Billy Joe "Cornbread Red" Burge (December 17, 1931 – February 13, 2004), was an American

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

player. Inducted into the

One-pocket One-pocket is a pool game. Unlike other games played on a pool table where any can be used to score , only one pocket for each player is used in this game. The object of the game is to score points. A point is made when a player pockets any objec ...

Hall of Fame in 2004 and the

Bank Pool Bank pool is a pool game that has as its most fundamental requirement that all scoring shots in the game must be made by a called ball off a and into a called pocket. While the game has multiple variations, the predominant version through much ...

Hall of Fame in 2005, Cornbread Red is revered as "one of the most talented and entertaining characters in the history of pool".

Professional Days

Red was born in

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missour ...

to a sharecropping family during the Great Depression, which is when he acquired a passion and talent for billiards. He learned the rules of the road from notorious hustlers, gamblers, con men, and world-class pool champions. Burge frequented Cushion Que and Brew as well as The Rack, a popular pool room in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, in an era when gambling was considered the norm in American pool. Though he never had a job, he devoted his life to pocket billiards. He was always looking for a game, and it did not matter what game because he could play all games well but was nearly unbeatable at one pocket and would play you at any limits. Burge is an American legendary pool player. He is heralded as one of the greatest money players and proposition men of all time. When asked how much was the most money he ever played for, he said it was a race to 6 for US$100,000. He died at the age of 72 and will be remembered as one of the great professional billiard players. He was featured in ''Pool and Billiard Magazine'', May 2000, in the "Legends of the Road" section.

Filmography

* 1992 West Coast One-Pocket Championship,

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Retrieved June 17, 2007

References

10
The Lions and the Lambs; Pool Players and the Game Today by Thomas Fensch
1st edition 1970 {{Cue sports nav American pool players 1931 births 2004 deaths People from Graves County, Kentucky