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

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * 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 roc ...

player. Inducted into the

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

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 characters in the history of pool" and considered as one of the hustlers.

Professional Days

Red was born in

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in the Upland South, and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. The most populous city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located in the Southeastern Unit ...

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 Cue and Brew as well as The Rack, a popular pool room in

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, 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 by many players as being one of the greatest money players 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,

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Retrieved June 17, 2007

References

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