maybe a ½ mile then the road turns and comes back. On those two streets there are eight hundred bars and hotels. It’s dangerous, but fun. Curfew is midnight and if you are late to the gate, they will either lock you out or let you in but take you into custody. "All the con men are waiting to slow you down, try to get some money out of you, try to sell you something, try to pick your pocket, anything. It’s like running the gantlet trying to get back. It’s like playing the Filipinos in a pool tournament," Howard describes jokingly.

In 1970 Howard returned to Ohio from the Navy. Within six months, he was back in stroke. Unfortunately, he soon learned there was little action to be found. "We went out every night for a month and we got one game and that was for $2.00 per game. He[the opponent] was getting staked to play $2.00 a game and he was playing as hard as he can cause there wasn’t any money around." Nineteen-seventy-one was a rough year but things began to pick up.

Howard went to Knoxville, TN, looking for some action. The action was good, he was making money and wound up living there for a short while. After returning to Ohio, he began making short road trips. Not only was there action, but also, he began working in a poolroom again. "If any game came in you get to have the game, plus you’re getting paid for being in there and it paid a little more than a dollar a day." Another advantage to working in the room was the opportunity to size up players. "If you are in there all the time you get to put the clock on everybody, you know exactly how you can play them and how you can’t, so every game you make is a winner. If you lose it’s your fault for making a bad game or not playing up to speed." He made anywhere between $20.00 to $200.00 a day and sometimes up to $1,000.00 if he hit a big score. "Now if you don’t make hundreds a day, you’re not doing anything."

He began playing in tournaments. There was a tournament in Dayton, OH. Where the entry fee was $125.00. It was a considered a major event. "It was the big one that lasted 3 weeks. By the end of the tournament, everybody was broke because the expenses got all of the money."

At this time Howard was in his middle twenties. His folks moved to Florida in 1975 and he remained with them for several months. Although he found good action playing around Tampa, he decided to move back to Columbus to go to school and take advantage of his GI Bill. He enrolled in electronics at the Ohio Institute of Technology, where he maintained a 4.00 grade average. Toward graduation, a questionnaire was circulated asking one’s preference to work on things or with people. Howard had never really thought about it before but said, "I answered that I liked to work on things but the more I thought about it, I liked to work with people more."

He went on several job interviews within the first month of graduating, but had not landed a job. He did, however, manage to earn $2,500.00! In the poolroom! It was not all at once but he was winning money everyday. A one-pocket player came from out of town and wanted to play, but he wouldn’t play Howard because he had heard that Howard was the best. He played everyone else and beat them all. Finally, there was only Howard and so they started to play. Jim Rempe happened to be in town while the two men were playing and bet on the other player because he happened to know him. Howard explained, "I beat him anyway and ended up winning all the money he had won and he left town. I knew right then that I was going to play pool."

At this point Howard really began to play and travel extensively in order to play. He would go to Florida every winter where he would visit his folks and play. When the northern weather turned nice, he would travel back to Ohio, stopping all along the way to play. One place he stopped was Thomasville, GA. There was good action there. "There were seven or eight guys there in that town that played pool and I beat every one of them." Although he had beaten their best player first, the rest continued to play him to try to be the one to finally beat him. "Pool players are like that, they want to win."

Howard went to the tournaments to compete or just gamble. "I’ve been to some tournaments and not even got in the tournament. You play after hours, that’s what you go to do." Once in Louisiana, he went to a tournament and decided not to play. It ended up that he couldn’t get a game; there was just no action. He drove to Biloxi but they sent him back to Gulfport to a room where there was supposed to be action. It was 10:00 o’clock at night and there was nobody in the room except the guy behind the desk and a young fellow that came in right behind Howard. Howard asked the counterman if there was anyone around that played pool. He was informed that there was a guy who, after closing up his restaurant, comes by and plays for money. Howard decided to take a chance and see if the restaurateur showed up. In the meantime, he asked the young fellow, who by now had a rack of balls, to play a friendly game or two. They started playing for $2.00 per game. Howard was just messing around with him waiting for his true opponent to show, when these three guys came over to watch them play.

Now, Howard had been stalling, winning $12.00, and just playing around. They finished playing and Howard noticed these three guys walking toward him. The one guy from the middle walks around the other two and asks Howard to play. They start playing for $20 a game and the other two guys start playing each other on another table. Howard beats him out of $100 in about fifteen minutes. "He was mad, he was screaming mad, because he had been watching me play this other guy." He was the worst player of the three but he ran ahead because he saw a chance at a game he could easily win. "He was really hot. I can still remember him screaming and I was just kind of smiling about the whole situation."

When the other two finished, Howard asked the better player to play. He agreed, on the condition that Howard give him some weight. Howard agreed and gave him the last 2 playing 6-Ball on a real tight Gandy. The table was playing so tight and damp, Howard knew the guy couldn’t break and run out. They start out for $20.00 a game, then went to $40.00. Howard wins $1,160.00. "We played all night and I was just smiling and playing and I remember this guy looks at me and says ‘wipe that smile off your face’."

In 1982 Howard met his wife and they married a year later. "When I met my wife is when I really began to play in more tournaments instead of traveling around." By this time, Howard was very well known and action had pretty much dried up.

His long career has spanned four decades and won him many titles a few of which are as follow: 1975 - Suncoast Open 9-Ball Champion; 1981-1984 Pennsylvania State 9-Ball Champion; 1983 Steel City Classic Champion; 1983 Cleveland Coca-Cola Open 9-Ball Champion; 1983 Third Place Lake Tahoe (ESPN); 1989 Tennessee State 9-Ball Champion; 1990 Scranton Invitational 9-Ball Champion; 1991 New Jersey Open Champion; 1993 Final 8 World 9-Ball Championship; 1994 Don Willis Memorial 9-Ball Champion; 1994 Third Place World Championship (On ESPN Live); 1996 Cornfed Reds Invitational One Pocket Champion; 1996 Third Place New England 9-Ball (Fox Sports); 1998 Viking Tour Champion and the list goes on and on.

Howard’s most enjoyable victory came last year when he captured the prestigious title of Senior US Open Champion. He had a very strong showing on the 1999 Senior Tour as he posted fourth at the Reno Seniors 9-Ball, fifth at the Tulsa Senior 9-Ball and second at Olathe Seniors 9-Ball.

Steve Mizerak’s Senior Tour is for players fifty years of age and over. In comparison to other professional tours, Howard noted, "It’s different than a regular tour. You don’t have all that infighting and arguing all the time. Most of the guys are out there to play and have fun and almost all of them are retired."

The cost associated with the Mizerak Senior tour is inexpensive. Tournament sites are pleasant and many players bring their wives. Steve is not heavy-handed where rules are concerned which makes for a pleasant atmosphere. Steve says, "‘If you want to have a drink at your table, have one. If you can’t handle it by this age you can’t handle it.’" As far as the demeanor of the Senior Tour player, Howard said, "Most of the top players are gentlemen and they are most gentlemanly when they win. To be good at the game you have to have a sense of good sportsmanship overall. I think it’s good for your well-being not to get upset about everything that happens in your life." Steve Mizerak calls all the shots on the Senior Tour. He makes all the decisions and there are no arguments. Whatever he decides to do, he does, and it works for the best. Players have put their trust in Steve to do the right thing. This approach is proving successful as the Senior Tour is growing. Howard said of Steve and the tour, "Of all the successful pool players, he is the most successful. If he can’t promote it, I don’t think pool can be promoted."

If you have yet to meet Howard, he is just one of those people you start talking with and immediately like. He is always even-tempered, wearing his trademark Pro Billiard Eyewear and his grin-inducing smile.

When first beginning play pool, Howard wore glasses. Though they improved his play, unfortunately they slid down his nose and the rim would sometimes fall smack dab in the middle of his line of vision. When shooting a shot where the cue ball is close to the rail and the object ball is at the far end of the table, the shot can not be fully eyeballed. That was a problem. Eventually, he found Pro Billiard Eyewear. "A fellow introduced me to the glasses, and I have tried several different glasses, but these sit up high, you don’t see the rim, they don’t move around on your face and they don’t fog up." With Pro Billiard Eyewear, both the cue and object balls can be kept in your vision all the time. Howard not only gives his endorsement to Pro Billiard Eyewear but also sells them as well. He prefers to sell just one particalar style because, in Howard’s estimation, "This is the best pair on the market. This is the sturdiest and most comfortable pair made." After an order has been placed, delivery is within 10-14 days. They come in two basic colors, black or gold, and are available with a special bifocal that does not interfere with peripheral vision or play.

Not only can Howard see clearly with his Pro Billiard Eyewear, he can spot a good restaurant from miles away. He has a reputation of knowing where all the good restaurants are in the towns that he has traveled as a professional player. He explained, "When you are on the road you have a lot of dead time. At tournaments you are always looking for something to do and eating is something fun to do. There was a group of us and we would always get together and look for a place to eat. It was amazing some of the places we have found. Starting out you just looked for a good place to eat but now you look for something unique."

Once in Lexington, KY while riding down the street to a familiar steakhouse with Mike LeBron, they spotted an interesting place. "We stopped and backed up and all it had was an A-frame board out on the side walk and we looked inside and the place was packed." The name of the restaurant was "Ala Lucy." There was only one table available so they sat down and proceeded to order. "It wasn’t an outstanding section of town but they had wonderful food. They were packed every night."

One of Howard’s favorite places to eat is in Chesapeake, VA. off Pleasure House Road, which is where all the pleasure houses used to be during the 1800’s. Here sets a place called Franky’s. "They have excellent seafood. I can never get past the whole flounder with bone in. They have crab cakes and steaks. It is not a fancy place or a tourist trap. They have all local people eating there and they have very good food."

Now his most favorite place to eat in recent years is Louie’s Basques Corner, in Reno, NV. The Basque emigrated from the mountain area between France and Spain. Upon their arrival in America they became sheepherders. They would open little hotels and fed everyone downstairs in a family style manner. First, they would bring soup and stale bread and even bring more if need be. Second, would be salad and fresh bread. More of each is available for the asking. The next course, called the first entree or appetizer would consist of a choice of two like rabbit, ox tail stew or Howard’s favorite, beef tongue which is served only on Wednesday. "They slice it and serve it with fresh tomato sauce. We always look forward to going there on Wednesday and having tongue. We would usually get a couple more orders of that. They have different appetizers but the beef tongue is something I only get there." Finally, they would bring the entrée, which might be a steak, lamb chops, roast pork, rabbit, ox tail stew or veal. They served wine with dinner and of course there was dessert.

What made this restaurant especially interesting, aside from the food, were the seating arrangements. The dinner table would seat eight. If spaces remained after being seated, a complete stranger might be seated next to you to share your meal family style. There was no way of knowing with whom you were going to eat once seated. One time, during the filming of the movie The Kingpin, "Me and Mike LeBron were sitting there when three guys came in and sat down and this one guy was laughing and joking around and he looked familiar, I thought I may have seen him at the tournament. It turned out to be Bill Murray."

As for his favorite restaurant in Canton, OH, it is Mulligan’s Restaurant located on Belden Village Avenue. When describing the restaurant, Howard recalls the Library where an antique chandelier and carved fireplace mantle accent the handcrafted bookcases and fine oak paneling. A considerable amount of furnishings and fixtures have been imported from other regions of the country to create the fine ambiance of the restaurant. In fact, the cover photo for this issue was taken in the Library dining area of Mulligan’s. The photograph does not give justice to the warmth and refinement the room exudes. It really should be experienced in person!

Howard made a successful career playing pool. He contended that it was easier getting a game then as opposed to getting a game today. "Somebody would always be willing to step up and play." There wasn’t all the haggling about the game and the weight as there is today. Howard believes that the lack of communication contributed to the greater number of players playing heads up then as opposed to now There were not many billiard publications and pool had not yet made it to the networks, so many professional road players were virtually unknown. Today we have ESPN, which occasionally televises matches. Then there is the Internet, where information about road players and their private game results can be gleaned from a mere search.

Now with two children at home, Howard is very happy just to play in a couple events a month and appreciate time spent at home with his family. As far as an eventual retirement from pool, he says "Someday, but not in the near future." We would like to thank Howard for his consideration in giving us this interview and wish him continued success in all of his future endeavors. Should you have any questions about Pro Billiard Eyewear, contact Howard.